The Best IP Geolocation APIs for Developers
[contentsdisabled] The concept of geolocation of devices based on their IP address is as old as the internet. But today, with 4.66 billion active internet users and over 20 billion IoT devices, the internet landscape has changed dramatically. Likewise, IP geolocation technology has also evolved in the way it resolves the location of an IP address and provides the data. Geolocation API services can enable business-critical functions, especially for online stores and banking. They are used to determine a user’s location using IP lookup. This can help prevent fraud. However, IP addresses can be spoofed or obfuscated by VPNs, proxies and TOR (anonymizers). Detecting these attempts to spoof geolocation is critical for many companies. But even if an API can do that, the functionality can still be hidden behind higher price tiers. However, it is important to remember that not all geolocation APIs are created equal. Traditionally, IP geolocation services are provided in the form of databases that can be purchased and used. This would mean creating your own lookup services and ensuring that the database up updated with the latest version. Not to mention maintaining server availability. As a result, IP geolocation wasn’t just for everyone. It took significant effort and to this day few companies still prefer this method. But this is changing and more and more IP geolocation API services are available on the market, which can dramatically reduce build time and deliver at sub-millisecond speeds.
Here is the list of best IP geolocation APIs for developers
IP2Location Web Service
IP2Location The IP geolocation web service can provide detailed information about a visitor’s location, such as longitude/latitude and local weather station. However, pricing is based on a very complex credit system with a long list of options. Unfortunately, proxy detection is a separate product and multilingual support is a paid add-on to this API. There is a free option, but it is for demo purposes only and is limited to 20 API returns per day.
abstract API
Powered by excellent documentation, multiple comprehensive libraries and tutorials, the abstract API is easy to use and configure up. Their partnership with numerous ISPs around the world helps them deliver consistently accurate data. Its geolocation records span both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. In addition to location information, you can expect the abstract API to also provide details about the user’s time zone, current time, and more. The abstract API is also useful as it supports CSV uploads to handle bulk queries.
IP geolocation
Abstract’s IP Geolocation API can extract real-time geospatial data from IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. This includes the city’s geographic name ID, zip code, latitude/longitude, and time zone. This data can be sent in JSON or XML format. On the threat detection front, it can detect VPNs, TOR (anonymizers) and proxies. Free IP Geolocation API Key can support up to 20,000 API requests per month in up to 1 per second. All functionality is available at all product tiers except the highest tiers, and adds little richer data. The top tier can support 20,000 API calls per month in up at 500 per second. In addition, there is also a custom company level.
ipapi
Helpfully, ipapi demonstrates the power of its geolocation API on its website. It is based on a REST API with location information including latitude/longitude, zip code and area code. Most location data is available in the free tier, which offers 1,000 searches per month. Commercial plans add time zones and an increasing number of searches, up to over two million for the Enterprise option. If you are working on a low traffic site that only needs 1,000 searches per month, you can try ipapi for free and test their services. After that, you have to pay a fee for their services. In addition, the API documentation is simple with lots of code examples to simplify your development process.
ipstack
Top of our list is an IP geolocation API service known for its ease of use and scalability. ipstack has a powerful and highly scalable infrastructure capable of handling millions of requests in a single day. The API covers over 2 million unique locations in over 200,000 cities around the world. Ipststack’s data is divided into five main modules that help you earn the top spot on this list. The ipstack location module helps you set geo-restrictions, optimize ads and provide a user experience tailored to the location of your website visitors. You can also provide your customers with a personalized shopping experience as the ipstack currency module provides accurate information about the currency used where the IP address was processed.
Maxmind
As one of the best IP address lookup and one of the best IP geolocation APIs, Maxmind is an option that provides an accurate IP finder and fraud detector in the same service. With the ability to use ad targeting with a fraud detector and personalized service, this option is great for many businesses. They offer a large database that will give you all the location information you need without having to do any hard work yourself. This can also help your business as it allows you to view your website traffic analytics to ensure your pages receive visitors who may ask you to switch to certain low traffic pages. The fraud detection service uses various tools to reduce chargebacks and provide protection against fraudulent online activity.
ipdata
ipdata helps you locate your website content, target ads, analyze logs and much more by helping you pinpoint the location of each IP address. It can find any IP address with exact city and zip code details. The API can recognize anonymous users to ensure your business is protected from potential fraud. ipdata particularly shines with its superior threat intelligence. It immediately checks if an IP address is listed in any of 200+ OISNT threat feeds and returns immediately if it is. You can also apply geo-restrictions to prevent users from specific regions of the world from accessing.
IPinfo
IPinfo geolocation data includes zip code, latitude/longitude and ASN data such as ISP phone abusive number and email address. Unfortunately, VPN/Proxy/TOR detection now appears to be in a separate product. They have a free plan along with four paid tiers for business use that scale the number of API calls. The top two tiers add support SLA agreements, implementation assistance, and an account manager (customer success).
stack of positions
The Positiontack geolocation API not only provides real-time geocoding to provide country code, zip code and latitude/longitude. It also offers an embeddable map option to provide visual representations of IP survey data. This map will be available in the first commercial level. However, all geolocation information is available in the free tier, which allows for 25,000 requests per month. Higher tiers provide more API requirements and additional support. Unfortunately the documentation doesn’t mention VPN/TOR detection features.
Final note
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