APILayer

What APILayer does

APILayer operates a curated API marketplace serving approximately 445,000+ developers and a base of enterprise customers globally. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Vienna, Austria with operations extending into the United Kingdom and United States, the company aggregates 100+ production-ready REST APIs across categories including finance (Currencylayer, Fixer, Coinlayer, Marketstack, Vatlayer), geolocation (IPstack, Positionstack, IPAPI), marketing intelligence (Mediastack, Numverify, Userstack, Serpstack), aviation (Aviationstack), weather (Weatherstack), and web utilities (Pdflayer, Screenshotlayer, Scrapestack, Countrylayer, Languagelayer). The platform is differentiated by a unified single-API-key access model, multi-language SDKs distributed via NPM (apilayer-fixer, apilayer-ipstack, apilayer-aviationstack, apilayer-marketstack, apilayer-coinlayer), Postman collections, and SwaggerHub documentation, all running on a container-based cloud architecture that processes 30M+ API calls per month.

The company operates a multi-tier revenue model that layers freemium self-serve acquisition (no credit card required) with paid monthly/annual subscription plans (e.g., Marketstack Starter at $43.99/mo billed annually), usage-based overage charges ($0.0019 per extra request on soft limits), and enterprise custom contracts offering 99.99% uptime SLA, dedicated 7/7 support, and priority bug fixes. Its go-to-market blends product-led growth (free tier for developer experimentation), community-led distribution (Public-APIs GitHub repository with 390K+ stars, the fourth largest GitHub repository, plus Discord and YouTube), a 3,000+ partner affiliate program paying 20% recurring commissions for 3 years, and a dedicated enterprise field sales motion. Distribution occurs through marketplace.apilayer.com (self-serve), industry-specific landing pages spanning Finance, Travel & Logistics, SaaS, E-commerce, and Data Scraping, and integrations with Postman, NPM, Zapier, and SwaggerHub.

APILayer is privately held with no disclosed external funding rounds, operates with a lean 11-50 employee headcount, and runs GDPR-compliant operations anchored in the EU under the IderaCorp legal umbrella. The company has built a portfolio of 22+ branded API sub-products, operates technology partnerships with Stripe (billing), Klaviyo (email), HubSpot (CRM), and Datadog (monitoring), and serves customer segments spanning individual developers, SaaS companies, e-commerce platforms, fintech, and travel/logistics firms, with named enterprise customers including InnovateTech, GlobeX Commerce, Nexa Solutions, and CloudWorks.

Name

APILayer

Legal name

APILayer

Website

https://apilayer.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

APILayer operates a curated API marketplace with 100+ production-ready REST APIs across finance, geolocation, marketing, aviation, and web utilities, serving 445,000+ developers and enterprise customers via a single API key, freemium, subscription, and custom enterprise pricing tiers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

API Marketplace

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Marketplace APIs & API Monetization Platforms (BPAMAOAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

API Management & Gateways (BPAMAOAA), API Documentation & Developer Portals (BPAMAOAH)

Keywords

• API marketplace
• REST API services
• Geolocation APIs
• Currency exchange APIs
• Financial data APIs

Headquarters

HQ city

Austin

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. API Subscription Plans: Monthly subscription fees for API access with tiered plans (Free, Basic, Professional, Enterprise). Each API has its own pricing structure with different rate limits. Paid plans offer higher request volumes with soft limits and overage pricing.
2. Enterprise Custom Pricing: Tailored pricing for enterprise customers based on volume and usage requirements, with flexible billing structures and dedicated support.
3. Freemium Access: Free plans available for all APIs allowing developers to test and integrate before purchasing, serving as a customer acquisition funnel.
4. Overage Charges: Soft limit overage pricing (e.g., $0.0019 per extra request) for continued API access beyond plan limits, ensuring applications keep running.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

APILayer operates a curated REST API marketplace that aggregates 100+ production-ready APIs across finance, geolocation, marketing, communication, aviation, and utility categories, sold to developers and enterprises under a single unified API key. The platform offers freemium and tiered subscription access to APIs such as IPstack, Marketstack, Currencylayer, Fixer, Weatherstack, Aviationstack, and 15+ others, with SDKs, Postman collections, and browser-based live testing. The company also enables third-party API developers to monetize their APIs through the same marketplace infrastructure.

Product overview

APILayer is a highly curated API marketplace with over 15 years of experience, offering both proprietary APIs and enabling developers to monetize their own APIs. The platform provides a unified access point with a single API key for all APIs. The product portfolio spans multiple categories: Finance APIs (Currencylayer, Fixer, Coinlayer, Marketstack, Exchangerate, Exchangeratesapi, Vatlayer) for currency conversion, crypto rates, stock market data, and VAT validation; Geolocation APIs (IPstack, Positionstack, IPAPI) for IP geolocation and geocoding; Marketing APIs (Mediastack, Numverify, Userstack, Serpstack) for news, phone validation, user-agent detection, and SEO data; Communication APIs (Mailboxlayer) for email validation; Aviation APIs (Aviationstack) for flight data; Utility APIs (Weatherstack, Pdflayer, Screenshotlayer, Countrylayer, Languagelayer, Scrapestack) for weather, PDF conversion, screenshots, country data, language detection, and web scraping; plus AI/ML APIs (4 APIs) for machine learning capabilities. All APIs feature REST architecture, JSON responses, API key authentication, and comprehensive documentation with SDKs and Postman collections.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Aviationstack: Free, Real-time Flight Status & Global Aviation Data API
• Coinlayer
• Pdflayer
• Weatherstack
• IPstack
• Marketstack
• Currencylayer
• Fixer
• Numverify
• Screenshotlayer
• Serpstack
• Userstack
• Vatlayer
• Mailboxlayer
• Positionstack
• Scrapestack
• IPAPI
• Languagelayer
• Exchangerates
• Exchangeratesapi
• Countrylayer
• Mediastack

Products and services

• IPstack

Quantifiable outcome

• Revenue increase of over 20% for e-commerce customers using geolocation personalization
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationThird-party payment processing service used for billing and subscription management. Stripe handles credit card processing and payment collection on the APILayer marketplace platform.
• KlaviyocoreTechnology or IntegrationEmail marketing platform used for newsletter distribution and customer communication. Handles email campaigns and marketing automation.
• HubSpotcoreTechnology or IntegrationCRM and marketing platform used for customer relationship management and marketing automation across the platform.
• DatadogcoreTechnology or IntegrationMonitoring service used for tracking API performance, uptime, and infrastructure health across APILayer services.
• Referral CandyminorGTM or Marketing PartnerReferral marketing platform used for managing the affiliate program and tracking partner commissions.
• PostmancoreTechnology or IntegrationAPI development platform providing pre-built Postman collections for testing APILayer endpoints, visualizing responses, and getting started quickly.
• NPMcoreTechnology or IntegrationNode package manager hosting official APILayer SDKs including apilayer-fixer, apilayer-ipstack, apilayer-aviationstack, apilayer-marketstack, apilayer-coinlayer for easier integration.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Kong: API gateway and service-mesh platform focused on enterprise developer infrastructure. Comparable in API management but targets platform teams rather than the API consumer marketplace APILayer serves.
• Algolia: Developer-first search-as-a-service API. Comparable business model (subscription API, developer-led) and represents the kind of vertical specialist APILayer competes against or hosts in its marketplace.
• Mashape / Kong Cloud: Pioneer in the API marketplace category (now part of Kong). Direct historical peer in the curated API marketplace space APILayer operates in.

Others

• Stripe: Public API-first platform for payments. APILayer uses Stripe as its billing provider, but Stripe also represents the gold-standard developer API business model APILayer aspires to replicate at smaller scale.
• Postman: API development and testing platform with a public API network. APILayer distributes via Postman collections, making Postman an enabling peer rather than a direct marketplace competitor.

Direct peers

• RapidAPI: The largest independent API marketplace, connecting developers to thousands of APIs with unified billing and analytics. Directly competes with APILayer on the same PLG, developer-first marketplace model.

Broad incumbents

• Amazon Web Services (API Gateway + Data Exchange): Hyperscaler offering API Gateway, Marketplace, and bundled data APIs as part of its broader cloud platform. Competes indirectly by packaging API access into enterprise cloud contracts.
• Twilio: Public communications API platform (SMS, voice, email validation). Adjacent to APILayer's Mailboxlayer/Numverify offerings and competes for developer adoption in the communications API niche.
• Google Cloud (Apigee): Apigee API management platform plus Google Cloud's data APIs (Maps, Translation, etc.). Broad incumbent that overlaps with APILayer on developer-facing APIs and gateway capabilities.
• Microsoft Azure API Management: Enterprise API gateway plus Azure Marketplace data APIs. Competes for enterprise developer mindshare and bundles APIs into cloud agreements.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/public-apis/public-apis
• Xx.com/apilayer
• Facebookfacebook.com/apilayer
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/apilayer

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about APILayer