ReliefWeb
ReliefWeb is a UN OCHA-operated humanitarian information platform, founded in 1996, that aggregates and disseminates curated reports, disaster updates, jobs, and training from over 2,000 organizations across 200+ countries to 15 million annual visitors, free of charge.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1996
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What ReliefWeb does
ReliefWeb is a specialized digital humanitarian information platform operated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA). Founded in 1996 and headquartered at UN OCHA in Geneva, it aggregates, curates, and disseminates reports, situation updates, disaster tracking, job listings, and training opportunities from more than 2,000 contributing organizations across 200+ countries and territories. The platform publishes over 50,000 reports annually, tracks 3,715+ disasters in its archive, and serves approximately 15 million unique visitors per year. All content is subject to editorial review before publication, and the platform maintains a standardized humanitarian taxonomy used to classify disasters, countries, organizations, and content types.
The technology stack is a web-first aggregation platform with a public-facing portal (reliefweb.int), a programmatic ReliefWeb API for retrieval of historical and current content, and a Publishing API plus Submit portal for automated and manual content ingestion by UN agencies and partner organizations. Supporting modules include ReliefWeb Labs (innovation surface), ReliefWeb Response (crisis coordination), RSS feeds, Taxonomy as a Service (externalized humanitarian classification), and a partner analytics dashboard. The platform also offers email subscriptions, RSS syndication, and SSO authentication through UN Agency email, Google, LinkedIn, and Microsoft accounts.
ReliefWeb is a non-commercial public service and generates no user-facing revenue. It is funded through UN OCHA's institutional budget, which is itself financed by UN member state contributions. There are no pricing tiers, no enterprise contracts, and no disclosed financial figures. Distribution is global and free via the website, APIs, and feeds. The go-to-market motion is direct-to-consumer for end users and direct-to-publisher for content contributors, with the platform's position anchored by its UN OCHA mandate and 30-year institutional trust within the humanitarian sector.
ReliefWeb firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- ReliefWeb
- Legal name
- ReliefWeb (a service of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)
- Website
- https://reliefweb.int
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1996
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- ReliefWeb is a UN OCHA-operated humanitarian information platform, founded in 1996, that aggregates and disseminates curated reports, disaster updates, jobs, and training from over 2,000 organizations across 200+ countries to 15 million annual visitors, free of charge.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
ReliefWeb industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Humanitarian Information Services
- NAICS
- Emergency and Other Relief Services (624230), Community Food and Housing, and Emergency and Other Relief Services (6242), Emergency and Other Relief Services (62423)
- SIC
- Services-Social Services (8300), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Humanitarian Coordination, Information Management & Needs Assessment (BPADADAL)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Humanitarian Coordination & Disaster Risk Reduction IGOs (BPADAAAE)
Keywords
Where ReliefWeb is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
ReliefWeb business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Public Information Service: ReliefWeb is a free information service provided by UN OCHA. The platform aggregates and disseminates humanitarian content at no cost to users. Funding comes from UN member states through OCHA's operational budget.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Free Access - All Users |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels4 records
ReliefWeb product offering
Product offeringCore offering
ReliefWeb operates a free, web-based humanitarian information aggregation and dissemination platform that collects, curates, and distributes reports, situation updates, disaster tracking data, job listings, and training opportunities from over 2,000 contributing organizations across 200+ countries. Content is accessible to humanitarian professionals, UN agencies, NGOs, researchers, media, and the public through the website, email subscriptions, RSS feeds, and programmatic APIs, with all submissions subject to editorial review before publication.
Product overview
ReliefWeb operates as a unified humanitarian information platform provided by UN OCHA, offering a comprehensive suite of products for aggregating, curating, and disseminating humanitarian content. The core ReliefWeb Platform serves as the central hub, supplemented by specialized modules including ReliefWeb Submit for content publishing, the ReliefWeb API and Publishing API for programmatic access and automated content submission, ReliefWeb Response for crisis coordination, ReliefWeb Labs for innovation, RSS Feeds for content syndication, Taxonomy as a Service for standardized classification, and ReliefWeb Google Analytics for partner insights. Together, these products support humanitarian actors in accessing, sharing, and coordinating critical information across crises worldwide.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- ReliefWeb Platform The primary humanitarian information platform operated 24/7 by UN OCHA. Since 1996, it has aggregated, curated, and disseminated critical humanitarian information from more than 2,000 organizations across more than 200 countries and territories, publishing over 50,000 reports annually and serving approximately 15 million unique visitors per year.
- ReliefWeb Submit A content submission platform for UN Agency staff and partner organizations to upload reports, maps, infographics, and other humanitarian content directly to ReliefWeb for publication following editorial review.
- ReliefWeb API Programmatic interface providing access to ReliefWeb's archive of humanitarian information including reports, updates, disasters, jobs, training, and country data for developers building humanitarian information tools and integrations.
- ReliefWeb Publishing API API enabling organizations to automatically submit and update content including jobs, training, and reports to ReliefWeb, supporting real-time information sharing at scale.
- ReliefWeb Response A dedicated platform for coordinating humanitarian response efforts, providing situation-specific information aggregation and response coordination tools.
- ReliefWeb Labs An innovation and research platform for exploring new technologies and approaches for humanitarian information management, including AI pilots and experimental features.
- RSS Feeds Syndication service allowing users to subscribe to and receive automatic notifications of new content including updates, jobs, training, and country-specific information in their preferred RSS reader, with customizable filter options.
- Taxonomy as a Service A taxonomy service providing standardized humanitarian classification terms and descriptors used to categorize and tag humanitarian content, disasters, and organizations across the platform.
- ReliefWeb Google Analytics Analytics access provided to ReliefWeb content partners, enabling them to view metrics and performance data for content they have published on the platform.
Quantifiable outcome
- 15 million unique visitors annually accessing humanitarian information
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use ReliefWeb
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
ReliefWeb technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature3 records
ReliefWeb partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core, strategic and minor.
- UN OCHAcoreReliefWeb is a specialized digital service provided by UN OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). OCHA coordinates the global emergency response to save lives and protect people in humanitarian crises.
- DataminrstrategicCollaboration on piloting AI for humanitarian information detection and dissemination. ReliefWeb blog post discusses reflections on this AI collaboration for humanitarian early warning.
- Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF)minorOne of OCHA's managed funding mechanisms highlighted on ReliefWeb for donations to support relief efforts in crises
- Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)coreUN humanitarian coordination body that ReliefWeb supports through providing information services to the humanitarian system
Scale indicators9 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights5 records
ReliefWeb competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Palantir Technologies: Palantir's government and humanitarian analytics platforms (e.g., Foundry for humanitarian operations) compete for the same institutional buyers with broader data integration capabilities than ReliefWeb's content focus.
- Google Crisis Response: Google's Crisis Response offerings (Person Finder, SOS alerts, disaster maps) overlap with ReliefWeb's public-facing crisis information use cases but are embedded in a much broader consumer platform.
Direct peers
- ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project): ACLED provides structured, real-time conflict and political violence data. It overlaps with ReliefWeb's disaster and conflict reporting from a data-driven analytical angle and serves similar humanitarian, research, and media audiences.
- Center for Humanitarian Data: Operated by OCHA, the Center for Humanitarian Data produces analytical outputs and hosts HDX. It is a sister service to ReliefWeb, targeting overlapping humanitarian decision-makers with data-led products.
- Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX): Also an OCHA-operated platform, HDX focuses on structured humanitarian datasets while ReliefWeb focuses on reports and updates. Together they form OCHA's dual information offering, addressing adjacent use cases for the same humanitarian community.
- ACAPS: Independent humanitarian needs analysis and assessment provider. ACAPS produces crisis reports and analytical products that compete directly with ReliefWeb's analytical and situational reporting content, serving overlapping humanitarian organization audiences.
- Financial Tracking Service (FTS): OCHA's funding tracking platform, FTS captures humanitarian financial flows. It is a sister service to ReliefWeb, serving the same UN system with complementary data, and often cross-linked from ReliefWeb.
Emerging players
- Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT): HOT provides open geospatial and mapping data for humanitarian response. It is adjacent to ReliefWeb's information ecosystem with overlapping users in disaster response, but specializes in geospatial rather than text-based reporting.
- DEEP (Data Entry and Exploration Platform): DEEP is a humanitarian needs assessment data collection platform used by UN and NGO clusters. It serves overlapping institutional humanitarian customers and complements — but does not duplicate — ReliefWeb's reporting catalog.
- Dataminr: Dataminr is ReliefWeb's AI pilot partner and operates real-time event detection for crisis and humanitarian use cases. It competes in adjacent real-time humanitarian intelligence but is commercial and platform-agnostic.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
ReliefWeb social profiles
Digital presenceReliefWeb financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
ReliefWeb leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
ReliefWeb funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
ReliefWeb M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about ReliefWeb
What does ReliefWeb do?
ReliefWeb operates a free, web-based humanitarian information aggregation and dissemination platform that collects, curates, and distributes reports, situation updates, disaster tracking data, job listings, and training opportunities from over 2,000 contributing organizations across 200+ countries. Content is accessible to humanitarian professionals, UN agencies, NGOs, researchers, media, and the public through the website, email subscriptions, RSS feeds, and programmatic APIs, with all submissions subject to editorial review before publication.
Is ReliefWeb a public or private company?
ReliefWeb is a private company. It is classified as state government owned and is currently operating.
When was ReliefWeb founded?
ReliefWeb was founded in 1996. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is ReliefWeb based?
ReliefWeb is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does ReliefWeb make money?
One revenue line is on record: public Information Service.
Who are ReliefWeb's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Palantir Technologies and Google Crisis Response. Direct peers are ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project), Center for Humanitarian Data, Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX), ACAPS and Financial Tracking Service (FTS). Emerging players are Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), DEEP (Data Entry and Exploration Platform) and Dataminr.
Does ReliefWeb have an API?
Yes. ReliefWeb offers two APIs: (1) The ReliefWeb API provides programmatic access to the humanitarian information archive including reports, updates, disasters, jobs, training, and country data. It allows developers to search and retrieve content. (2) The ReliefWeb Publishing API enables organizations to automatically submit updates, jobs, or training content to ReliefWeb, ensuring content remains up-to-date. Both APIs support the humanitarian community's information management needs. Developer documentation is at reliefweb.int/help/api.
What industry is ReliefWeb in?
ReliefWeb's product category is Humanitarian Information Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPADADAL, Humanitarian Coordination, Information Management & Needs Assessment, with a secondary code of BPADAAAE, Humanitarian Coordination & Disaster Risk Reduction IGOs. Its NAICS code is 624230 and its SIC code is 8300.