4chan vs TikTok

4chan's API serves the same read-only board and thread data every page renders — board lists, catalogs, threads, and posts — as plain JSON from the dedicated a.4cdn.org host, with no registration, key, or authentication of any kind required. Media referenced by posts is served from the sibling i.4cdn.org host, and the project's own GitHub repository (4chan/4chan-API) hosts the reference client and doubles as the canonical documentation, including the rule to cap requests at one per second. Cross-origin use from a browser is limited in practice: both the docs and a live probe confirm the API's CORS policy only allows requests originating from 4chan's own board pages, so a third-party site must proxy requests server-side rather than call it directly from client-side JavaScript.

TikTok for Developers bundles several OAuth-based kits under one app registration — Login Kit for authentication, Display API for a user's own public videos, and Content Posting API for publishing on their behalf — all issued through open.tiktokapis.com. More sensitive scopes require TikTok's app review before going live, and a separate Research API exists for qualified academics to query public data.