Anime · head-to-head
AniList vs AnimeNewsNetwork
AniList's public GraphQL endpoint at graphql.anilist.co answers anime, manga, and character queries with no authentication at all — confirmed live with an unauthenticated POST that returned a normal GraphQL error payload alongside a wide-open Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * header. OAuth only comes into play for account-scoped actions like updating a user's list; browsing the catalog is free and unmetered beyond a per-minute rate limit.
ANN's Encyclopedia API serves anime, manga, person, and company records as XML from cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/api.xml, confirmed live with a real title lookup carrying Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *; the www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/api.php page most integrations bookmark is actually the human-readable documentation front end rather than the data endpoint itself. It's free to use with attribution, capped at one request per second per IP.
| AniList | AnimeNewsNetwork | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | OAuth | None |
| Pricing | free | free |
| Formats | JSON | XML |
| CORS | yes | yes |
| HTTPS | Yes | Yes |
AnimeNewsNetwork needs no API key, while AniList requires OAuth — pick AnimeNewsNetwork to start without signup.