English Random Words vs JSONPlaceholder

English Random Words is a small keyless REST API that returns one random English word per request, each response bundled with its dictionary definition and an approximate pronunciation spelling. Its OpenAPI spec (browsable at /api-docs) also lists per-language routes for Spanish, French, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, and Turkish, though a live probe found every one of those still answers "Language not supported yet" — only the English endpoint actually works. Hosted on Vercel with no signup or paid tier, it enforces a modest 30-requests-per-15-minutes rate limit per client.

JSONPlaceholder is one of the longest-running free fake REST APIs, serving a fixed set of 100 posts, 500 comments, 10 users, 100 albums, 5,000 photos, and 200 todos as JSON. Every standard verb works against each resource, including nested routes like /posts/1/comments, though POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE only simulate a write and return a fake response without persisting any change. Its data and IDs never change, which is exactly why it's the default backend in countless framework tutorials and testing guides.