MangaDex vs NekosBest

MangaDex's API was reconfirmed live at api.mangadex.org with a real manga listing, but a direct cross-origin GET and an OPTIONS preflight both came back without an Access-Control-Allow-Origin header, so browser-based CORS calls fail — corrected to no. Authentication was also corrected from a bare API key to MangaDex's real scheme: OAuth 2 personal clients using a password grant tied to a user's account, since MangaDex has no API-key concept — public reads need no auth at all. The API and its manga remain entirely free, funded by the site rather than gated behind the API.

NekosBest was reconfirmed live at nekos.best/api/v2 with a real image lookup and an explicit Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * header. It needs no API key, is rate-limited to 200 requests/minute per the response headers, and has no paid tier.