Weather · head-to-head
Open-Meteo vs RainViewer
Open-Meteo is an open-source weather API that blends forecast and historical data from national weather services like NOAA, DWD, and Meteo-France, automatically selecting the highest-resolution model available for a given location. It requires no API key for non-commercial use and covers specialized domains including marine conditions, air quality, flood risk, and long-range climate projections.
RainViewer aggregates and re-tiles third-party radar imagery from over 1,200 radar stations across 150+ countries, refreshed every 5 minutes, and exposes it as XYZ PNG tile pyramids plus a JSON timeline endpoint listing available past and short-term nowcast frames. Coverage isn't guaranteed to be permanent since individual source radar owners can request their feed be pulled, and the service is explicitly licensed for personal, educational, and small-scale community projects only.
| Open-Meteo | RainViewer | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | None | None |
| Pricing | freemium | free |
| Formats | JSON, CSV, XLSX, FlatBuffers | JSON, PNG |
| CORS | yes | yes |
| HTTPS | Yes | Yes |
Open-Meteo supports 4 response formats, while RainViewer offers fewer — pick Open-Meteo for more integration flexibility.