Quotable Quotes vs Zen Quotes

Quotable is a free, open-source REST API serving a large curated database of quotations, authors, and tags, documented as running at api.quotable.io. A live GET against that real gateway returned a genuine random quote while carrying Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *, resolving cors unknown -> yes and reconfirming auth None in the same probe — but the host's TLS certificate expired in September 2024 (nearly two years ago), so standard certificate-verifying HTTP clients will reject the connection even though the backend itself still serves live, correctly-shaped data once verification is bypassed. Free and open source with no paid tier — pricingModel free.

ZenQuotes serves a large collection of inspirational quotes as JSON, with a free rate-limited tier and a paid premium subscription unlocking unlimited requests and self-hosting. A live GET against the real gateway, zenquotes.io/api/random, returned a genuine quote with no Access-Control-Allow-Origin header on either a GET or an OPTIONS preflight, resolving cors yes -> no; no key was required, reconfirming auth None. pricingModel freemium.