Weather · head-to-head
RainViewer vs US Weather
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.
The National Weather Service API serves official US government forecasts, active alerts, and observation-station data as GeoJSON and JSON-LD feeds, with no signup or API key required. It's widely used by third-party weather apps and accepts direct browser calls, though it requires a descriptive User-Agent header identifying your application on every request.
| RainViewer | US Weather | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | None | None |
| Pricing | free | free |
| Formats | JSON, PNG | GeoJSON, JSON-LD, CAP/XML, DWML/XML, ATOM |
| CORS | yes | yes |
| HTTPS | Yes | Yes |
US Weather supports 5 response formats, while RainViewer offers fewer — pick US Weather for more integration flexibility.