Weather · head-to-head
RainViewer vs weather-api
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.
This is an MIT-licensed Go application that returns current conditions, wind speed, and a three-day forecast as JSON for a city name. The author runs a free public demo at goweather.xyz/v2/weather/{city}. It needs no key and sends open CORS headers. The older /weather/{city} route on that host now returns 404, so use the /v2 path. The repo is not archived, and the last push was in October 2026. You can also build the app and host it yourself.
| RainViewer | weather-api | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | None | None |
| Pricing | free | free |
| Formats | JSON, PNG | JSON |
| CORS | yes | yes |
| HTTPS | Yes | Yes |
RainViewer supports 2 response formats, while weather-api offers fewer — pick RainViewer for more integration flexibility.