RecipeAPI vs Spoonacular

RecipeAPI.io searches recipes and returns parsed ingredient lists, estimated nutrition, and step-by-step cooking instructions, offered as a metered SaaS with a 500-request/month free tier before paid plans apply. A live GET against the real gateway, recipeapi.io/api/v1/recipes, returned a genuine 401 'Invalid or missing API key' JSON error while carrying Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *, reconfirming both cors yes and API Key auth in the same probe.

Spoonacular is a broad food platform covering recipe search, ingredient parsing, meal planning, grocery product data, and wine pairing, backed by a database of hundreds of thousands of recipes, with a limited daily point allowance on its free tier before usage-based paid plans apply. A live GET against the real gateway, api.spoonacular.com, returned a genuine 401 'not authorized' JSON error while carrying an echoed Access-Control-Allow-Origin header, resolving cors unknown -> yes and reconfirming API Key auth in the same probe.