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Chris Hansen
Chris Hansen

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Great Beginner Friendly API's To Start Practicing Frontend Development 🧑‍💻

UPDATE:
I have updated my list of beginner friendly APIs.
Check out numbers 9, 10 and 11 on the list! 🔥


Every beginner has been there. Once you really start to get efficient at HTML, CSS and Javascript, it's only a matter of time before you want to start playing with real-life data.
There are so many ways developers can manipulate data to make really cool and beautiful websites.

This is my list of low barrier to entry Rest API's to get you started! 💯


1. JSONPlaceholder

JSONPlaceholder provides a restful API to a wide variety of resources.

  • Posts
  • Comments
  • Albums
  • Photos
  • Todos
  • Users

2. Fake Store API

The Fake Store restful API provides the most important resources when you are trying to build you first mock e-commerce store.

  • Products
  • Cart
  • Users
  • Login Token

3. Unsplashed API

The Unsplashed restful API may live up to it's catchphrase as the "The most powerful photo engine in the world." What you'll have available to you:

  • Over 3 million photos
  • Search photos by keyword
  • Search random photos
  • Multiple datasets

4. Quotes API

The Quotes rest API provides a wide variety of different quotes and types of quotes, like:

  • Quote of the day
  • Quotes by categories
  • Randomly selected quotes
  • Quotes by Authors
  • Quotes by popularity

5. NASA API

One of my personal favorites, and one I believe will truly get the inner geek's imagination running wild. The Nasa restful API provides multiple resources like:

  • APOD ( astronomy photo of the day)
  • Astroid NeoWs ( near earth object web services)
  • Insight ( mars weather services )
  • Nasa Image and Video Library
  • And so much more!

6. SpaceX API

How about the worlds most popular space company, SpaceX! This restful API offers a variety of cool rocket details like:

  • Rockets
  • Rocket launches
  • Core
  • Starlink
  • Launchpad
  • Landing pad data

7. Coingecko

The Coingecko API is my go to resource for all things crypto. There are many out there, but this is the easiest hands down. Requires no api key, it's free, great for side projects! It provides multiple endpoints:

  • Coin price
  • List of all coins
  • Markets
  • Tickers
  • Price history
  • Market charts
  • Rage in prices
  • Contracts
  • Trading platforms
  • Exchanges and more!

Thanks to izaias 👍

Boa noite, ótimo trabalho.
Vc teria ai em sua pesquisa api para moedas virtuais seria de grande valia.
Obrigado e parabéns 😀


8. OpenWeatherMap

The OpenWeatherMap restful API is a beloved resources for developers as well as my personal favorite, due to its simplicity. It does require an API key, but don't let that discourage you. Simply append your API key to your endpoint, and you're set. Get weather data the way you prefer:

  • by City name
  • by State code
  • by Country code
  • by Zip code
  • by Rectangular zone of geographic coordinates
  • by Circular zone of geographic coordinates
  • Multiple units of measurements
  • Icons included

Thanks to Felipe Panegalli 👍

Great Post. If will you be like to add a new API... Wheater API (classic ) :D.


9. RandomUser

The random user API is an absolute must for beginner developers! Quickly prototype new concepts or designs with instant access to random users! Comes with all the data you need too:

  • Name
  • Email
  • Birthday
  • Address
  • Country
  • Phone
  • Company title and more!

10. SWAPI

Who doesn't sci-fi!? Proud geeks should appreciate this one. The Star Wars API has all the data you can possibly want from your favorite Star Wars characters. Get data like:

  • Planets
  • Spaceships
  • Vehicles
  • Films
  • Species
  • Home planets
  • Date of Birth and so much more!

11. PokeAPI

Pokemon is just as relevant to me as ever! Get instant access to the very easy to use restful Pokemon API. Get your fix of Japanese anime culture and get all the data you need on your favorite pocket monsters like:

  • Types
  • Abilities
  • Forms
  • Species
  • Stats and more!

Conclusion 👏

That's it for Great Beginner Friendly API's To Start Practicing Frontend Development! 😎 Without a doubt these very beginner friendly API's will get you inspired to publish your next app to share with the world!

Let me know what you think and hit me up on Twitter and Instagram

Also check out some of my other articles on productivity and react!

Top comments (31)

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nicolasg02 profile image
nicolasg02

Thank you for the recommendations!
May I ask a dumb question? How do I make use of features like registering a user, login, add an item to a cart, login tokens, etc?

I know how to retrieve data from an api I've done it before but that's it, I don't know how to interact with anything else.
Do you have any blog tutorial or video that could help me?

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hyggedev profile image
Chris Hansen

Not a dumb question at all! Giving users the ability to register, login, favorite things, save things etc are a big part of a developers job! I would highly recommend looking up firebase( very beginner friendly!), utilizing google, or another great option would be Magic links! 💯👌 Thank you for dropping by!

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hyggedev profile image
Chris Hansen

Id also like to mention, there have been a few people who have asked somewhat similar questions, so I think I'ma set a goal of making a blog tutorial on firebase! I don't want to promise anything, but be on the look out! Thanks again.

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nicolasg02 profile image
nicolasg02

Thank you for your time and recommendations, I'll take a look at firebase!

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liyasthomas profile image
Liyas Thomas

If you'd like to try an open source { free } alternative to test APIs, try Hoppscotch - API request builder for web : hoppscotch.io

GitHub logo hoppscotch / hoppscotch

👽 Open source API development ecosystem https://hoppscotch.io

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hyggedev profile image
Chris Hansen

Nice! Thanks for dropping by and sharing! 💯

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emmanuelchucks profile image
Emmanuel Chucks

These are great, never knew about the SpaceX API

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hyggedev profile image
Chris Hansen

It's super fun to dive into all that SpaceX data. IDK, for me I feel like I appreciate spaceX that much more 😎

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emmanuelchucks profile image
Emmanuel Chucks

Can't agree more

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ldobreira profile image
Luis Paulo Dobreira

Chris Hansen check out Free-To-Play Games Database API: freetogame.com/api-doc

It´s really easy to use, without limitations, and no keys or accounts required.

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hyggedev profile image
Chris Hansen

Hey there, thanks for dropping by 💯
Thanks for your suggestion! It looks pretty damn cool. The moment I have some time I'll no doubt check it out 👍

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ldobreira profile image
Luis Paulo Dobreira

Sweet! See you around! 👍

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john_k_phillips profile image
John Phillips

Oooh, I like the idea of the JSON Placeholder! Thanks.

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hyggedev profile image
Chris Hansen

It's awesome!!!! 😎

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panegalli profile image
Felipe Panegalli

Great Post. If will you be like to add a new API... Wheater API (classic ) :D.

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stuartcmd profile image
Stuart

Thanks, Chris!

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hyggedev profile image
Chris Hansen

🤜 💯

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davidforer profile image
David Forer

Thanks for putting this together. Now off to build something!

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hyggedev profile image
Chris Hansen

That's the idea! 💯 Was really hoping people would be inspired by the APIs! Kind of like how some developers end building gigantic projects simply because of a mock design! Essentially, the API before the need for an API, or the design before a business idea!

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samuelnarciso28 profile image
Samuel Narciso

Thanks for sharing :)

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hyggedev profile image
Chris Hansen

Thanks for dropping by! ✌️ 🙌

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a89529294 profile image
Albert Chang

Great resources! Thanks for sharing.

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hyggedev profile image
Chris Hansen

Your def welcome! Thanks for stopping by! Happy coding! 💯