7 APIs that every beginner web developer should try?

Hello everyone this is Vikas Rai and welcome again. Today we will talk about different APIs that you can try in your web dev projects.

Do you know that API is a major part of web development and as a web developer you should know them, what they are and how to use them? If you don't know about them then you can click the below link to read my article on APIs.

Let me tell you one more thing that all these APIs are free to use and you can create some awesome web dev projects. You can use it in simple JavaScript applications by using Nodejs and Express.js while in ReactJs you can use them through npm-package "Axios" to fetch the data from the API.

So, this is the list of API’s that you can use and create your API-based project.

1) MAILCHIMP API

MAILCHIMP API Link

The MailChimp API is a business tool that helps in Email marketing which helps users to store their customer data such as name, address, and email, so that they can use them for their business or selling products by Email marketing.

But good thing is that MailChimp provides an API special for web developers which you can use to create a News Letter subscription website and all the user details will be stored in the MailChimp database and you can see them in your MailChimp dashboard.

The cool about is that it provides the first 2000 subscribers for free that is you can store data of the first 2000 customers for free.

All the data provided by API is in JSON format which is very convenient for a web developer or programmer.

Here is the link to their website and you can sign up for free and use their API.

2) MAP BOX API

MAPBOX API Link

This API helps you generate a map on your website. Sometimes you need to add a map location in your website or web app and for this, you can use map box API. This API not only provides maps but you can use them for navigation, search, and accounts also.

All the data provided by API is in JSON format which is very convenient for a web developer or programmer.

This is the link to their documentation, you can read and use it as per your requirement.

3) NEWS API

NEWS API Link

This is another API that helps you to get the latest news headlines and also to locate articles and news from different news sources and blogs across the web. If your planning to create a news blog website or simple news app you can use their API. You can fetch the data through API in five different ways i.e. curl, GET, JavaScript, Ruby, .NET.

All the data provided by API is in JSON format which is very convenient for a web developer or programmer.

This is the link to their documentation, you can read and use it as per your requirement.

4) OPEN WEATHER API

OPEN WEATHER API Link

As the name suggests it provides information about current weather data and also about climate forecasting. This API is very useful if you are planning to create a Weather App. You can access the weather data of almost more than 200,000 cities. Another good thing about is that it provides data in three different formats i.e. JSON, XML, and HTML.

All the data provided by API is in JSON format which is very convenient for a web developer or programmer.

This is the link to their documentation, you can read and use it as per your requirement.

5) STRIPE API

STRIPE API Link

So So this one is a very powerful API why I am saying that is because through this API you can create a "CREDIT-CARD PAYMENT" app.

Yes, this is true, although when you are developing your application you can use their API to integrate a payment method on your website and can check the real-time transaction in the Stripe Dashboard.

I have personally used this API in my project which is an amazon-clone website that I built from a YouTube tutorial video from the YouTube channel "@cleverprogrammer".

For proof, I am attaching a screenshot of my stripe dashboard where you can see the payments. These are demo payments FYI.

I will highly recommend you use this API in your web project. If you don't know how to use them you can check out the amazon-clone tutorial of the @cleverprogrammer YouTube channel.

This is the link to their documentation, you can read and use it as per your requirement.

6) JSON PLACEHOLDER API

JSON Placeholder API Link

This is another API which is typically also called a Fake REST API because it provides a randomly generated text which is kind of help when you need some dummy data or content for your website.

Especially when you are creating a sample blog project for that you need the title, post, id, and content, images, etc. the JSONPlaceholder comes with a set of 6 common resources that are listed below:

1. /posts

2. /comments

3. /albums

4. /todos

5. /users

6. /photos

These are the endpoints on which you can send a GET request and can use that data in your project.

This is the link to their documentation, you can read and use it as per your requirement.

7) TMDB API

TMDB API Link

This is on my favorite API that I used till now because I love to watch movies. But you can't watch movies through this API.

Through this API you can create a Movie App, this API provides you with amazing kinds of stuff which you can use such as it has 10+ different genre categories, provides you a 1080p resolution thumbnail, and all other information like ratings, reviews, etc.

I also used this API and created a HULU 2.0 with this API through a YouTube channel named @sonnysangha.You can check out his channel for more amazing web development tutorial.

This is the link to their documentation, you can read and use it as per your requirement.

CONCLUSION

In this blog, I have discussed 7 APIs that you can use in your web dev projects or Apps. These 7 APIs are Mailchimp API, Map box API, News API, OpenWeather API, Stripe API, JSONPlaceholder API, and Tmdb API.

These APIs are very easy to use and the best thing about them is that these are all free to use and just require only sign up no money or credit card information is required to use them.

I highly suggest you use these APIs if you haven't used them, especially if you are a beginner in web development.

Here are some of the link of my projects which I created using these APIs.

1. Sign Up Form Using Mailchimp API
2. Amazon Clone Using Stripe & Fakestore API
3. Hulu Clone Using TMDB Movie API
4. AirBnb CLone Using MapBox API

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and it was helpful for you and if you want to know more about this , you can check blog posts which ever you like.

More to read:

• 10 predictions for 2021 in the web development world.

• Best React.js Examples Project that you can build as a Beginner.

• 7 things that every beginner web developer should know?