Compare / ipapi alternatives
Best ipapi alternatives in 2026
IP geolocation API with a generous free tier, aimed at developers who need country and city for an IP.
Disclosure: LookupLab is our product and appears first. Prices are from each vendor's public pricing page as of 2026-09; confirm before you buy.
Why teams look beyond ipapi
- Geolocation only, with limited proxy and VPN detection
- No phone or email
- Rate limited hard on the free tier
What ipapi does well: big free tier; no key needed for basic use; fast.
Side by side
| Product | Phone | IP | DNS | Starting price | Free option | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LookupLab | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | $99/mo for 20,000 credits ($0.005 per lookup), success-only billing | 1,000 free credits on a 7-day trial |
| IPQualityScore | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Free tier, paid plans from about $99 a month | Limited monthly free lookups |
| Abstract API | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Free tiers per API, paid plans from about $9 a month per API | Small free quota on each API |
| IPinfo | No | No | Yes | No | Free lite tier, paid plans from about $99 a month | Free lite plan with country and ASN |
| Twilio Lookup | Yes | No | No | No | $0.008 per line type lookup, $0.01 per caller name lookup | Basic formatting and validation only |
| Numverify | Yes | No | No | No | Free plan with 100 requests a month, paid plans from about $15 a month | 100 requests a month |
| ZeroBounce | No | Yes | No | No | Pay as you go from about $0.01 per email at the smallest tier | 100 free verifications a month |
The alternatives
1. LookupLab
Phone, email, IP and DNS validation from one key and one credit pool. Live carrier data for phones. Lookups that return nothing are free.
2. IPQualityScore
Fraud scoring platform with phone, email and IP reputation APIs. Strong on proxy and VPN detection and on risk scores.
Strong at: deep proxy, vpn and residential proxy detection; risk scores tuned for fraud teams; phone, email and ip in one vendor.
Watch for: monthly plans with quotas rather than per-lookup pricing; enterprise-oriented tiers jump quickly in price; reputation scores are opaque, which makes tuning hard.
3. Abstract API
A catalog of small APIs (phone validation, email validation, IP geolocation and others), each priced and quota'd separately.
Strong at: very cheap entry point; simple docs; many small utility apis.
Watch for: every api is a separate subscription and quota; phone data is prefix-based rather than live carrier data; rate limits on free and low tiers are tight.
4. IPinfo
The reference IP data provider. Geolocation, ASN, company, carrier and privacy detection sold as separate datasets and API plans.
Strong at: best-in-class ip data quality; downloadable databases; privacy detection dataset.
Watch for: privacy detection and company data cost extra; ip only; plans are monthly quotas, not per lookup.
5. Twilio Lookup
Twilio's phone intelligence API, bundled into the Twilio console. Line type intelligence, caller name, SIM swap and SMS pumping risk as separate paid packages.
Strong at: already in your stack if you send sms through twilio; broad international coverage; extra packages such as sim swap and identity match.
Watch for: each data package is billed separately and adds up fast; no email or ip checks, so you need two more vendors; console pricing changes are hard to track across packages.
6. Numverify
APILayer's phone validation API. Number format, country, location and carrier from static prefix data.
Strong at: cheap entry point; simple json response; covers 230+ countries at the format level.
Watch for: carrier and line type come from prefix tables, so ported numbers are reported wrong; no validity check against the live network; phone only.
7. ZeroBounce
Email verification with bulk list cleaning, an API, and deliverability add-ons such as inbox placement tests.
Strong at: polished bulk uploader; catch-all and abuse detection; deliverability toolkit beyond verification.
Watch for: email only; per-email price is at the high end; credits expire on some plans.
Who should choose what
Choose LookupLab if you validate more than one data type, want per-lookup pricing with no monthly quota games, or are building an agent that needs an MCP server.
Stay on ipapi if big free tier is the thing you care most about and you are happy paying for the rest separately.
Try LookupLab next to ipapi
Run the same numbers, emails or IPs through both. 1,000 free credits, no card.
Start free Read the docsQuestions
What is the best ipapi alternative?
It depends on what you validate. If you need phone, email and IP together with per-lookup pricing, LookupLab replaces ipapi and two other vendors. If you only need ip at the lowest possible price, the specialists in the table above are worth a look.
Is ipapi expensive?
ipapi starts at Free up to 1,000 requests a day, paid plans from about $12 a month. Whether that is expensive depends on volume and on how many other vendors you pay alongside it. The table shows starting prices side by side.
What does ipapi not do?
Geolocation only, with limited proxy and VPN detection No phone or email Rate limited hard on the free tier