--- title: "AllRatesToday vs Fixer.io vs XE.com vs ExchangeRate-API (2026)" description: "A side-by-side comparison of AllRatesToday, Fixer.io, XE.com, and ExchangeRate-API — update frequency, latency, HTTPS, CORS, historical rates, and free-tier limits in 2026." canonical: https://allratestoday.com/blog/allratestoday-vs-fixer-xe-exchangerate-api/ source: AllRatesToday (https://allratestoday.com/) — Markdown mirror of the page above; index of all pages at https://allratestoday.com/llms.txt generated: 2026-10-27T14:04:55.912Z --- ![API provider comparison](https://images.pexels.com/photos/7947846/pexels-photo-7947846.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=2&h=650&w=940) Choosing an exchange rate API is a boring decision with expensive consequences. Pick one with stale data and your checkout shows prices 2% off the market. Pick one with a tight free tier and you hit a wall the day you launch. Pick one with EUR-only base currencies and you spend the next sprint rewriting conversion logic. This article compares the four most-searched exchange rate APIs of 2026 — **AllRatesToday**, **Fixer.io**, **XE.com**, and **ExchangeRate-API** — across the criteria that actually matter: update frequency, latency, HTTPS, currency coverage, historical data, CORS, and free-tier limits. **Verdict:** For most developers in 2026, **AllRatesToday** is the best default — it matches XE on real-time freshness while beating it on price and free-tier access, ships official SDKs, and includes historical data on every paid plan from €4.99/month. Choose **XE** for enterprise procurement, **ExchangeRate-API** if daily rates are fine and you want raw free-tier volume, and avoid **Fixer**'s free tier (HTTP-only, EUR base lock-in). ## TL;DR — Quick Comparison Table | Feature | AllRatesToday | Fixer.io | XE.com | ExchangeRate-API | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Real-time updates | Every 60s | Every 60min | Every 60s | Every 24h | | Average latency | ~214ms | ~342ms | ~471ms | ~134ms | | HTTPS | Yes | No (free) | Yes | Yes | | Currencies | 160+ | 170+ | 170+ | 160+ | | Base currency | Any | EUR only | Any | Any | | Free tier | Free | Limited | Trial only | Yes | | Historical rates | Paid (from €4.99/mo) | Paid only | Paid only | Paid only | | CORS support | Browser: keyless endpoints; keyed API server-side | No | No | Yes | | Uptime SLA | 99.9% | 99.9% | 99.95% | 99.9% | | Free plan | One-time, non-commercial | Free | Trial only | Free | ## Real-Time Updates: How Fresh Is the Data? Update frequency is the first question to ask about any exchange rate API, because it determines whether the data is usable for real-money decisions. - **AllRatesToday** refreshes every **60 seconds** from institutional foreign exchange market data. - **XE.com** also runs 60-second updates, backed by 30+ years of FX aggregation. - **Fixer.io** updates **hourly** on most tiers, sourced from the European Central Bank. - **ExchangeRate-API** updates **daily** on the free plan. For trading, payments, or any flow where the rate affects the amount charged, hourly or daily updates are not enough. During volatile sessions, a major pair can move 1% in minutes — and that gap comes out of your margin or your customer's pocket. Winner: AllRatesToday and XE tie on freshness. AllRatesToday has the edge on price and free-tier access. ## Latency: How Fast Does the API Respond? - **ExchangeRate-API** ~134ms — fastest overall, thanks to aggressive CDN caching of daily snapshots. - **AllRatesToday** ~214ms — fastest among real-time providers. - **Fixer.io** ~342ms. - **XE.com** ~471ms — slowest in the group. ExchangeRate-API wins on raw speed, but it's apples-to-oranges: cached daily data will always respond faster than live data. Among APIs serving **real-time** rates, AllRatesToday is the fastest by a clear margin. Winner: AllRatesToday for real-time. ExchangeRate-API if you don't need fresh rates. ## HTTPS and Security HTTPS should be table stakes in 2026. It isn't, quite. - **AllRatesToday, XE, ExchangeRate-API** — HTTPS on every plan. - **Fixer.io** — HTTP-only on the free tier. HTTPS is a paid feature. If you're on Fixer's free plan and your app runs on HTTPS (which it should), you'll hit mixed-content errors the moment you try to fetch rates from the browser. You'll either pay to upgrade or proxy requests through your backend. Winner: Three-way tie. Fixer's HTTPS paywall is a 2012-era decision that hasn't aged well. ## Currency Coverage - **Fixer, XE**: 170+ currencies. - **AllRatesToday**: 160+ currencies plus precious metals. - **ExchangeRate-API**: 160+ currencies. Coverage differences are marginal unless you need exotic pairs or crypto. For everyday FX (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, major emerging markets), all four are equivalent. Winner: Effectively a tie. XE has a slight edge if you need crypto + metals + FX in one API. ## Base Currency Flexibility This is where Fixer.io falls apart for non-European use cases. - **AllRatesToday, XE, ExchangeRate-API** — any base currency on any plan. - **Fixer.io** — **EUR only** on the free tier. Switching base currency is a paid feature. If you're building a US, Asian, or LATAM product, Fixer's free tier forces you to fetch EUR-based rates and do the cross-rate math in application code. It works, but it's an unnecessary source of rounding bugs. Winner: AllRatesToday, XE, and ExchangeRate-API. Fixer's EUR-only free tier is a dealbreaker for global products. ## Historical Rates Historical rates are needed for accounting, tax reporting, backtesting, and trend analysis. - **AllRatesToday** — included on every paid plan, from **€4.99/month**. - **Fixer, XE, ExchangeRate-API** — paid plans only. No provider here includes historical data on its free tier. The difference is the entry price: AllRatesToday includes it from €4.99/month, while the others typically start at $10–$15/month. If you're building a dashboard, a monthly P&L converter, or anything that touches past rates, that's a real cost difference. Winner: AllRatesToday, on entry price. ## CORS Support If you're calling the API directly from the browser — landing pages, SPAs without a backend, embedded widgets — CORS support matters. - **ExchangeRate-API** — CORS enabled. - **AllRatesToday** — keyless endpoints (official central-bank rates, IP-to-currency, symbols) and the embeddable widget work in the browser. The keyed live-rate API is meant to be called from your server, so your key stays private. - **Fixer, XE** — no CORS. Browser calls fail without a proxy. XE and Fixer assume a server-side integration. For static sites and Jamstack projects, AllRatesToday gives you keyless official rates and a widget in the browser, and live market rates through one small serverless function that holds your key. Winner: ExchangeRate-API for direct browser calls. AllRatesToday for keyless official rates in the browser. ## Uptime SLA All four providers publish 99.9%+ SLAs. 99.95% vs 99.9% is 4 hours of extra uptime per year on paper. In practice, real outages usually beat the SLA numbers anyway, and what matters more is how the provider handles incidents — status page, postmortems, response times. Check status page history rather than the marketing-page SLA. Winner: Technical tie. XE edges on paper at 99.95%. ## Free Tier: What You Actually Get - **AllRatesToday** — Free tier, no card. Real-time 60-second rates, any base currency, HTTPS. Personal and non-commercial use; historical data needs a paid plan. - **ExchangeRate-API** — free forever. 1,500 requests/month, daily updates, no historical on free. - **Fixer.io** — free but constrained. 100 requests/month, hourly updates, **EUR base only**, **HTTP only**. - **XE.com** — trial only. Permanent use requires a paid annual plan. ExchangeRate-API wins on raw request quota (1,500/mo, daily snapshots). AllRatesToday's free tier is a one-time evaluation allowance: enough to test real-time rates and flexible base currencies, but production use means a paid plan from €4.99/month. Winner: ExchangeRate-API for ongoing free volume. AllRatesToday for testing real-time rates before you pay. ## When to Use Each API ### Use AllRatesToday when - You need real-time rates at a low entry price (from €4.99/month). - You need historical data without paying $10+/month. - You want keyless official rates in the browser, with live rates served through your own backend. - You want flexible base currencies. ### Use ExchangeRate-API when - Daily rates are good enough. - You need high request volume on the free tier. - You want the fastest response times. ### Use Fixer.io when - You're a European product and EUR-base is natural. - You need ECB-aligned data for regulatory reasons. - You're already on a paid plan and the ecosystem fits. ### Use XE.com when - You're an enterprise with an annual budget. - You need XE's brand recognition or ERP integrations (SAP, Oracle, MS Dynamics). - Multi-asset coverage (FX + metals + select crypto) matters. ## The Bottom Line For most developers in 2026, **AllRatesToday** is the best default: - Real-time rates (60-second updates from institutional foreign exchange market data). - Historical data on every paid plan from €4.99/month. - Any base currency and HTTPS; keyless endpoints for the browser, keyed API on your server. - 99.9% uptime and sub-250ms latency. Fixer remains viable if you're already in its ecosystem. XE is for enterprises with budgets. ExchangeRate-API is the right call when you only need daily rates and want the highest free quota. ## FAQ ### Which exchange rate API is the most accurate? Accuracy tracks the data source. Providers using institutional FX market data (AllRatesToday, XE) deliver tighter mid-market rates than providers using ECB end-of-day snapshots (Fixer, ExchangeRate-API on the free tier). ### Which exchange rate API has the best free tier? Depends on the axis. ExchangeRate-API has the highest request cap (1,500/month, renewing monthly). AllRatesToday gives a free tier for evaluation and personal projects, with real-time 60-second rates, any base currency, and HTTPS; historical data and commercial use need a paid plan. ### Can I use these APIs from the browser? ExchangeRate-API supports CORS out of the box. AllRatesToday's keyless endpoints (official rates, IP-to-currency, symbols) allow browser calls; its keyed API is meant to be called from your server so your key stays private. Fixer and XE do not support CORS — you'll need a server-side proxy. ### Do these APIs support cryptocurrency? XE covers select cryptocurrencies. The other three are fiat-focused. For crypto-heavy use cases, consider a dedicated crypto API. ### Which API is cheapest for historical rates? AllRatesToday. Historical rates are included on every paid plan from €4.99/month, the lowest entry price in this comparison. No provider here includes historical data on its free tier. Ready to switch? ``` npm install @allratestoday/sdk ``` ## Get Real-Time Rates Mid-market rates aggregated from institutional foreign exchange market data, 160+ currencies, any base, HTTPS on every plan. Start with a free tier. [Get Your Free API Key](https://allratestoday.com/register) ## Related Articles - [AllRatesToday vs Currencylayer](https://allratestoday.com/blog/allratestoday-vs-currencylayer/) - [AllRatesToday vs ExchangeRate-API](https://allratestoday.com/blog/allratestoday-vs-exchangerate-api-com/) - [Does XE Have an API?](https://allratestoday.com/blog/does-xe-have-an-api/) - [Fixer Alternative](https://allratestoday.com/compare/fixer-alternative/) - [XE API Alternative](https://allratestoday.com/compare/xe-api-alternative/)