Frankfurter Alternative: AllRatesToday Currency API

Frankfurter is a great free open-source official-rates API — its 2026 v2 even aggregates 80+ central banks. What it still lacks: real-time market rates, weekend data, tax-authority tables, Excel/CSV output, and support. Here is the honest comparison.

Let's start with credit where it's due: Frankfurter (frankfurter.dev) is one of the best free developer tools in the currency space — open source, keyless, well documented. Its classic v1 API serves the ECB's ~30-currency daily reference table, and in 2026 its v2 expanded into an aggregator of official rates from 80+ central banks. That's a genuinely impressive free dataset, and if daily official fixings are all you need, keep using it. What hasn't changed: every number Frankfurter serves is an official rate published at most once per working day. There are no real-time market rates, no weekend data, no tax-authority tables (HMRC, US Treasury), no CSV/Excel output, and — as a volunteer project — nobody on the hook when your invoicing job runs at month-end. That's where AllRatesToday picks up.

At a glance

Pricing and feature details are based on each provider's public pages and may change. Check the vendor's site for the latest figures.

When teams outgrow Frankfurter

1. You need live market rates, not yesterday's fixing

Everything Frankfurter serves — v1 and v2 alike — is an official rate published at most once per working day. For a checkout, a pricing engine, a converter, or anything a user sees moments after the market moves, a daily fixing is the wrong number. AllRatesToday serves real-time mid-market rates for 160+ currencies from institutional interbank market data, updated every 60 seconds, seven days a week — alongside the official tables, on the same key.

2. One daily update isn't enough

ECB reference rates are published once per working day, around 16:00 CET, and there is nothing on weekends or ECB holidays. For accounting that references the ECB rate, that's exactly right. For a checkout, a pricing engine, or anything user-facing, a Friday-afternoon rate shown on Sunday can be visibly off. AllRatesToday updates every 60 seconds, seven days a week.

3. Your filings cite a tax authority, not a central bank

UK customs declarations cite HMRC's monthly rate; US government reporting cites the US Treasury's quarterly table; Swiss customs cite BAZG. Frankfurter's v2 aggregates central banks, but carries none of the tax-authority tables. AllRatesToday's tax authority rates API serves all three alongside the 116 central banks, each under the institution's own publication date — with an in-force view that handles the US Treasury's between-quarter amendments correctly.

4. Spreadsheets, downloads, and formats beyond JSON

Frankfurter speaks JSON. AllRatesToday's table endpoints also serve CSV, XML and real Excel workbooks, and the bulk download page gives non-developers every source's tables with no code at all — the format finance teams actually ask for at month-end.

5. Support and an availability target without self-hosting

Frankfurter's honest answer to uptime guarantees is "self-host it" — reasonable for an open-source project, but it makes reliability your ops problem. AllRatesToday runs on Cloudflare's global edge with a 99.99% availability target and email support on paid plans.

Drop-in code example

The request shape will feel familiar to Frankfurter users:

// Before — Frankfurter (official daily fixings)
fetch('https://api.frankfurter.dev/v1/latest?base=USD&symbols=EUR,GBP')

// After — AllRatesToday (real-time, 160+ currencies)
fetch('https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/rates?source=USD&target=EUR,GBP', {
  headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer art_live_xxxxx' }
})
  .then(r => r.json())
  .then(rows => console.log(rows));

// Still want the official ECB reference table? Keyless:
fetch('https://allratestoday.com/api/open/central-bank/ecb')
  .then(r => r.json())
  .then(console.log);

Honest pros and cons

FAQ

Is Frankfurter bad? Should I stop using it?

Not at all — it's an excellent free project, and its 2026 v2 made it a serious free aggregator of official central-bank rates. If daily official fixings cover your needs, stay. This page is for teams that need real-time market rates, tax-authority tables, spreadsheet formats, or someone accountable behind the feed.

Does AllRatesToday serve the same ECB rates Frankfurter does?

Yes. The ECB is one of the 116 central banks in our central-bank API, served under the ECB's own publication date — with a keyless open endpoint for the latest table.

Is there a free tier?

Yes — real-time rates with HTTPS, no credit card required. Historical data and commercial use start on the €4.99/mo plan; see pricing.

Compare with other providers