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ipstack

Features
Ease of use
Ease of management
Quality of support
Affordability
Market presence
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Pricing from
$9.99 per month
Free Trial unavailable
Free version
User corporate size
Small
Medium
Large
User industry
  1. Real estate and property management
  2. Education and training
  3. Arts, entertainment, and recreation

What is ipstack

ipstack is an IP address intelligence API that returns geolocation and related metadata for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. It is used by developers and product teams to add location-aware features, analytics enrichment, content localization, and basic risk screening to web and mobile applications. The service is delivered as a hosted REST API with JSON responses and plan-based request limits.

pros

Simple REST API integration

ipstack exposes a straightforward HTTP API that returns JSON, which fits common web and mobile development patterns. It supports both IPv4 and IPv6 lookups and can be called server-side or from backend services. This reduces implementation effort compared with maintaining an internal IP-to-location database and update pipeline.

Geolocation and ISP metadata

The API provides core IP intelligence fields such as country, region, city, latitude/longitude, and time zone. It also includes network-related attributes (for example, ISP/organization and ASN-related details depending on plan), which helps with analytics enrichment and routing decisions. These outputs align with typical requirements for location personalization and reporting.

Hosted service with scaling

As a managed API, ipstack offloads data hosting, updates, and availability concerns from the customer. Teams can scale usage by selecting higher request tiers rather than deploying additional infrastructure. This model is useful for organizations that prefer consumption-based access over distributing local databases.

cons

Accuracy varies by IP type

IP geolocation accuracy can be inconsistent, especially for mobile carrier networks, CGNAT, corporate VPNs, and consumer proxy services. The product cannot reliably identify a user’s precise physical location and should not be treated as a source of truth for compliance-grade location decisions. Buyers typically need to validate accuracy against their traffic mix and regions.

Plan limits and cost scaling

API-based pricing and request quotas can become a constraint for high-traffic applications or batch enrichment workloads. Exceeding limits may require upgrading plans or implementing caching and rate-limiting logic. This can make total cost less predictable than a licensed database for some use cases.

Dependency on external API

Using a hosted API introduces reliance on third-party uptime, latency, and network connectivity. Applications may need fallbacks, retries, and local caching to handle transient failures. Data residency or regulated environments may also require additional review when IP intelligence is processed outside the organization.

Plan & Pricing

Plan Price Key features & notes
Free $0 — 5,000 requests/month Limited tier for testing; includes basic Location module and limited features.
Starter $9.99 per month — 20,000 requests/month Entry paid tier; includes core modules (varies by plan); overage fee shown as $0.000999 per extra request.
Basic $12.99 per month — 50,000 requests/month Mid-tier for small projects; overage fee shown as $0.0005196 per extra request.
Professional $59.99 per month — 500,000 requests/month Higher quota for growing apps; overage fee shown as $0.00023996 per extra request.
Professional + $99.99 per month — 2,000,000 requests/month Largest publicly-listed quota; includes additional features/modules (security, bulk endpoints where indicated); overage fee shown as $0.00009999 per extra request.
Custom / Enterprise Custom pricing Contact sales for higher volumes or custom needs; Platinum Support available as an add-on (annual pricing shown on site).

Seller details

apilayer GmbH
Vienna, Austria
Private
https://mailboxlayer.com/
https://x.com/apilayer
https://www.linkedin.com/company/apilayer/

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