Deezer API vs Lyrics.ovh
Category: Music · Updated August 2026
Deezer API has a more generous free tier (No key for public catalog data; OAuth only for user data) and requires no API key, making it the easier choice for getting started. Both show similar reliability — Deezer API at 100% uptime and Lyrics.ovh at 100% uptime over 30 days. Pick Deezer API for hobby projects; consider Lyrics.ovh if you need its specific feature set.
Side-by-side comparison
Deezer API
Public catalog data for artists, albums, tracks, and charts, with 30-second previews. The public read endpoints need no key, which is why it survived as a Spotify alternative after Spotify restricted audio-features for new apps in late 2024.
| Status | 🟢 Online |
| 30-day uptime | 100% |
| Response time | 176 ms |
| Free tier | No key for public catalog data; OAuth only for user data |
| Auth | No key required |
| Tier score | 0.7 — free key, no card |
Lyrics.ovh
Plain-text song lyrics by artist and title. A community hobby project that exists because licensed APIs like Genius return only snippets — useful for prototypes, but treat availability and licensing as fragile.
| Status | 🟢 Online |
| 30-day uptime | 100% |
| Response time | 901 ms |
| Free tier | Unlimited, no key; unofficial hobby project with no SLA |
| Auth | No key required |
| Tier score | 0.7 — free key, no card |
Which to choose?
- Pick Deezer API if…you want zero friction — no account, no key, just call the endpoint. Also good if music data without signup is a hard requirement.
- Pick Lyrics.ovh if…you want zero friction — no account, no key, just call the endpoint. Also good if music data without signup is a hard requirement.
- Use both if…one goes down — they serve the same music use case from different data sources, so you can implement a quick fallback.
Or use these alternatives
Other top-ranked Music APIs you might consider:
- iTunes Search API — 🟢 Online · No key, approximately 20 calls/minute, no credit card
- MusicBrainz — 🟢 Online · No key, 1 request/second, requires an identifying User-Agent
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Deezer API or Lyrics.ovh more reliable?
Both Deezer API and Lyrics.ovh show identical 30-day uptime (100%) in our monitoring. Either is a safe choice from a reliability standpoint.
Which one has a more generous free tier — Deezer API or Lyrics.ovh?
Deezer API has a more generous free tier. Its plan offers No key for public catalog data; OAuth only for user data vs Lyrics.ovh's Unlimited, no key; unofficial hobby project with no SLA. Deezer API also requires no API key at all, making onboarding instant.
Can I use Deezer API and Lyrics.ovh together?
Absolutely — neither requires an API key, so you can call both with no setup. A round-robin or primary/fallback pattern is trivial to implement, giving you redundancy at zero cost.
What's the cheapest paid alternative if both Deezer API and Lyrics.ovh fail?
If you need a paid fallback, Musixmatch is one of the more affordable options (free tier 2,000/day, paid from $79/mo). You can find the full list of paid alternatives on each API's detail page. Paid tiers typically offer SLA guarantees, higher rate limits, and dedicated support.
See full profiles: Deezer API · Lyrics.ovh · All Music APIs