Jikan (MyAnimeList) vs TVmaze
Category: Entertainment · Updated August 2026
Both Jikan (MyAnimeList) (No key, 3 requests/second and 60/minute, no credit card) and TVmaze (No key, ~20 calls per 10 seconds, no credit card) offer comparable free tiers. Both show similar reliability — Jikan (MyAnimeList) at 100% uptime and TVmaze at 100% uptime over 30 days. For most use cases either will work; your choice can come down to feature depth or ecosystem preference.
Side-by-side comparison
Jikan (MyAnimeList)
Unofficial but well-maintained REST wrapper over MyAnimeList, serving anime and manga metadata, rankings, and seasonal charts without the OAuth dance MAL's own API requires.
| Status | 🟢 Online |
| 30-day uptime | 100% |
| Response time | 390 ms |
| Free tier | No key, 3 requests/second and 60/minute, no credit card |
| Auth | No key required |
| Tier score | 1.0 — no friction |
TVmaze
TV show and episode database with air dates, cast, and full episode lists. No key at all for the public endpoints, which makes it the fastest way to prototype a TV-tracking app.
| Status | 🟢 Online |
| 30-day uptime | 100% |
| Response time | 338 ms |
| Free tier | No key, ~20 calls per 10 seconds, no credit card |
| Auth | No key required |
| Tier score | 1.0 — no friction |
Which to choose?
- Pick Jikan (MyAnimeList) if…you want zero friction — no account, no key, just call the endpoint. Also good if entertainment data without signup is a hard requirement.
- Pick TVmaze if…you want zero friction — no account, no key, just call the endpoint. Also good if entertainment data without signup is a hard requirement.
- Use both if…one goes down — they serve the same entertainment use case from different data sources, so you can implement a quick fallback.
Or use these alternatives
Other top-ranked Entertainment APIs you might consider:
- Rick and Morty API — 🟢 Online · 10,000 req/day, no key, no credit card
- TMDB (The Movie Database) — 🟢 Online · Free key, unlimited for non-commercial use; commercial needs a license
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Jikan (MyAnimeList) or TVmaze more reliable?
Both Jikan (MyAnimeList) and TVmaze 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 — Jikan (MyAnimeList) or TVmaze?
Both have comparable free tiers. Jikan (MyAnimeList) offers No key, 3 requests/second and 60/minute, no credit card and TVmaze offers No key, ~20 calls per 10 seconds, no credit card. The right choice depends on your specific call volume and auth preferences.
Can I use Jikan (MyAnimeList) and TVmaze 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 Jikan (MyAnimeList) and TVmaze fail?
Paid alternatives vary by category. For Entertainment APIs, most commercial providers start at $10–$50/month for reasonable call volumes. See the detail pages for Jikan (MyAnimeList) and TVmaze for their respective recommended paid upgrades.
See full profiles: Jikan (MyAnimeList) · TVmaze · All Entertainment APIs