Chronicling America vs REST Countries

Same instrument, two spec sheets — measured, not claimed.

Uptime · 30d
Uptime · 90d—%—%
Uptime · 30d—%—%
P50 · ms
P95 · ms
Authnonenone
CORSnoyes
HTTPSyesyes
Card requirednono
Commercial useyesyes
Data licensePublic domain / no known copyright (Library of Congress)MPL-2.0
Free tierFree — public-domain collection dataUnlimited
Rate limitLoC throttles heavy crawling (see LoC API policy)None published
In directory since2026-07-052026-05-02
operationalpartialdownno data

Chronicling America vs REST Countries: common questions

Which is more reliable, Chronicling America or REST Countries?

On our scheduled checks, REST Countries leads on measured uptime — Chronicling America at —% versus REST Countries at —% over 90 days. These are our own probe results, not provider claims; the uptime bars above show the day-by-day record for both.

Do Chronicling America and REST Countries need an API key?

Neither needs a paid key — Chronicling America is callable with no signup, and REST Countries is callable with no signup. Both are quick to prototype with; rate limits still apply.

Can I call Chronicling America and REST Countries from the browser?

Only REST Countries is browser-friendly — it returns CORS headers over HTTPS. Chronicling America needs a server-side call or proxy, so factor that into which one fits a front-end project.

Are Chronicling America and REST Countries free for commercial use?

Chronicling America allows commercial use on its free tier, and REST Countries allows commercial use on its free tier. We track service terms and the data license as separate fields — see the Commercial use and Data license rows above, and confirm both before shipping either in a paid product.