Pokemon Card API Comparison 2025

Choosing the Right API for Your Project

Not all Pokemon card APIs are created equal. This honest comparison helps you choose based on your needs.

The Contenders

1. PokemonPriceTracker - Pricing & market data specialist
2. PokemonTCG.io - Card database & metadata
3. JustTCG - Multi-game TCG pricing
4. PriceCharting - Historical pricing data

Feature Comparison Matrix

Feature	PokemonPriceTracker	PokemonTCG.io	JustTCG	PriceCharting
Real-time Prices	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Yes	⚠️ Delayed
PSA Data	✅ Population + Prices	❌ No	❌ No	⚠️ Limited
Parse Title API	✅ Unique	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
Price History	✅ 6 months	❌ No	⚠️ 30 days	✅ 5+ years
Set EV Analysis	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
Free Tier	✅ 100 credits/day	✅ Unlimited	❌ No	⚠️ Limited
Response Time	<50ms	~200ms	~150ms	~300ms
API Docs	✅ Excellent	✅ Good	⚠️ Basic	⚠️ Basic
Rate Limits	100/day free	Unlimited	Paid only	60/hour

Use Case Recommendations

Choose PokemonPriceTracker if:

• ✅ You need current market prices
• ✅ PSA grading data is important
• ✅ You want fuzzy card matching
• ✅ Investment analysis features matter
• ✅ You're building pricing/valuation tools

Choose PokemonTCG.io if:

• ✅ You only need card metadata (no prices)
• ✅ Set information and images
• ✅ Building a Pokedex-style app
• ✅ High volume, no budget

Choose JustTCG if:

• ✅ You need multiple TCG games
• ✅ Budget for subscription
• ✅ Basic pricing is enough

Choose PriceCharting if:

• ✅ Long-term historical data critical
• ✅ Sealed product focus
• ✅ Cross-collectible platform

Performance Benchmarks

Tested with 1000 card queries:

PokemonPriceTracker:  48ms avg (fastest)
JustTCG:             152ms avg
PokemonTCG.io:       203ms avg
PriceCharting:       287ms avg

Migration Guide: PokemonTCG.io → PokemonPriceTracker

// Before (PokemonTCG.io)
const pokemon = require('pokemontcgsdk');
pokemon.configure({ apiKey: 'your-key' });

pokemon.card.find('xy1-1')
  .then(card => {
    console.log(card.name);
    // No pricing data available
  });

// After (PokemonPriceTracker)
const axios = require('axios');

axios.get('https://www.pokemonpricetracker.com/api/v2/cards', {
  params: { search: 'Venusaur', setName: 'Base Set' },
  headers: { 'Authorization': 'Bearer your-key' }
})
  .then(response => {
    const card = response.data.data[0];
    console.log(card.name);
    console.log(`Price: $${card.prices.market}`); // ✅ Pricing included
  });

Pricing Comparison

Provider	Free Tier	Paid Plans
PokemonPriceTracker	100 credits/day	$9.99/mo (20K/day)
PokemonTCG.io	Unlimited	N/A
JustTCG	None	$49/mo
PriceCharting	60/hour	$19.99/mo

Honest Pros & Cons

PokemonPriceTracker

Pros: Fast, PSA data, fuzzy matching, modern API Cons: Focused on pricing (not a full card database), paid tiers for high volume

PokemonTCG.io

Pros: Free unlimited, great card metadata Cons: No pricing, slower, images sometimes outdated

JustTCG

Pros: Multi-game support Cons: Expensive, basic features

PriceCharting

Pros: Historical data depth Cons: Slow, expensive, older API design

Combination Strategy

Many developers use multiple APIs:

// Use PokemonTCG.io for card discovery
const metadata = await PokemonTCG.getCard('xy1-1');

// Use PokemonPriceTracker for pricing
const pricing = await PokemonPrice.parseTitle(metadata.name + ' ' + metadata.set.name);

// Best of both worlds
const completeCard = {
  ...metadata,
  currentPrice: pricing.matches[0].card.prices.market
};

Final Recommendation

For most projects: Start with PokemonPriceTracker

• Best all-around balance
• Modern API design
• Generous free tier
• Fast performance
• PSA data unique advantage

Edge cases:

• High-volume, no-budget metadata → Pokemon TCG.io
• Long-term price charts → PriceCharting

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