Developer Lists 12 Free Public APIs for Side Projects, Each With a Live Sandbox

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A developer argues that common placeholder data such as jsonplaceholder or hardcoded dummy objects makes side projects feel unrealistic, and that finding free APIs without credit cards or complex OAuth is difficult. To address this, the article curates 12 free, developer-friendly REST APIs that can reportedly be integrated in under five minutes. Each entry covers a suggested use case, its authentication requirements, and key features, along with a code example and a link to a live sandbox. Examples include TMDB for movie and media data, Pexels for photos, Open-Meteo for weather without any API key, and CoinGecko for cryptocurrency prices. The piece is a practical resource aimed at frontend developers building portfolios, prototypes, or hackathon projects.

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