How to Use The Stock Market Data Provider API with Javascript

‍

Javascript is a popular language for developers that are working on fintech and investment applications. It’s one of the core programming languages behind most websites and web-apps that you use every day. 

Many fintech apps involve displaying financial and stock information in pleasing ways to end users and investors. Whether via a web application, a mobile application, or through software, JavaScript is a great way to design sticky and beautiful user interfaces to keep you users coming back for more. 

If you’re planning to build an investment or fintech interface with Javascript, it’s likely that you’ll need to find a good stock market API to get access to financial data. Many developers use APIs like this to chart stock prices, display options contract strategies, graph a company’s expenses, rank ESG scores, and more.

Developers that are just getting started need to keep costs low, and are on the lookout for a free stock market API in Javascript so they can keep costs low as they build out their MVP. In this blog, we’ll tell you how to get a free stock market API in Javascript, the limitations, and other more reliable options that you have.

‍

How to Get Free Stock Market API in JavaScript

One of the only ways to get access to completely free Stock Market data is by web scraping. Tens of thousands of websites display this data on their sites and you can develop systems to periodically scrape and pull that data into a database. The major limitation of this method is that it doesn’t include an API - it’ll require some programmatic lifting on your end. 

There are also several projects in Github that offer “free” stock data as well, and they do come with APIs. Newer companies like AlphaVantage offer an API in Javascript that is “free.

‍

Why to Be Wary of “Free” Stock APIs in JavaScript

If you are just getting started writing your first lines of code and have an extremely limited budget, you might not have much choice - you’ll need to scrape data from the web or go with a super new, cheap provider.

However - you should be extremely wary of these options. Scraping data from the web is neither reliable nor accurate. You have no control over the source of the data, and if anything changes on the web pages you are pulling from, you’ll have to do some major maintenance. Setting up a scraping system takes time, and skill, and is not sustainable if you are building a real app, business, or trading strategy. It’s also likely that you are violating the terms of service of the websites you are scraping from, which puts your project in jeopardy. You may end up spending more time with the integration than focusing on your own UI and app.

Cheaper providers like AlphaVantage are also “too good to be true”. It takes time, money, and resources to source, clean, monitor, maintain, document, support, and deliver stock data. No reliable business can afford to give a stock market API away for free. Be wary of providers that are super cheap or “free”; you’re likely to find the data quality, support, and resources to be unreliable. If you put inaccurate or inconsistent data inside of your app or UI, your customers won’t trust you.

‍

Get Reliable, Affordable Stock Market API in JavaScript via Intrinio

Intrinio was founded by developers who went through all of these same steps in the hunt for a free stock market API in Javascript. We built Intrinio so that fintech app developers could get access to affordable and reliable stock market APIs. 

It may not be free, but it’s something you can rely on as you scale up your platform. We offer a Starter Plan for just $100/month that comes with fundamental data, stock price data, and more. It is powered by an industry-leading API, full documentation - and - a software development kit (SDK) in JavaScript! This means that when you subscribe, you can copy and paste just a few lines of code and get stock data flowing through the API in just minutes.

Check out the Intrinio Github page and our Success Stories to see what other people have built with the Intrinio Stock API in JavaScript. Chat with our team today to get a free trial and start building something beautiful. We can’t wait to see it!

‍