Mediastack vs Diffbot: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
Mediastack (3.8/5) edges ahead of Diffbot (3.8/5) overall. Mediastack is the better choice for hobby projects and low-volume apps on a tight budget. Diffbot is the stronger option for teams building custom news collection from chosen sites. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
Mediastack vs Diffbot: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | Mediastack | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2015 | 2008 |
| HQ | Vienna, Austria (apilayer); owned by Idera | Menlo Park, California, USA |
| Team size | Part of Idera | 11–50 |
| Rating | 3.8 / 5 | 3.8 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Paid plans from $24.99 with commercial use and historical data | Turns any article URL into clean structured data linked to a Knowledge Graph |
| Pricing model | Monthly request plans | Monthly credit plans |
| Entry price | $24.99/mo | $299/mo |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON | REST API, JSON, Python SDK |
| Typical uses | News & content apps, Marketing & PR | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia, Marketing & PR, Financial services |
Mediastack vs Diffbot: overview
Mediastack
Mediastack is one of the apilayer products, alongside ipstack and weatherstack. apilayer was founded in Vienna in 2015 by Julian and Paul Zehetmayr and acquired by the US software group Idera in January 2021. The API aggregates live and historical news from 7,500+ sources in 13 languages, filtered by country, category, language and keyword. The free plan allows 100 requests a month, and paid plans run from $24.99 for 10,000 requests to $249.99 for 250,000. Its source list is far smaller than the big crawlers here, and it adds no enrichment beyond basic metadata.
Diffbot
Diffbot was founded in 2008 by Mike Tung and is based in Menlo Park, California, with an estimated 30–40 employees. It uses computer vision and NLP to extract structured articles from any web page, and its Knowledge Graph links articles to organisations, people and topics so it can be queried as a news source. A free plan includes 10,000 credits at five calls a minute, the Startup plan costs $299 a month for 250,000 credits, and exporting one Knowledge Graph entity costs 25 credits. Teams that want to assemble their own news collection get more from it than teams wanting a ready-made feed.
Features: Mediastack vs Diffbot
| Capability | Mediastack | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✗ | ✓ |
| Historical archive | ✓ | ✓ |
| NLP enrichment | ✗ | ✓ |
| Story/event clustering | ✗ | ✗ |
| Licensed publisher content | ✗ | ✗ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: Mediastack vs Diffbot
| Format / SDK | Mediastack | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | N/A | ✓ |
| Node.js SDK | N/A | N/A |
| Webhooks | N/A | N/A |
| WebSocket | N/A | N/A |
| MCP server | N/A | N/A |
| S3/bulk delivery | N/A | N/A |
| BigQuery | N/A | N/A |
Pricing comparison: Mediastack vs Diffbot
| Criterion | Mediastack | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $24.99/mo | $299/mo |
| Pricing model | Monthly request plans | Monthly credit plans |
| Access models | Free tier, Monthly plans | Free tier, Monthly plans, Enterprise contract |
| Price transparency | Public price | Public price |
| Price tier | Budget | Mid-market |
Who each API suits: Mediastack vs Diffbot
| Dimension | Mediastack | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | News & content apps, Marketing & PR | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia, Marketing & PR |
| Example use cases | A news ticker or category feed for a small website. A learning project that needs commercial rights cheaply. | Monitoring a fixed list of niche publications. Enriching articles with company and people data. |
| How you get access | Free tier | Free tier |
Mediastack vs Diffbot: pros and cons
| Mediastack | |
|---|---|
| + | One of the cheapest paid entries among general news APIs, at $24.99 a month |
| + | Same conventions as other apilayer APIs, which helps if you already use one |
| + | Historical news included on paid plans |
| + | Short docs with copy-paste examples |
| - | Only 7,500 sources and 13 languages |
| - | The free plan is 100 requests a month, which runs out in a day of testing |
| - | Descriptions only, with no full text, sentiment or entities |
| Diffbot | |
|---|---|
| + | Extraction handles almost any news layout without custom parsers |
| + | The Knowledge Graph connects coverage to companies and people |
| + | A free plan with 10,000 credits and no card |
| + | Crawlbot can follow the specific publishers you pick |
| - | Knowledge Graph exports cost 25 credits per entity, which adds up |
| - | You assemble the news feed yourself instead of receiving one |
| - | The $299 Startup plan is high for small projects |
Who should choose Mediastack?
A typical fit: a news ticker or category feed for a small website.
Paid plans from $24.99 with commercial use and historical data. Paid access starts at $24.99/mo. Typical uses: News & content apps, Marketing & PR.
Who should choose Diffbot?
A typical fit: monitoring a fixed list of niche publications.
Turns any article URL into clean structured data linked to a Knowledge Graph. Paid access starts at $299/mo. Typical uses: AI & LLM apps, Research & academia, Marketing & PR, Financial services.
Decision matrix: Mediastack vs Diffbot
| Your situation | Recommended choice |
|---|---|
| You want to start free before paying | Both |
| Your budget is at the lower end | Mediastack |
| You need full article text in the response | Diffbot |
| You need years of historical news | Both |
| You need licensed premium or wire content | Neither; look at Factiva, AP or LexisNexis |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Both work through plain REST calls |
Use case fit: Mediastack vs Diffbot
| Use case | Mediastack fit | Diffbot fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| News & content apps | Strong | Limited | Mediastack |
| Marketing & PR | Strong | Strong | Both equally |
| AI & LLM apps | Limited | Strong | Diffbot |
| Research & academia | Limited | Strong | Diffbot |
| Financial services | Limited | Strong | Diffbot |
Verdict: Mediastack vs Diffbot
Mediastack (3.8/5) is the stronger overall choice as a news data source. Paid plans from $24.99 with commercial use and historical data.
Diffbot (3.8/5) is worth a look if you need enriching articles with company and people data. If your situation matches that, Diffbot is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
Mediastack vs Diffbot FAQ
Is Mediastack better than Diffbot?
Mediastack (3.8/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. Mediastack's strongest advantage: one of the cheapest paid entries among general news APIs, at $24.99 a month. Diffbot's strongest advantage: extraction handles almost any news layout without custom parsers.
How do Mediastack and Diffbot differ in pricing?
Mediastack: monthly request plans, with paid access from $24.99/mo. Diffbot: monthly credit plans, with paid access from $299/mo. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: Mediastack or Diffbot?
Diffbot sells enterprise contracts with negotiated volume and SLA terms. Neither carries licensed publisher content, so check copyright terms before republishing anything.
What are the main differences between Mediastack and Diffbot?
What sets Mediastack apart: paid plans from $24.99 with commercial use and historical data. What sets Diffbot apart: turns any article URL into clean structured data linked to a Knowledge Graph. They also differ on entry price ($24.99/mo vs $299/mo) and typical uses (News & content apps, Marketing & PR vs AI & LLM apps, Research & academia).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.