ipstack Alternative — Free IP Geolocation API with Geographic Data

ipstack is one of the most widely recommended IP geolocation APIs — but its free tier is nearly unusable and it doesn't include geographic data. Here's what you get with ApogeoAPI instead.

What Is ipstack?

ipstack is a dedicated IP geolocation API with 45+ billion IP records. It returns country, region, city, zip, timezone, and connection information. Paid plans start at $9.99/month. The free plan allows 100 requests/month over HTTP only — no HTTPS, which makes it impractical for any real application.

ipstack Limitations

• HTTP only on free tier: HTTPS requires a paid plan — this is a dealbreaker for most production apps.
• 100 requests/month free: Less than 4 requests per day.
• IP geolocation only: No country data, no states, no cities, no exchange rates.
• Paid from $9.99/month: For 50,000 IP-only requests — you still need separate APIs for geographic data.

ApogeoAPI vs ipstack

Feature	ipstack	ApogeoAPI
IP Geolocation	✅	✅
HTTPS on free tier	❌	✅
Countries data	❌	✅
States/cities	❌	✅
Exchange rates	❌	✅
Free tier	100 req/mo, HTTP only	14-day full trial

Code Comparison

// ipstack
const res = await fetch(
  'http://api.ipstack.com/134.201.250.155?access_key=YOUR_KEY' // HTTP only on free
);

// ApogeoAPI — same data + currency + timezone, HTTPS on all tiers
const res = await fetch(
  'https://api.apogeoapi.com/v1/geolocate/134.201.250.155',
  { headers: { 'X-API-Key': 'YOUR_KEY' } }
);
// Returns: country_code, country_name, region, city, timezone, currency, lat, lon

When ipstack Is Still the Right Choice

ipstack has enterprise plans with very high volume limits and dedicated support. If you need 100M+ IP lookups per month and only care about IP data, ipstack's enterprise tier might be appropriate.

How to Migrate from ipstack

Change the base URL from api.ipstack.com/{ip}?access_key=KEY to api.apogeoapi.com/v1/geolocate/{ip} with an X-API-Key header. Field names are similar: country_code, city, region_name → region.