FlightAPI.io alternative: history and timing instead of per-call live search
FlightAPI.io gives you a live search result and bills per call, which is the right shape when you need today’s itineraries and the wrong shape when the real question is whether today’s fare is worth taking. Piratefly answers that second question over price history we observe and store ourselves, with a free tier and one flat price. It returns no itineraries.
What Piratefly does not do
No live search, no itineraries, no airlines or flight numbers, no booking links, no round-trip legs. We are not affiliated with FlightAPI.io. What we have is a long observation history of real fares on real routes, and a verdict built on it.
What maps across, and what does not
| What you used FlightAPI.io for | Piratefly |
|---|---|
| Today’s itineraries with airline and times | Not covered. Piratefly returns no flights, only what fares on that route have looked like. |
| Cheapest fare right now | GET /v1/analisi returns the cheapest fare we have observed today, with the route’s median and minimum next to it. |
| Is that number actually cheap? | A percentile over that route’s own history, plus a verdict (buy / wait / your call) — the judgement a search result cannot give you. |
| Price calendar across months | The same response ranks months by median fare, with the sample size behind each one. |
| How far ahead to book | anticipoConsigliato is the booking window that has historically come out cheapest on that route. |
| Billing: per call, from the first call | 30 requests/day per IP with no key at all; $9.99/month flat removes the cap, card or USDC, key issued immediately. |
One call, no key
Cities by name, not IATA codes. This is a real response from the live API:
curl "https://next.piratefly.com/v1/analisi?origine=Stockholm&destinazione=Rome"{
"origine": "Stockholm",
"destinazione": "Rome",
"valuta": "EUR",
"verdetto": {
"livello": "ottimo",
"percentile": 9,
"medianaCent": 5600,
"minimoCent": 2500,
"campione": 23
},
"mesiPerConvenienza": [
{ "mese": 8, "medianaCent": 5900, "campione": 33 },
{ "mese": 10, "medianaCent": 8900, "campione": 74 }
],
"anticipoConsigliato": { "daGiorni": 56, "aGiorni": 83, "medianaCent": 5800 },
"osservazioni": 169
}Reading the response
percentile is where today’s cheapest fare sits in that route’s own history (9 = cheaper than 91% of everything we have seen), campione is how many observations that verdict rests on, mesiPerConvenienza ranks months by median fare, and anticipoConsigliato is the booking window that has historically come out cheapest. Prices are cents, EUR.
Try it, then decide
The free tier needs no account: paste the URL above in a browser. When 30 calls a day stops being enough, the Pro plan is on the API page.
Can I use both?
That is the common shape: a search API for the itineraries your user books, Piratefly for whether the fare it found is worth taking. The two answers do not overlap.
Do I need an account or an approval to start?
No. The free tier is 30 requests per day per IP with no key and no signup. Pro is $9.99/month for no daily cap, paid by card on Stripe or in USDC on Solana, with the key handed back immediately.
How many routes are covered?
We cover the routes we observe continuously, and we never show a verdict on fewer than 8 observations. Ask for a route we do not have and you get an honest empty answer, not an invented one.