Perigon vs Mediastack: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
Perigon (4.5/5) edges ahead of Mediastack (3.8/5) overall. Perigon is the better choice for indie developers and startups wanting enriched data at a known price. Mediastack is the stronger option for low-traffic sites needing a cheap commercial headline feed. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
Perigon vs Mediastack: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | Perigon | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2022 | 2015 |
| HQ | Austin, Texas, USA | Vienna, Austria (apilayer); owned by Idera |
| Team size | 11–50 | Part of Idera |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 3.8 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Entity, topic and cluster data from the $25 plan up, with all tiers priced publicly | Commercial use and historical news from $24.99 a month |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans; add-ons for real-time and volume | Monthly request plans |
| Entry price | $25/mo | $24.99/mo |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON, Python SDK | REST API, JSON |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring, Risk & compliance, Marketing & PR | News & content apps, Marketing & PR |
Perigon vs Mediastack: overview
Perigon
Perigon is an Austin, Texas startup founded in 2022 by Joshua Dziabiak and Josh Rickel, backed by a $5 million seed round that LiveOak Ventures led in February 2024. For developers its main draw is that the pricing page tells you what you will pay: Individual at $25 a month for personal use, Startup at $250 with limited commercial rights, and Commercial at $1,250 with real-time data, an SLA and SSO. Every tier returns enriched articles with entities, topics, summaries and story clusters from 230,000+ sources (per company website; independently unverifiable), and Monitors let you save a query and get matches on a schedule. Plan for the delay: below Commercial, data lags by an hour unless you pay for the real-time add-on.
Mediastack
Mediastack belongs to apilayer, the Vienna company behind ipstack and weatherstack, which Julian and Paul Zehetmayr founded in 2015 and the US software group Idera bought in January 2021. If you already use another apilayer API, the key format, parameters and error codes will look familiar. It covers live and historical news from 7,500+ sources in 13 languages, with filters for country, category, language and keyword. The free plan gives 100 requests a month, which a day of testing can use up, and paid plans run from $24.99 for 10,000 requests to $249.99 for 250,000. Responses carry descriptions and metadata, without full text or enrichment.
Features: Perigon vs Mediastack
| Capability | Perigon | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✓ | ✗ |
| Historical archive | ✓ | ✓ |
| NLP enrichment | ✓ | ✗ |
| Story/event clustering | ✓ | ✗ |
| Official SDK | ✓ | ✗ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✓ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: Perigon vs Mediastack
| Format / SDK | Perigon | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | ✓ | N/A |
| Node.js SDK | ✓ | N/A |
| Webhooks | ✓ | 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: Perigon vs Mediastack
| Criterion | Perigon | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $25/mo | $24.99/mo |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans; add-ons for real-time and volume | Monthly request plans |
| Access models | Free trial, Monthly plans, Enterprise contract | Free tier, Monthly plans |
| Price transparency | Public price | Public price |
| Price tier | Budget | Budget |
Who each API suits: Perigon vs Mediastack
| Dimension | Perigon | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring, Risk & compliance | News & content apps, Marketing & PR |
| Example use cases | A startup MVP that needs commercial rights from the first month. Alerting on a brand or topic without building a scheduler. | A category news feed on a small website. Classroom projects that need commercial terms. |
| How you get access | Free trial | Free tier |
Perigon vs Mediastack: pros and cons
| Perigon | |
|---|---|
| + | The cheapest plan already includes enrichment, which most rivals reserve for higher tiers |
| + | Monitors replace a cron job and a diffing script with a saved query |
| + | Python and Node SDKs, plus webhooks for pushed results |
| + | The license explains what you may do with the structured data, which saves a round of legal questions |
| - | Data lags by an hour below the $1,250 plan unless you buy real-time |
| - | The Startup tier caps you at 10,000 requests a month |
| - | Republishing full article text is outside the license |
| Mediastack | |
|---|---|
| + | Among the lowest paid entry prices for general news |
| + | Shares conventions with the other apilayer APIs |
| + | History included on paid plans |
| + | Short docs with copy-paste code |
| - | 100 free requests a month barely covers testing |
| - | Only 7,500 sources in 13 languages |
| - | No full text, entities or sentiment |
Who should choose Perigon?
A typical fit: a startup MVP that needs commercial rights from the first month.
Entity, topic and cluster data from the $25 plan up, with all tiers priced publicly. Paid access starts at $25/mo. Typical uses: AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring, Risk & compliance, Marketing & PR.
Who should choose Mediastack?
A typical fit: a category news feed on a small website.
Commercial use and historical news from $24.99 a month. Paid access starts at $24.99/mo. Typical uses: News & content apps, Marketing & PR.
Decision matrix: Perigon vs Mediastack
| 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 | Perigon |
| You need years of historical news | Both |
| You want an official SDK | Perigon |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Perigon |
Use case fit: Perigon vs Mediastack
| Use case | Perigon fit | Mediastack fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI & LLM apps | Strong | Limited | Perigon |
| Media monitoring | Strong | Limited | Perigon |
| Risk & compliance | Strong | Limited | Perigon |
| Marketing & PR | Strong | Strong | Both equally |
| News & content apps | Limited | Strong | Mediastack |
Verdict: Perigon vs Mediastack
Perigon (4.5/5) is the stronger overall choice as a news data source. Entity, topic and cluster data from the $25 plan up, with all tiers priced publicly.
Mediastack (3.8/5) is worth a look if you need classroom projects that need commercial terms. If your situation matches that, Mediastack is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
Perigon vs Mediastack FAQ
Is Perigon better than Mediastack?
Perigon (4.5/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. Perigon's strongest advantage: the cheapest plan already includes enrichment, which most rivals reserve for higher tiers. Mediastack's strongest advantage: among the lowest paid entry prices for general news.
How do Perigon and Mediastack differ in pricing?
Perigon: monthly plans; add-ons for real-time and volume, with paid access from $25/mo. Mediastack: monthly request plans, with paid access from $24.99/mo. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: Perigon or Mediastack?
Perigon 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 Perigon and Mediastack?
What sets Perigon apart: Entity, topic and cluster data from the $25 plan up, with all tiers priced publicly. What sets Mediastack apart: commercial use and historical news from $24.99 a month. They also differ on entry price ($25/mo vs $24.99/mo) and typical uses (AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring vs News & content apps, Marketing & PR).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.