{"id":7543,"date":"2020-04-09T12:32:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T07:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedevcouple.com\/?p=7543"},"modified":"2020-06-09T14:17:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T09:17:42","slug":"ipapi-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedevcouple.com\/ipapi-review\/","title":{"rendered":"IPAPI Review \u2013\u00a0Location, Timezone, Security Data All In One Place"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are thousands of courses out on the Internet right now. Some of these courses are on platforms like <\/span>Coursera<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Pluralsight<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Frontend Masters<\/span><\/a>, etc. But there are still developers who prefer to have their course on a separate learning management system. By doing this they can offer different discounts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of these developers use geolocation APIs to get their visitor\u2019s locations and then offer them a discount accordingly. This is one of the many benefits of geolocation APIs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the wide variety of these APIs, there exists a geolocation API that not only provides you with the location of your customer but also with the currency, timezone in their location. I am talking about none other than <\/span>IPAPI<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, I am going to share my thoughts about IPAPI and I will also show you how it works, what are the different features it provides. We will also take a dive into its performance. So without any further ado, let\u2019s jump in! \ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffb<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cover\"<\/p>\n

\u26a1\ufe0f IPAPI<\/b><\/h2>\n

Originally developed as part of an internal IP address validation and lookup tool, <\/span>IPAPI<\/span><\/a> is another flagship product of API Layer. The company was founded by Paul <\/span>Zehetmayr<\/span><\/a> who is also the man behind <\/span>ipstack<\/span><\/a>, another powerful geolocation API. To this point, IPAPI has helped more than 30,000 businesses worldwide to gain control over their audience and deliver user experience and content at an unparalleled speed and quality.<\/span><\/p>\n

IPAPI<\/span><\/a> provides a lot of useful information to its users. This information mostly revolves around the location, timezone, currency, and the connection and security of the visitor. The information is extremely detailed which means that you are not only getting the location of your audience but also getting their continent, country, region, city, ZIP Code, latitude, longitudes, and whatnot. \ud83e\udd42<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"Ipapi<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\ud83d\udcbb Experimenting with the API<\/b><\/h2>\n

Now I will take a deep dive into this API by making a call to it using JavaScript and in the process showing you how it works.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2192 Step #1<\/b><\/h3>\n

The first and foremost step is to open the <\/span>IPAPI<\/span><\/a> website. After you have done it, select <\/span>pricing<\/b> from the navigation bar. It will take you to a page that will show different features of the API associated with different prices. I am using the free version of the API for this extensive review. You can choose whatever plan that suits you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once you have successfully signed up, you will be directed to a dashboard where you can easily see your API access key. Copy it! \ud83d\udcaf<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"Ipapi<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2192 Step #2<\/b><\/h3>\n

The next step is to write a small program. I have already done that part and you can see it in the gist below. I have also added the response you will receive in the gist if you are too using the free version of the API.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Make sure you understand that the response you will receive will be somewhat different from mine since it would be according to the region you are currently residing in.<\/span><\/p>\n

\/\/ importing axios\nconst axios = require('axios');\n\n\/\/ making the API call\n(async () => {\n    await axios\n        .get('http:\/\/api.ipapi.com\/182.185.176.244?access_key=YOUR_API_ACCESS_TOKEN&format=1')\n        .then(({ data }) => console.log(data))\n        .catch((err) => console.log(err));\n})();\n\n\/\/ response I received\n\n{ ip: '182.185.176.244',\n  type: 'ipv4',\n  continent_code: 'AS',\n  continent_name: 'Asia',\n  country_code: 'PK',\n  country_name: 'Pakistan',\n  region_code: 'PB',\n  region_name: 'Punjab',\n  city: 'Lahore',\n  zip: '54000',\n  latitude: 24.882999420166016,\n  longitude: 67.05799865722656,\n  location:\n\n   { geoname_id: 1174872,\n     capital: 'Islamabad',\n     languages: [ { code: 'en', name: 'English', native: 'English' },\n                 { code: 'ur', name: 'Urdu', native: '\u0627\u0631\u062f\u0648', rtl: 1 } ],\n     country_flag: 'http:\/\/assets.ipapi.com\/flags\/pk.svg',\n     country_flag_emoji: '\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf0',\n     country_flag_emoji_unicode: 'U+1F1F5 U+1F1F0',\n     calling_code: '92',\n     is_eu: false }\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n
\ud83d\ude80 Features<\/b><\/h2>\n
IPAPI free plan lets you access all the geolocation data of the visitor looking up at your website. This is extremely beneficial if you are interested in getting only this information.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Now I am going to break down the information I received when I made the API to IPAPI free version. I am going to discuss each of them in detail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n