Provider shortlist
Licence and SLA findings come from each vendor's own terms and pricing pages, read on 3 November 2026. They are not legal advice. Ask each vendor in writing before launch. Narwhal API is owned and operated by Nusantara Ventures, LLC.
Narwhal API
Customer-facing apps that want a published price per call, with commercial use on Free.
Trading Economics
Broad country data when a distribution agreement is on the table.
Financial Modeling Prep
Wide market data with SOC 2 reports and a public status page, under an Enterprise licence.
EODHD
Teams that want a commercial plan with a stated price and call allowance.
Massive (formerly Polygon.io)
US Treasury, inflation and labor data under a Business plan with display terms.
Compare the options
Best fit is not feature parity. Check the evidence and limitation together.
| Provider | Best for | Evidence checked | Important limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Narwhal API | Customer-facing apps that want a published price per call, with commercial use on Free. | Free is 5,000 calls a month, Basic $59 for 100,000 ($0.59 per 1,000), Pro $149 for 1,000,000 ($0.149). Paid plans carry a 99.5% uptime SLA. At the monthly limit it returns 429 with no overage charge. | The SLA covers paid plans only, and Free allows 30 calls a minute. Economics covers 37 countries. Read the terms on storing and redisplaying results. |
| FRED | Internal analysis and client reports built on public-domain series. | Terms allow non-commercial, educational and personal use. Series labelled Public Domain or Copyrighted with a citation requirement may serve internal commercial uses and appear in client reports with attribution. 120 requests a minute. | Terms ban storing or caching FRED content and require a notice that the product is not endorsed by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. No SLA or uptime figure. |
| Trading Economics | Broad country data when a distribution agreement is on the table. | Standard is $199 a month for 500 requests and one user; Professional $399 for 5,000. Enterprise, up to 1 million requests a month, adds white label and data distribution at a price on request. | No written API licence for app display found for Standard or Professional. 2 requests per second. No uptime or SLA statement; the terms disclaim uninterrupted service. |
| Financial Modeling Prep | Wide market data with SOC 2 reports and a public status page, under an Enterprise licence. | Starter is $29 a month ($19 billed yearly) for 300 calls a minute, Premium $69 ($49) for 750, Ultimate $139 ($99). Terms bar those plans from business use, and showing data to several people needs a separate agreement. | No SLA percentage found. Rate limits rise only on Enterprise, for a fee. The 24 economic indicator series are US series. |
| EODHD | Teams that want a commercial plan with a stated price and call allowance. | Internal use is $399 a month for 100,000 calls a day and 1,000 a minute, with no display outside the company. Enterprise is $2,499 a month with unlimited daily calls, 5 seats and a data services agreement. | External display on Enterprise or Custom is not stated on any page read. No published SLA; the terms promise commercially reasonable efforts. Out of calls returns HTTP 402. |
| Twelve Data | FX and market quotes with a clear display tier and a stated SLA. | Venture adds external display data access from $149 a month (610 credits a minute). Enterprise at $1,099 adds external distribution and lists a 99.99% SLA. Ultra lists 99.95%. | No economic data or calendar. The terms say 99.9% where the pricing page says 99.95% and 99.99%. Grow data cannot be stored and Basic data cannot be shown to users. |
| Massive (formerly Polygon.io) | US Treasury, inflation and labor data under a Business plan with display terms. | Economy data is in all plans. Individual plans are for personal, non-business use. Business terms allow display to authorized and edge users inside your own products, with no redistribution. Stocks Business lists at $2,499 a month. | An SLA applies only if an order form says so, though its stocks page claims 99.99% uptime. The economy data covers the US only. |
| Finnhub | Estimates and calendar data, once a commercial agreement is signed. | Standard plans on the pricing page are labelled personal use: Free at 60 calls a minute, data plans from about $50 a month and All-In-One at $3,500 a month billed annually. The terms bar business use, even internal, and redistribution without written approval. | No commercial price is published; the route is sales. Its home page claims 99.99% uptime with an SLA for enterprise clients. |
Choose by requirement
Licence to show data to customers
Narwhal says its Free plan includes commercial app use. Twelve Data allows external display from Venture and distribution on Enterprise. Trading Economics ties data distribution to Enterprise, EODHD limits Internal use to the company, FMP and Massive send customer display to Enterprise or Business plans, and Finnhub lists no business plan. FRED allows client reports on some series with attribution. FMP and Finnhub publish no commercial price. Ask any vendor for the display right in writing, naming your use.
Storing results
Lending and budgeting products keep what they show. FRED bans storing, caching and archiving. Twelve Data bars storage beyond documented timeframes, and its Grow data cannot be stored. EODHD charges $200 a month extra on Internal use to download data to a corporate server, a cost included on Enterprise. For Narwhal, the pricing sheet confirms commercial app use but not a storage right, so read the terms before you design a cache.
Price per 1,000 calls
Narwhal Basic is $59 for 100,000 calls, $0.59 per 1,000, and Pro $149 for 1,000,000, $0.149. Trading Economics Standard is $199 for 500 requests, $398 per 1,000, and Professional $399 for 5,000, $79.80. EODHD Internal use at $399, if all 100,000 daily calls are used for 30 days (3,000,000 calls), is $0.133. FMP and Twelve Data meter by minute, so no monthly call price can be computed from their pages.
Uptime and SLA statements
Narwhal states a 99.5% uptime SLA on Basic and Pro, and it does not apply to Free. Twelve Data lists 99.95% on Ultra and 99.99% on Enterprise, while its terms say 99.9% for SLA subscriptions. FMP shows SOC 2 Type I and II reports and a public status page but no SLA percentage. EODHD offers SLAs through sales only. Finnhub claims 99.99% with an SLA for enterprise clients, and Massive gives an SLA only on an order form. Trading Economics and FRED state none.
What happens at the limit
A customer-facing app should degrade gracefully. Narwhal returns 429 quota_exhausted when the month is used, charges no overage, and does not count errors or rate-limit responses. EODHD returns HTTP 402 when calls run out and still charges failed lookups. Twelve Data returns 429 at its minute limit. FMP caps bandwidth over 30 days, with paid add-ons for more. Trading Economics counts 500 or 5,000 requests a month. Narwhal's quota resets at 00:00 UTC on the first of the month.
Countries and indicators customers see
Narwhal covers economics for 37 countries and 144 currencies of FX, with gaps by country. FMP's 24 indicator series and Massive's economy data are US series. EODHD offers annual World Bank series plus an events calendar, and FRED holds 800,000+ series from over 100 sources. Trading Economics describes 196 countries on one page and 232 on another. Twelve Data has no macro data. Check your customers' countries against each list.
Audit trail for lending and treasury
A decision record should show the figure as it stood on the day. Narwhal Pro, at $149 a month, adds first-reported and as-of values. FRED offers vintages through its real-time parameters, though its terms ban caching what you retrieve. Trading Economics offers a point-in-time view of past calendar events. Narwhal Basic keeps 5 years of history and Free 12 months. The other vendors read here did not document a first-reported value on the pages checked.
Support and response times
Narwhal gives email support on Basic and Pro and documentation support on the Free plan. EODHD Internal use lists account manager email support and 24/7 technical support. Twelve Data's terms set response times for SLA customers of 1 hour for critical issues, 4 hours for high and 1 business day for normal. FMP offers chat or ticket support, with priority support on Enterprise. Trading Economics lists Professional Support and Priority Support.
Each detailed provider page lists the first-party documentation used, its evidence boundaries, and its review date. Reviewed: