Quantexa News API (Aylien) vs Mediastack: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
Quantexa News API (Aylien) (3.9/5) edges ahead of Mediastack (3.8/5) overall. Quantexa News API (Aylien) is the better choice for existing Aylien users and Quantexa platform customers. Mediastack is the stronger option for hobby projects and low-volume apps on a tight budget. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
Quantexa News API (Aylien) vs Mediastack: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | Quantexa News API (Aylien) | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 | 2015 |
| HQ | Dublin, Ireland (Aylien); London, UK (Quantexa) | Vienna, Austria (apilayer); owned by Idera |
| Team size | Part of Quantexa | Part of Idera |
| Rating | 3.9 / 5 | 3.8 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Mature entity, category and sentiment tagging inherited from Aylien's NLP work | Paid plans from $24.99 with commercial use and historical data |
| Pricing model | Enterprise subscription; trial available | Monthly request plans |
| Entry price | Custom quote | $24.99/mo |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON, Python SDK | REST API, JSON |
| Typical uses | Financial services, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring | News & content apps, Marketing & PR |
Quantexa News API (Aylien) vs Mediastack: overview
Quantexa News API (Aylien)
Aylien was founded in Dublin in 2012 and built one of the more advanced NLP news APIs, pulling multilingual content from roughly 80,000 sources and tagging it with entities, categories and sentiment. Quantexa, the London decision-intelligence company, acquired Aylien in February 2023 for an undisclosed sum, and the product now goes by Quantexa News Intelligence and Quantexa News API. Quantexa's community forum still advertises a 14-day trial. A competitor, however, reports that new subscribers are being pointed to a customer notice, and Quantexa has published no roadmap for the standalone API.
Mediastack
Mediastack is one of the apilayer products, alongside ipstack and weatherstack. apilayer was founded in Vienna in 2015 by Julian and Paul Zehetmayr and acquired by the US software group Idera in January 2021. The API aggregates live and historical news from 7,500+ sources in 13 languages, filtered by country, category, language and keyword. The free plan allows 100 requests a month, and paid plans run from $24.99 for 10,000 requests to $249.99 for 250,000. Its source list is far smaller than the big crawlers here, and it adds no enrichment beyond basic metadata.
Features: Quantexa News API (Aylien) vs Mediastack
| Capability | Quantexa News API (Aylien) | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✓ | ✗ |
| Historical archive | ✓ | ✓ |
| NLP enrichment | ✓ | ✗ |
| Story/event clustering | ✓ | ✗ |
| Licensed publisher content | ✗ | ✗ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: Quantexa News API (Aylien) vs Mediastack
| Format / SDK | Quantexa News API (Aylien) | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | ✓ | N/A |
| Node.js SDK | ✓ | N/A |
| Webhooks | N/A | 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: Quantexa News API (Aylien) vs Mediastack
| Criterion | Quantexa News API (Aylien) | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Custom quote | $24.99/mo |
| Pricing model | Enterprise subscription; trial available | Monthly request plans |
| Access models | Free trial, Enterprise contract | Free tier, Monthly plans |
| Price transparency | Quote only | Public price |
| Price tier | Enterprise / quote | Budget |
Who each API suits: Quantexa News API (Aylien) vs Mediastack
| Dimension | Quantexa News API (Aylien) | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | Financial services, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring | News & content apps, Marketing & PR |
| Example use cases | Continuing an existing Aylien integration. Risk analytics inside the Quantexa platform. | A news ticker or category feed for a small website. A learning project that needs commercial rights cheaply. |
| How you get access | Free trial | Free tier |
Quantexa News API (Aylien) vs Mediastack: pros and cons
| Quantexa News API (Aylien) | |
|---|---|
| + | Fine-grained taxonomy and entity tagging that data teams rated highly for years |
| + | A natural fit if you already run Quantexa for entity resolution |
| + | Coverage of the deal named Wells Fargo, Fidelity and S&P Global as customers |
| + | A 14-day trial is still listed on Quantexa's community site |
| - | Product direction after the 2023 acquisition is unclear |
| - | The name changed twice, so docs and SDKs are scattered |
| - | Enterprise pricing with no public tiers |
| Mediastack | |
|---|---|
| + | One of the cheapest paid entries among general news APIs, at $24.99 a month |
| + | Same conventions as other apilayer APIs, which helps if you already use one |
| + | Historical news included on paid plans |
| + | Short docs with copy-paste examples |
| - | Only 7,500 sources and 13 languages |
| - | The free plan is 100 requests a month, which runs out in a day of testing |
| - | Descriptions only, with no full text, sentiment or entities |
Who should choose Quantexa News API (Aylien)?
A typical fit: continuing an existing Aylien integration.
Mature entity, category and sentiment tagging inherited from Aylien's NLP work. Paid access is quote-based. Typical uses: Financial services, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring.
Who should choose Mediastack?
A typical fit: a news ticker or category feed for a small website.
Paid plans from $24.99 with commercial use and historical data. Paid access starts at $24.99/mo. Typical uses: News & content apps, Marketing & PR.
Decision matrix: Quantexa News API (Aylien) 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 | Quantexa News API (Aylien) |
| You need years of historical news | Both |
| You need licensed premium or wire content | Neither; look at Factiva, AP or LexisNexis |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Both work through plain REST calls |
Use case fit: Quantexa News API (Aylien) vs Mediastack
| Use case | Quantexa News API (Aylien) fit | Mediastack fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial services | Strong | Limited | Quantexa News API (Aylien) |
| Risk & compliance | Strong | Limited | Quantexa News API (Aylien) |
| Media monitoring | Strong | Limited | Quantexa News API (Aylien) |
| News & content apps | Limited | Strong | Mediastack |
| Marketing & PR | Limited | Strong | Mediastack |
Verdict: Quantexa News API (Aylien) vs Mediastack
Quantexa News API (Aylien) (3.9/5) is the stronger overall choice as a news data source. Mature entity, category and sentiment tagging inherited from Aylien's NLP work.
Mediastack (3.8/5) is worth a look if you need a learning project that needs commercial rights cheaply. If your situation matches that, Mediastack is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
Quantexa News API (Aylien) vs Mediastack FAQ
Is Quantexa News API (Aylien) better than Mediastack?
Quantexa News API (Aylien) (3.9/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. Quantexa News API (Aylien)'s strongest advantage: fine-grained taxonomy and entity tagging that data teams rated highly for years. Mediastack's strongest advantage: one of the cheapest paid entries among general news APIs, at $24.99 a month.
How do Quantexa News API (Aylien) and Mediastack differ in pricing?
Quantexa News API (Aylien): enterprise subscription; trial available, priced by quote. Mediastack: monthly request plans, with paid access from $24.99/mo. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: Quantexa News API (Aylien) or Mediastack?
Quantexa News API (Aylien) 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 Quantexa News API (Aylien) and Mediastack?
What sets Quantexa News API (Aylien) apart: mature entity, category and sentiment tagging inherited from Aylien's NLP work. What sets Mediastack apart: paid plans from $24.99 with commercial use and historical data. They also differ on entry price (Custom quote vs $24.99/mo) and typical uses (Financial services, Risk & compliance vs News & content apps, Marketing & PR).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.