They've been offering this as a free database download for a while. Looks like what's new is offering it as a free API too. But the database download is more efficient, more reliable, and doesn't require providing IPs to a third party; so one might want to stick with that.
I work for IPinfo. Thank you for raising a great point.
Integrations and maintenance were major issues when it came to users using the IP database. Usage of our IP database in software and platforms where data download facilities, maintainability (updating the database at regular intervals), and using an MMDB reader library were issues that were stopping us from universal adoption. For example, search/SIEM/threat intel platforms, distributed systems, firewall applications etc.
So, we just decided to launch an API to complement our data downloads. It is easier to use, and the unlimited requests make it a strong candidate.
We are rebuilding our backend in Rust and also developing a bulk enrichment API endpoint. The intention of the API system is to replicate the performance and features you get from a local database, with ease of use and minimal friction. Of course, the API is competing against the local database and will never be perfect, but I have to admit that using the IP database, particularly the binary database, and maintaining it is not as easy as using an API service.
Unlimited free seems great!
I'm also building an IP Geolocation service with a generously free tier. I focus on DX and simplicity: https://ip-sonar.com - still in build phase, but the API is working.
If you need more than country level data, these folks become very expensive very quickly.
Many providers are orders of magnitude cheaper. I run one of them - https://iplocate.io - but there are plenty of other high quality and affordable services.
We and many others use the same techniques too. This is a concept introduced 20 years ago, and RIPE Atlas/IPmap has been a public implementation of this idea for the last decade or so.
(However, the vast majority of IPs can't be geolocated in this way, and there are caveats to those that can be.)
In any case, the difficulty with all providers in this space is how you prove accuracy at scale. If we assume some provider has some proprietary technique that nets 100% accuracy, that's great, but what do you compare it to? There is no ground truth data source - we are supposed to be that.
Marketing plays a big role, and admittedly, these guys have much better marketing on this point :)
IPInfo appears to have good data, but their main advantage is strong marketing. They've effectively built a community of fanboys by publicly sharing techniques and methods that other major providers have been using for years or even decades.
Readit News
Integrations and maintenance were major issues when it came to users using the IP database. Usage of our IP database in software and platforms where data download facilities, maintainability (updating the database at regular intervals), and using an MMDB reader library were issues that were stopping us from universal adoption. For example, search/SIEM/threat intel platforms, distributed systems, firewall applications etc.
So, we just decided to launch an API to complement our data downloads. It is easier to use, and the unlimited requests make it a strong candidate.
We are rebuilding our backend in Rust and also developing a bulk enrichment API endpoint. The intention of the API system is to replicate the performance and features you get from a local database, with ease of use and minimal friction. Of course, the API is competing against the local database and will never be perfect, but I have to admit that using the IP database, particularly the binary database, and maintaining it is not as easy as using an API service.
Many providers are orders of magnitude cheaper. I run one of them - https://iplocate.io - but there are plenty of other high quality and affordable services.
(However, the vast majority of IPs can't be geolocated in this way, and there are caveats to those that can be.)
In any case, the difficulty with all providers in this space is how you prove accuracy at scale. If we assume some provider has some proprietary technique that nets 100% accuracy, that's great, but what do you compare it to? There is no ground truth data source - we are supposed to be that.
Marketing plays a big role, and admittedly, these guys have much better marketing on this point :)