If you need an ipify alternative, here is the short answer: curl https://whatsmy.fyi/ip?format=json returns the exact same {"ip":"..."} response as api.ipify.org — no API key, no signup, with CORS enabled. And when you need more than the bare IP, the same service adds free geolocation, ISP, and timezone data that ipify only sells as a paid add-on. Below is an honest look at why people go looking for an alternative, and what the real options are in 2026.
First, Credit Where It's Due
ipify defined this category. Launched in 2014 by Randall Degges, it answered one question — "what is my public IP?" — with an API so simple that it ended up embedded in millions of scripts, provisioning tools, and applications, serving billions of requests a month. If all you ever need is your bare IP address, ipify still works today.
So why do developers search for an alternative? Three reasons come up again and again.
Why People Look for an ipify Alternative
1. The open-source project is inactive
The ipify GitHub repository has had no code changes since January 2018. Community pull requests — CORS improvements, Docker support, even one-line README fixes — have sat unanswered for years. The hosted service keeps running because it is commercially operated by WhoisXML API, but the open-source side that made ipify trustworthy to developers is effectively frozen.
2. Geolocation costs extra
ipify's free API returns the IP address and nothing else. City, country, ISP, ASN, and timezone are sold separately as a paid product. In practice, most projects that fetch a public IP eventually want at least the country — and that is exactly where ipify's free tier ends.
3. One endpoint, one format era
The API predates HTTP/3, modern edge networks, and machine-readable specs. There is no OpenAPI document, no SDK, no dashboard — fine for a one-liner in a shell script, limiting for anything bigger.
The Drop-In Replacement
We built whatsmy.fyi to fill this gap, and the keyless endpoint is deliberately compatible with ipify's response format:
# Plain text — like icanhazip
curl https://whatsmy.fyi/ip
# → 203.0.113.42
# JSON — identical shape to api.ipify.org
curl "https://whatsmy.fyi/ip?format=json"
# → {"ip":"203.0.113.42"}
# JSONP
curl "https://whatsmy.fyi/ip?format=jsonp&callback=myFn"Swapping it into existing code means changing one URL. The endpoint is keyless, CORS is enabled, both IPv4 and IPv6 are supported, it runs on Cloudflare's edge network in 300+ cities, and nothing is logged — the zero-log policy is published, not implied.
When you outgrow the bare IP, a free API key unlocks the full response — city, region, country, continent, latitude/longitude, timezone, postal code, ASN, ISP name, and EU status — at 10,000 requests/day:
curl https://whatsmy.fyi/api/v1/ip \
-H "Authorization: Bearer wmf_your_key"
# → { "ip": "...", "city": "...", "country": "...",
# "asn": ..., "org": "...", "timezone": "...", ... }There is also an OpenAPI 3.1 spec, an official npm SDK, and a dashboard with a live playground. Full details in the API docs.
The Other Alternatives, Honestly
Different tools fit different jobs, so here is the rest of the field — each one verified by us in June 2026:
- icanhazip — operated by Cloudflare, unlimited, extremely reliable. Plain text only: no JSON, no geolocation. Perfect for shell scripts.
- ip-api.com — generous free geolocation data, but the free tier is HTTP-only (HTTPS requires a paid key) and licensed for non-commercial use only.
- ipapi.co — decent data over HTTPS, but the free quota is small and shared per source IP — our very first test request was rate-limited with a 429.
- ipinfo.io — the most polished commercial IP-intelligence platform. Requires a token; the free tier is 50,000 requests/month. A fine choice if you need enterprise-grade data and are happy to pay.
We keep a feature-by-feature table — keyless access, free geo, HTTPS, rate limits, commercial use — on our IP API comparison page, including the places where these services beat us.
Which One Should You Pick?
- Bare IP in a shell script: icanhazip or
whatsmy.fyi/ip— both plain text, both unlimited. - Drop-in api.ipify.org replacement in existing code:
whatsmy.fyi/ip?format=json— same response shape, one URL change. - Free geolocation with HTTPS and commercial use: whatsmy.fyi with a free API key (10,000 requests/day).
- Enterprise IP intelligence with paid support: ipinfo.io, or whatsmy.fyi Enterprise for custom limits and an SLA.
Whatever you choose, the nice thing about this category is that switching costs are nearly zero — it is one URL in your code. Try ours right now: curl https://whatsmy.fyi/ip
