# APIScout — Complete Reference

> APIScout is a developer API directory that catalogs and compares third-party APIs across categories like AI, payments, authentication, email, and more. It helps developers discover the right API for their project.

## How It Works

APIScout maintains a curated database of APIs organized by category. Each API listing includes pricing, authentication method, documentation link, and feature details. Developers can browse by category, search across all APIs, or view individual API detail pages.

## Page Types

### Homepage (/)
Landing page with featured APIs, category navigation, and search. Showcases popular and trending APIs across categories.

### Category Pages (/apis/[category])
Lists all APIs within a category (e.g., AI/ML, Payments, Authentication). Each category page shows:
- All APIs in that category
- API name, description, pricing tier
- Quick comparison between similar APIs

### API Detail Pages (/apis/[category]/[slug])
Individual API pages with:
- Full description and use cases
- Pricing breakdown (free tier limits, paid plan costs)
- Authentication method
- Link to official documentation
- Similar/alternative APIs

### Categories Index (/categories)
Overview of all API categories with API counts per category.

### Search (/search)
Full-text search across all API names, descriptions, and categories.

## API Categories

### AI & Machine Learning
APIs for natural language processing, computer vision, speech recognition, and generative AI. Includes OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, and more.

### Payments
Payment processing, billing, and financial transaction APIs. Includes Stripe, PayPal, Square, LemonSqueezy.

### Authentication
Identity management, SSO, and user authentication APIs. Includes Auth0, Clerk, Firebase Auth, Supabase Auth.

### Email
Transactional and marketing email delivery APIs. Includes SendGrid, Resend, Mailgun, Postmark.

### Storage & Files
Cloud storage, file hosting, and media management APIs. Includes AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, Uploadthing.

### Communication
Chat, messaging, video, and real-time communication APIs. Includes Twilio, Stream, Pusher.

### Analytics
Web analytics, product analytics, and data tracking APIs. Includes Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog.

### Databases
Database-as-a-service and data platform APIs. Includes Supabase, PlanetScale, Neon, Turso.

## Data Model

Each API entry contains:
- **name**: API name
- **slug**: URL-friendly identifier
- **description**: What the API does
- **category**: Primary category
- **pricing_type**: free, freemium, paid, open_source
- **auth_method**: API key, OAuth, Bearer token, etc.
- **documentation_url**: Link to official docs
- **website_url**: API provider website
- **features**: Key features and capabilities

## Optional

- [Sitemap](https://apiscout.dev/sitemap.xml): Full list of all indexed pages
- [Robots.txt](https://apiscout.dev/robots.txt): Crawler access rules