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The Noun Project VS ZIP Code API

Compare The Noun Project VS ZIP Code API and see what are their differences

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The Noun Project logo The Noun Project

Creating, Sharing and Celebrating the World's Visual Language

ZIP Code API logo ZIP Code API

REST API for US ZIP, ZIP+4, and Canadian postal codes. Single unified endpoint covers address validation and standardization, radius search (centroid haversine and true spatial polygon intersection), point-to-point distance, autocomplete/typeah
  • The Noun Project Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-28
  • ZIP Code API Landing page
    Landing page //
    2026-05-21

API for US ZIP, ZIP+4, and Canadian postal code data. One unified endpoint set covers North America โ€” no separate APIs by country or data type.

What it does

  • Address validation and standardization โ€” production-grade parser with ZIP+4 append, refreshed monthly
  • Radius search โ€” centroid haversine and true spatial polygon intersection. Returns ZIPs/FSAs within range, with per-result pct_inside overlap percentage for spatial queries
  • Unified lookup endpoint โ€” accepts US ZIP, ZIP+4, Canadian FSA, full Canadian postal codes, or latitude/longitude inputs
  • Autocomplete/typeahead โ€” cities, counties, metros, states, FSAs, ZIPs
  • Point-to-point distance โ€” between any two postal points
  • Census ACS demographics โ€” 2011โ€“2024, 542 fields per ZIP across income, education, housing, social, and economic profiles
  • Boundary lookups โ€” Census tracts, congressional districts, state legislative areas, school districts โ€” with computed intersection percentages per ZIP

What makes it different

  • Licensed commercial data โ€” not commodity or scraped sources
  • Canadian postal coverage โ€” most peers in this space are US-only
  • True spatial radius โ€” not just centroid haversine
  • 14 years of historical ACS depth via API โ€” unusual outside of raw Census downloads
  • One endpoint for all of North America โ€” no country-detection or input-routing logic to maintain on the client side

Pricing

  • Free โ€” 2,500 lookups/day, no credit card required, no expiry
  • Developer โ€” $49/mo, 100K credits, 300/min
  • Professional โ€” $149/mo, 350K credits, 300/min
  • Business โ€” $499/mo, 1.5M credits, 600/min
  • Credit packs โ€” one-time, from 25K ($19) up to 2M ($799)

Resources

The Noun Project features and specs

  • Extensive Library
    The Noun Project offers a vast collection of over 3 million icons, covering a wide range of themes and styles, which can be used across various projects.
  • Quality & Consistency
    Icons in The Noun Project are designed by professional designers, ensuring high quality and visual consistency across different icons.
  • Ease of Use
    The platform has a user-friendly interface, making it easy to search, download, and integrate icons into projects.
  • Community Contributions
    The platform allows designers from all over the world to contribute their work, encouraging a diverse range of design styles and cultural representations.
  • Cost-Effective
    Offers both free and premium options, allowing users to access a wide range of icons even with a limited budget.
  • Customizable Icons
    Many icons are customizable in terms of color, size, and format, allowing users to tailor them to their specific needs.

Possible disadvantages of The Noun Project

  • Premium Pricing
    While there are many free icons, access to the entire library and some premium icons may require a subscription which could be costly for some users.
  • Attribution Requirement
    Free icons often require attribution to the designer, which might not be practical or desirable for all users or projects.
  • Limited Uniqueness
    Since the icons are openly available, the same icons might be used by many people, reducing the uniqueness of a project.
  • Overwhelming Choices
    The sheer volume of available icons can be overwhelming, making it difficult for users to find the perfect icon quickly.
  • Dependent on External Platform
    Relying on an external platform means that changes, downtime, or disruptions in The Noun Project's service can affect users' access to icons.
  • Limited Integration
    While there are plugins for some design tools, The Noun Project might not seamlessly integrate with every software or platform designers use.

ZIP Code API features and specs

  • Comprehensive ZIP Code Data
    The ZIP Code API from zip-codes.com provides extensive data including ZIP code details, city information, state data, and geographic coordinates, making it a thorough resource for location-based lookups.
  • Multiple Lookup Options
    The API supports various types of lookups including ZIP code to city/state, city/state to ZIP code, distance calculations between ZIP codes, and radius searches, offering flexible querying capabilities.
  • Easy Integration
    The API uses standard REST-based HTTP requests and returns data in commonly used formats like JSON and XML, making it straightforward to integrate into most applications and programming languages.
  • Distance and Radius Calculations
    The API includes built-in functionality for calculating distances between ZIP codes and finding ZIP codes within a specified radius, which is valuable for store locators, shipping estimates, and proximity-based features.
  • Well-Documented Endpoints
    The API provides clear documentation for its various endpoints and parameters, helping developers understand available features and implement them correctly without extensive trial and error.

Analysis of The Noun Project

Overall verdict

  • Yes, The Noun Project is generally considered a valuable resource for designers, educators, and other professionals who require high-quality icons. Its extensive collection and commitment to diversity and accessibility make it a standout platform.

Why this product is good

  • The Noun Project is highly regarded for its vast and diverse library of icons and symbols that are designed by a global community of designers. It provides users with a wide array of creative options, supports multiple file formats, and offers both free and premium subscription plans. The platform is user-friendly, making it easy to search and find the perfect icons for a wide range of projects. It also emphasizes accessibility and inclusivity by offering culturally diverse representations in its iconography.

Recommended for

  • graphic designers looking for high-quality icons
  • educators in need of visual aids for presentations
  • web developers in search of icons for user interfaces
  • anyone needing icons for social media posts or print materials
  • organizations aiming to find culturally diverse iconography

Analysis of ZIP Code API

Overall verdict

  • ZIP Code API from zip-codes.com is a solid, reliable choice for developers and businesses needing accurate US and Canadian postal code data, offering a straightforward RESTful interface with regularly updated databases.

Why this product is good

  • Provides accurate and frequently updated ZIP code, city, state, and geographic data
  • Offers a simple RESTful API that is easy to integrate into web and mobile applications
  • Supports features like ZIP code lookup, radius search, and distance calculations
  • Includes both US ZIP codes and Canadian postal codes for broader coverage
  • Backed by an established data provider with a long track record in postal data

Recommended for

  • Developers building address validation or autofill features
  • E-commerce platforms needing shipping and location-based calculations
  • Businesses performing geographic or radius-based store locators
  • Applications requiring reliable US and Canadian postal data
  • Marketing and logistics teams that need regional or demographic targeting

The Noun Project videos

The Noun Project review: using icons in your slides - The Good, the Bad and the Tip

More videos:

  • Review - The Noun Project: Brian's Go-To Catalog of Over 1 Million Icons!

ZIP Code API videos

No ZIP Code API videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to The Noun Project and ZIP Code API)
Web Icons
100 100%
0% 0
Zip Lookup
0 0%
100% 100
Icon Fonts
100 100%
0% 0
APIs
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare The Noun Project and ZIP Code API

The Noun Project Reviews

12 Best Free FontAwesome Alternatives in 2023ย 
The Noun Project is another excellent pack of font icons that you can go for. This pack contains icons for practically everything under the sun. You can find more than 5 million curated icons in this pack that have been created by a global and culturally diverse community. All these icons are royalty-free, and you can get them easily in your workflow.
Source: lineicons.com
7 Best Free Icon Libraries
The Noun Project's web icons library offers integrations with Adobe, Mac, Office, and Google apps. This might make you assume spending for a yearly plan. Remember, you can download and use it for free and without attribution.
Source: www.atatus.com
10 Best Fontello Alternatives 2021
Designers and photographers from all walks of life can submit their original designs and images on The Noun Project, under the Creative Commons Zero license. This way, anyone can freely use these designs or photos without restrictions or the need for attributions.

ZIP Code API Reviews

We have no reviews of ZIP Code API yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, The Noun Project seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 145 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

The Noun Project mentions (145)

  • Iconify: Library of Open Source Icons
    Since people are posting links to alternatives, another awesome source is the noun project. Has a mix of royalty-free, Creative Commons CC-BY-3.0, and paid license icons. https://thenounproject.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Is There Is Any PNG and SVG Icons Website That Work Without JavaScript?
    Possibly Noun Project[0]? [0] https://thenounproject.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • IcรดNES
    If youโ€™re looking for icons http://thenounproject.com (no affiliation) has a huge collection. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • The Best 100 Free UI/UX Resources for Every Designer & Developer
    The Noun Project Thenounproject.com Free icons with attribution (CC license). - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • How to make mix-blend-mode round to black or white only
    Relying on backdrop-filter has one issue: even if you have a transparent background behind your blending element, the rectangle behind it will look black or white too. This is fine for rectangular elements such as the simple scroller inside the CodePen example, but not for complex shapes such as the planet logo from the Noun Project shown in the same example. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
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ZIP Code API mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of ZIP Code API yet. Tracking of ZIP Code API recommendations started around May 2026.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing The Noun Project and ZIP Code API, you can also consider the following products

Icons8 - Free app for Mac & Windows already containing 39,800 icons. Allows to search and import iconsโ€ฆ

Smarty - Smarty provides address validation, autocomplete, geocoding and reverse geocoding services covering addresses in over 240+ countries.

Flaticon - A database of free vector icons.

Zipcodestack - Free Zip Code API - Free Postal Code Validation | Zipcodestack

Font Awesome - Font Awesome makes it easy to add vector icons and social logos to your website. And version 5 is redesigned and built from the ground up!

PostalDataPI - The most affordable postal code API. 240+ countries, sub-5 ms responses. Simple, elegant, transparent.