I got tired of paying $100/mo for options data — so I built a $20 alternative with a 7-day free trial
I build algorithmic trading strategies on the side. Nothing fancy — just small bots that trade US equity options automatically.
Every time I wanted real options data — chains, Greeks, IV — I ran into the same problem: the cheapest real-time providers start at $99/mo. That's a big commitment before you've even proven your strategy works.
So I built market-option.com — a REST API for real-time US options data at $20/mo.
What you get:
- Options chains, quotes, Greeks, IV, open interest
- Top 100 US underlyings (~95% of actual options volume)
- Plain JSON, no SDK required
- 4 simple endpoints
Why I priced it at $20:
Because $99 is too much to pay just to test an idea. I wanted something that indie devs and quant hobbyists could actually afford without a business justification.
Free tier & trial:
- 1,000 credits/day free — forever
- 7-day Pro trial — no credit card, no commitment
If you're building trading bots, backtesting options strategies, or just exploring the space — this removes the cost blocker.
Happy to answer any questions about how it's built or what's on the roadmap.
Building a $20 alternative instead of paying $100/mo is classic indie hacker move 😂
How many paying users did you get in the first week?
Still early days — focused on getting the free tier users to actually use the API before pushing for conversions. The 7-day trial with no card required is the main lever right now. Will share numbers once there's something meaningful to report!
Can this be helpful for the website i am working on like parag ??
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The $20 vs $99 positioning is strong and the "top 100 underlyings = ~95% of volume" line does a lot of work. One small thing that might cost you signups: your post says a 7-day Pro trial, but the live site says 3-day everywhere. I'd reconcile those before this traffic peaks, a mismatched trial length is the kind of thing that makes a careful buyer hesitate. Otherwise the docs-as-the-product DX is exactly right for this audience.
Good catch — the docs still say 3 days, I updated the trial to 7 but missed a few places in the documentation. Fixing it now. And yes, the "top 100 = ~95% of volume" framing is intentional — most developers don't need the long tail, they need reliable data on the names they're actually trading. Thanks for the sharp eye, exactly the kind of feedback that saves signups.
Hey Sala, I can provide you a free teardown video pointing the exact leaks in the conversion and friction points.
Let me know if you want it and please share a point of contact
The pricing logic makes sense to me — I went one-time instead of a subscription on my own product for basically the reason you give: people shouldn't have to justify a recurring cost just to find out if something's even useful to them. (Force of habit, I'm an accountant — I think about this stuff a lot.)
Out of curiosity, what's been driving more sign-ups so far: the free-forever tier or the no-card trial?
Honestly, it's the combination that does the work. The free tier removes the "is this even worth trying?" friction — developers can poke around, test the endpoints, see real data. Then when they're ready to actually build something, the 7-day trial lets them go full speed without a credit card commitment. One validates the data, the other validates the product fit. Happy to report back once I have more data on which converts better!
Same story here. Got tired of bloated health calculators that all gave different results, so I built my own. The best products come from scratching your own itch. Good luck with the launch!
thanks
Love the "scratch your own itch" energy here. The options data space is ridiculously overpriced for what it actually is. At $20 you are not just undercutting - you are creating a completely different category for retail traders who were priced out. What is your CAC looking like so far?
CAC is basically $0 so far — everything has been organic through dev communities and posts like this one. The 7-day free trial (no credit card required) has been the biggest driver so far. Still early days though, so I'm focused on getting people to actually use the API before optimizing for conversions. I'll share more numbers once they're meaningful.
I think your pricing is the real differentiator here. A lot of developers don't need an enterprise-grade data provider—they just need enough reliable data to validate an idea. Lowering that barrier is what makes experimentation possible.
Exactly. Most people don't need every dataset under the sun—they just need reliable options data without paying hundreds of dollars a month. If lowering the barrier helps more developers build and experiment, that's a win in my book.
That's exactly what I was curious about.
Reading your reply, I think there's one strategic business decision sitting underneath that pricing philosophy which becomes much more significant as the product grows, but I don't think I can do the reasoning behind it justice in a thread.
Happy to explain what I mean if it's useful. What's the best email to reach you?
Feel free to share it here — always happy to get feedback in public so others can benefit too. If you'd rather keep it private, drop your email and I'll reach out.
Happy to.
The observation isn't really about pricing itself.
It's about the business decision that pricing quietly commits you to over time.
I don't think I can explain the reasoning properly in a thread without oversimplifying it.
If you're interested, feel free to drop me your email or send me a note privately.