compare_cohorts
Compare two API markets on one rubric
Is payments further along than banking? Does Europe publish better APIs than North America? A written report covers one market at a time. compare_cohorts puts any two tags, industries, regions, areas or VC portfolios side by side: both distributions, and the delta on the Kin Score, agent readiness, every facet and every adoption rate.
It also tells you when not to trust the gap. When the higher-scoring cohort is also the one we enriched more deeply, depth_confounded is true, and each comparison below shows that warning before its narrative. Here are 20 real results.
Payments & Money Movement vs Banking & Open Banking
Payments scores 3.9 points higher on average than banking and open banking, with twice as many exemplars. Part of that gap is our own coverage.
North America vs Europe
European providers outscore North American ones on the Kin Score, agent readiness and all six facets, and this is a comparison the coverage check allows.
Y Combinator vs Andreessen Horowitz
a16z companies edge YC on score, but YC companies are far likelier to ship their own MCP server: 23% against 16%.
Healthcare vs Insurance
Insurance outscores healthcare on score, agent readiness and contract quality. Healthcare has the lowest agent readiness in this showcase.
Artificial Intelligence vs Machine Learning
Providers tagged machine learning edge out the far larger AI cohort on score and developer ergonomics. AI has the higher ceiling and more first-party MCP.
Cybersecurity & Identity vs Developer Tools & DevOps
Developer tools lead on score and ergonomics, but cybersecurity companies are likelier to publish OAuth scopes. The gap is small and depth-confounded.
MCP vs AI Agents
Providers that ship MCP outscore providers that market AI agents by 11 points, and by 14 points on agent readiness.
E-Commerce Platform vs Retail
E-commerce platforms outscore retailers on every facet and have more than twice the exemplars. Retail's agent readiness stays near 10.
United Kingdom & Ireland vs Greater China
UK and Irish providers score twice as high as Greater China on average. Our own coverage of Chinese providers is part of the reason.
Blockchain, Crypto & Web3 vs Financial Services
Blockchain and crypto providers outscore traditional financial services by 5.8 points and ship first-party MCP at twice the rate.
Telecommunications & Connectivity vs IoT & Connected Devices
Telecommunications outscores IoT by 8.6 points, with 68 exemplars against 14. Part of the gap is our deeper coverage of telecom.
Logistics vs Supply Chain & Procurement
Logistics and supply chain score within 0.2 points of each other, and this is a comparison the coverage check allows.
Techstars vs 500 Global
Techstars companies outscore 500 Global's by 4.1 points, and the coverage check says the gap is the portfolios, not us.
Accel vs Insight Partners
Insight Partners edges Accel by 1.7 points on a comparison the coverage check allows. Both hold 25 exemplars.
Accounting & Finance Operations vs Human Resources & Payroll
Accounting and finance-ops platforms outscore HR and payroll by 4.2 points and ship first-party MCP at nearly twice the rate.
Open Source vs Enterprise
Open-source providers outscore enterprise ones on contracts and governance. Enterprise vendors win on access clarity by nearly 12 points.
Education & EdTech vs Government & Public Sector
EdTech outscores government and public-sector providers by 3.8 points. The largest gap is access clarity.
Media vs Gaming & Interactive
Media providers outscore gaming by 6.9 points and are nearly twice as agent-ready. Much of the gap is our coverage.
Energy vs Climate & Sustainability
Energy providers edge climate and sustainability companies by 1.9 points, but the climate cohort has the higher ceiling.
Biotechnology & Drug Discovery vs Pharmaceutical
Biotech and pharma score 10.9 and 10.7, a near-tie at the bottom of the catalog. Agent readiness averages about 3.
Run this comparison yourself
Everything above came from one call to compare_cohorts. Swap in any two tags, industries, regions, areas or VC portfolios and you get the same answer for your own shortlist. It is an Understanding tool, included in the Understanding and Influence plans, or pay per call.
https://apis.io/mcp:
{"name": "compare_cohorts", "arguments": {"a": "tag:payments", "b": "industry:banking"}}curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/cohorts/compare?a=tag:payments&b=industry:banking" \
-H "X-API-Key: $APIS_IO_KEY"More comparisons
Stripe vs Adyen
81.1 vs 71.1 · compare_providers
Twilio vs Vonage
91.6 vs 71.3 · compare_providers
OpenAI vs Anthropic
84.5 vs 89 · compare_providers
Plaid vs MX Technologies
84.6 vs 64.9 · compare_providers
GitHub vs GitLab
79 vs 81 · compare_providers
Shopify vs BigCommerce
83 vs 82.5 · compare_providers
HubSpot vs Salesforce
93.2 vs 88.8 · compare_providers
Payments & Money Movement vs Banking & Open Banking
29.3 vs 25.4 average · compare_cohorts
North America vs Europe
17.8 vs 21.4 average · compare_cohorts
Y Combinator vs Andreessen Horowitz
21.8 vs 23.9 average · compare_cohorts
Healthcare vs Insurance
15.7 vs 18.9 average · compare_cohorts
Artificial Intelligence vs Machine Learning
22.9 vs 24.1 average · compare_cohorts
Cybersecurity & Identity vs Developer Tools & DevOps
31.1 vs 33.4 average · compare_cohorts
MCP vs AI Agents
42.6 vs 31.5 average · compare_cohorts
Work with this as data
Every comparison here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.