Fontshare vs Google Fonts
Fontshare
fontshare.com
Google Fonts
fonts.google.comSide by side
| Figure | Fontshare | Google Fonts |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Font Marketplaces | 8.6 (#3) | 8.6 (#5) |
| Spec score · Web Font Marketplaces | 8.5 (#3) | 8.5 (#5) |
| Audience | Fontshare aims to help brands and individuals without large budgets access high-quality typography. | The Developer API documentation is intended for web and application developers with JavaScript knowledge. |
| Company size | LinkedIn lists Indian Type Foundry's company size as 11–50 employees. | LinkedIn lists Google Fonts as a public company page with 11–50 employees. |
| Documentation depth | The live Fontshare pages are JavaScript shells to text crawlers, so detailed API and help documentation is difficult to access without a browser. | Developer documentation covers CSS usage, Android downloadable fonts, API schemas, filtering, variable fonts and browser behavior. |
| Self-hosting | Users can download the files and host the web fonts on their own infrastructure. | The official repository provides downloadable font files and supports serving them from your own infrastructure. |
| Support | Indian Type Foundry has no obligation to provide updates, upgrades, maintenance, technical support or other support services under the license. | The Google Fonts repository directs users to its issue tracker for font-file problems and future-development requests. |
| Variable fonts | The catalogue identifies families that include variable-font files as well as static styles. | Variable-font requests can return axis ranges and variable files when the VF capability is requested. |
| What it does | Fontshare is a free font service created by Indian Type Foundry for browsing, testing, downloading and embedding typefaces. | Google Fonts is a web directory and delivery service for downloadable and embeddable typefaces. |
Plans
In their own words
Google Fonts
Google Fonts is a catalog of fonts for websites, released under open-source licenses for commercial and non-commercial use. A website can use a font by linking a stylesheet and referencing the font in CSS. Developers can also query the REST-based Google Fonts Developer API for font metadata in JSON; each request requires an API key. The API supports sorting by alphabet, date, popularity, style count, and trending growth, plus filters for family, subset, and category. It can return variable font files and axis-range metadata when capability=VF is requested. For projects that need specific characters, the text parameter can reduce a requested font file’s size by up to 90%. Native Android apps can use the Font Provider in Google Play Services, supported from Android Jelly Bean API level 16 onward. Fonts can also be self-hosted for redistribution under their license terms. Google says the Web API is designed to limit data collection, storage, and use, and is not used to create end-user profiles or for advertising. The catalog is free at free.