15 of the Best Face Recognition APIs in 2021: RecFaces’ Overview

Facial recognition software is winning the global market of digital products. Face recognition APIs are used in various business fields and marketing strategies. Facial analysis is an essential part of cybersecurity systems. Many face detection APIs are machine learning-powered and use a neural network to perform the tasks.
Table of Contents
Top 15 Face Recognition APIs
1. Microsoft Computer Vision API — 96% Accuracy
2. Lambda Labs API — 99% Accuracy
3. Inferdo — 100% Accuracy
4. Face++ — 99% Accuracy
5. EyeRecognize — 99% Accuracy
6. Kairos — 62% Accuracy
7. Animetrics — 100% Accuracy
8. Macgyver — 74% Accuracy
9. BetaFace — 81% Accuracy
10. Luxand.cloud
11. EyeFace
12. Skybiometry Face Detection and Recognition
13. EmoVu
14. FaceMark
15. Deep Face Detect
Summary
The Whole List of Facial Recognition APIs: Honorable Mentions
Top 15 Face Recognition APIs
Users have a great choice of facial recognition APIs depending on their goals and budget. Face identification tools vary in terms of their functionality, accuracy, and pricing. Image recognition, face detection, data security, or identity verification — each facial recognition API has its key features. Here is an overview of the best face recognition APIs in 2021.
1. Microsoft Computer Vision API — 96% Accuracy
Best for: processing content from images
Microsoft Computer Vision Facial and Image Recognition API offers high-level development algorithms for image processing and return information. Users can analyze images and their features.
This API can mark visual functions, identify objects and brands, detect faces and image types, and even define color schemes. OCR response data includes language, text, words, regions, and others.
In addition to the free basic plan, several paid plans, ranging from $19 to $199, are available.
2. Lambda Labs API — 99% Accuracy
Best for: face detection, gender, and features identification
The facial recognition API developed by Lambda Labs allows you to recognize and classify faces by gender. It also provides certain eye, nose, and mouth positioning features.
Users can create photo albums and libraries. The face detection app helps to analyze and compare new pictures and their compatibility with the existing images.
Lambda Labs offers 1,000 free requests per month with a free plan. Several paid plan options range from $149 to $1,449 per month.
The demo is available here.
3. Inferdo — 100% Accuracy
Best for: face detection with age estimations
Inferdo Face Detection localizes human faces on pictures. The API works well for determining faces and genders, assessing age, and determining facial features.
The developers promise an easy integration of their machine learning algorithm and your app.
Inferdo offers a basic free plan and different pay-per-month models from $10 to $1,000 per month.
4. Face++ — 99% Accuracy
Best for: extraction of facial information from images
Face++ Face Detection API from Megvii detects and analyzes people using deep learning models. These models are trained on millions of images to ensure maximum face recognition accuracy.
Key features of Face ++ include face detection, facial identification and comparison, and body recognition models of high accuracy. However, there’s no face recognition feature. You can define age, race, and gender.
Face++ has a free version. Paid packages are available between $500 and $10,500, depending on the features.
5. EyeRecognize — 99% Accuracy
Best for: face detection by biometrics
EyeRecognize Face Detection API provides coordinates for particular facial features: nose, mouth, and eyes. It also works with biometric characteristics: race, gender, and age.
EyeRecognize provides analytics based on face-to-image ratio and skin, eye, and hair color.
The API EyeRecognize Face Detection has free basic and paid plans ranging from US $29 to US $249 per month.
6. Kairos — 62% Accuracy
Best for: finding faces and detecting features
Kairos Face Recognition API is very popular and offers a wide range of image recognition solutions. The API defines gender and age and recognizes faces in images, videos, and real-time streaming. This API is used for preventing identity fraud and ensuring secure communication with clients.
Kairos is famous for its ethical approach to identity. The company’s products meet the requirements of globally diverse communities.
It’s available in several paid plans, from $19 per month to $499 per month.
7. Animetrics — 100% Accuracy
Best for: deep learning-powered face recognition
Animetrics Face Recognition API detects human faces and feature points, corrects off-angle images, and performs facial recognition. It processes information about facial features, including eyebrows, nose, ears, chin, and lips, like coordinates on the image. It also defines gender and places the orientation of the faces on three axes.
The Animetrics API provides some specific features like re-visualization option SetPose.
Users are offered a free basic plan and paid plans from $49 to $999 per month.
8. Macgyver — 74% Accuracy
Best for: facial recognition and comparison
The Macgyver Face Recognition API provides a toolkit for facial and image recognition. It can compare two faces, determine the presence of faces on the image, and return the coordinates (X, Y) of the people in the picture.
The API uses machine learning and deep-precision neural networks built into TensorFlow.
It offers both free and flexible paid plans depending on usage.
9. BetaFace — 81% Accuracy
Best for: facial recognition and transforming
With BetaFace Face Recognition API, it is easy to detect, analyze, recognize, and compare faces. The tool also detects gender, age, facial expression, ethnicity, and NSFW content with multiple facial references and more than 40 facial features.
The API compares faces, creates, and searches faces in your databases. It defines age, gender, facial expression, and ethnicity. It also processes facial attributes, geometrical properties, and colors, including the clothes’ colors and hairstyles. It’s used to detect adult content.
BetaFace is available for free and has paid plans ranging from US $245 to US $1,595 per month.
10. Luxand.cloud
Best for: detection and comparison of human faces
Luxand.cloud facial recognition API detects and compares human faces. It recognizes age, gender, and emotion in the photo and identifies previously tagged people in the images.
This API makes it easy to find and to check people in a photo or photo collection. Users can create a gallery in a cloud and tag people with their names and identities. Luxand.cloud provides the process of verification.
The API offers a free basic plan and paid plans from $19 to $499 per month.
11. EyeFace
Best for: face detection and image management
EyeFace API, developed by Eyedea Recognition, provides face detection, face analysis, and unique person counting. It estimates age and identifies gender, analyzing photos and videos even in low resolution.
The developers promise their product to be fast, optimized, accurate, and flexible.
Eyedea offers three main packages for their API: from €299.00, €499.00, and €599.00, as well as a free demo.
12. Skybiometry Face Detection and Recognition
Best for: cloud-based face recognition at challenging angles
Skybiometry Face Detection and Recognition API provides face detection, recognition, and grouping. It simultaneously detects multiple faces at different angles with any expressions, with or without eyewear.
Users can choose between a free plan, €50/€100 monthly, or a custom payment model.
13. EmoVu
Best for: intelligent adaptive interfaces and emotion recognition
EmoVu, developed by Eyeris, recognizes emotions from real-time webcam streams.
Key features include face and emotion recognition and gender and age detection. It helps businesses follow customers’ moods and involvement with the product. It returns up to 20 parameters per detected object. Its deep learning-based algorithm enables the analysis of human faces’ micro-expressions.
Eyeris offers its users either a free version or custom paid plans depending on the requirements.
14. FaceMark
Best for: facial landmark detection
FaceMark is a powerful facial feature detection API. It detects up to 68 landmark points (frontal) and up to 35 points (profile).
A basic plan is offered for free. Users can choose between $18, $65, and $250 plans.
15. Deep Face Detect
Best for: deep neural network architecture
Deep Face Detect API is based on a deep neural network and has a lot of features. It recognizes gender, face landmarks, eyewear, facial hair, poses, image quality, etc.
Users choose between a free basic, $29, $99, and $249 plans.
Summary
API | Recfaces Score | % Accuracy | Latency | Best for | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kairos | 8.6 | 62% | 1344 ms | Finding faces and detecting features | Freemium |
Animetrics | 9.7 | 100% | 2688 ms | Deep learning-powered face recognition | Freemium |
Lambda Labs | 9.5 | 99% | 1045 ms | Face detection, gender, and features identification | Freemium |
Inferdo | 9.8 | 100% | 906 ms | Face detection with age estimations | Freemium |
Luxand.cloud | 8.8 | 94% | 1301 ms | Detection and comparison of human faces | Freemium |
EyeRecognize | 8.4 | 99% | 4763 ms | Face detection by biometrics | Freemium |
Face++ | 9.5 | 99% | 147 ms | Extraction of facial information from images | Freemium |
Macgyver | 7.9 | 74% | 7693 ms | Facial recognition and comparison | Free |
Microsoft Computer Vision | 8.9 | 96% | 889 ms | Processing content from images | Freemium |
BetaFace | 9.0 | 81% | 2312 ms | Facial recognition and transforming | Freemium |
The Whole List of Facial Recognition APIs: Honorable Mentions
- Facereact extracts meaningful events from real-time video feeds;
- Cloud Vision API — Google uses a pre-trained Vision API for recognizing text, detecting movements, and more;
- Facebook Face Recognition API automatically suggests identity tags for uploaded photos;
- Face detection and facial features provide accurate coordinates for detected faces;
- NSFW Image Classification helps to detect and flag nude, inappropriate, or adult content;
- AWSRekognition, developed by Amazon, provides analysis for images and videos based on deep learning algorithms;
- Alception is an AI developer specializing in deep learning;
- Face Analysis Cloud Engine detects faces and poses, estimates gender, age, and emotions in pictures;
- IBM Watson Visual Recognition is a deep learning-powered tool for scene detection, analyzing objects and other content in images; discontinued;
- Face Recognition — HiBrainy is a set of APIs for verification, face recognition, and identification;
- Age Recognition by Everypixel detects age by using the database of 300,000 images;
- Face Match processes facial metadata;
- FaceX works with companies providing their tools for business apps;
- Meerkat Facial Recognition is an accurate, fast, scalable, and flexible software for face detection and recognition;
- Sparshik FaceAPI provides different tools for face verification, security, and advertising.