# cs2.sh vs SteamWebAPI for CS2 Data

> Choose cs2.sh when the product depends on deep CS2 price history, completed-sale series, liquidity, structured variants, BUFF range markets, or Steam orderbooks. Choose SteamWebAPI when one account must also cover inventories, float inspection, profiles, trades, and a wider set of current marketplace prices.

## Market analytics versus a broader Steam toolkit

[SteamWebAPI](https://www.steamwebapi.com/price-api) combines normalized third-party prices with Steam inventory, item, float, profile, and trade endpoints. Its marketplace data includes BUFF, Youpin, CSFloat, Skinport, DMarket, Waxpeer, and other sources, with Doppler and Gamma Doppler phase pricing and float-aware listings.

cs2.sh covers six CS2 marketplaces with fewer adjacent Steam features. Its focus is marketplace-specific CS2 data: sell listings, buy orders, ask and bid OHLC, sale archives, variants, liquidity, BUFF ranges, and Steam orderbook depth.

## Current differences

| Decision factor | cs2.sh | SteamWebAPI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Product scope | CS2 market data | Steam, inventory, float, profile, trade, and marketplace APIs |
| Marketplaces | BUFF, Youpin, CSFloat, Skinport, Steam, and C5Game | Wider named third-party market set plus Steam |
| Current prices | Marketplace asks, bids, active-order counts, and timestamps | Normalized marketplace prices, listings, buy orders, and marketplace fields |
| History | Intraday ask and bid OHLC plus separate archives with published start dates | Daily aggregate marketplace-history endpoints |
| Completed sales | CSFloat and Steam aggregates plus sampled Youpin prices | Verify sale meaning and source depth for the selected endpoint |
| Variants | Doppler, Gamma Doppler, and Case Hardened across current and historical data | Doppler and Gamma Doppler phase prices; float and paint-seed tools |
| Specialized data | Liquidity, estimated sale time, BUFF float and fade ranges, full Steam depth | Inventory, float, screenshots, profiles, trades, and broader item tooling |
| Usage model | Unlimited requests at 10 per second | Monthly request limits by plan |
| Paid entry | $75 Developer or $200 Scale | EUR 25 Starter, EUR 50 Pro, or EUR 120 Pro+ |

SteamWebAPI's current [pricing page](https://steamwebapi.com/pricing) says paid plans provide access to all endpoints and primarily differ by rate and monthly request limits. Starter includes 10,000 monthly requests, Pro includes 100,000, and Pro+ includes 1,000,000. Its free plans do not include the full items endpoint. This replaces the older product model where endpoint families were described as separate subscriptions.

## What cs2.sh returns for Steam

The Steam source carries both sides of the book with counts, stamped with the marketplace's own update time and cs2.sh's collection time:

```json
"steam": {
  "updated_at": "2026-07-26T18:52:21.42Z",
  "collected_at": "2026-07-26T18:52:56.46Z",
  "ask": 169.14,
  "ask_volume": 70,
  "bid": 155.05,
  "bid_volume": 2951
}
```

Beyond the top of the book, `GET /v1/market/steam/latest` returns the complete ladder for every tracked item in one response, and `POST /v1/market/steam/history` stores those snapshots from June 9, 2026 at `1h` (90-day maximum range) or `1d` (unlimited). That history is sampled rather than aggregated: each bucket holds the last complete orderbook collected inside it.

For completed sales, `POST /v1/archive/steam` returns Steam's native median sale price and purchase count, daily from April 26, 2013 and hourly from May 9, 2026, with no maximum request range on either interval.

| Series | Question it answers |
| --- | --- |
| `prices/latest` | What is listed and bid right now |
| `market/steam/latest` | How deep the book is at each price |
| `prices/history` | How the listing and buy order moved, from December 24, 2025 |
| `archive/steam` | What actually sold, and how much, since 2013 |

## Pick cs2.sh when

- Intraday OHLC or multi-year history must state its start date and what each price represents.
- CSFloat or Steam completed-sale aggregates are needed for charts and backtests.
- Case Hardened tiers and phase variants need to remain structured across history.
- A named liquidity class and estimated sale time should be returned directly.
- BUFF float or fade price buckets and full-depth Steam orderbooks are required.
- The workload would regularly exceed a monthly request allowance.

## Pick SteamWebAPI when

- Inventory, profile, float, screenshot, trade, and price features belong in one integration.
- Current prices from more marketplaces matter more than deep data on six sources.
- Individual listing float, paint seed, or sticker data is a core product feature.
- Doppler and Gamma Doppler phase prices cover the required variant scope.
- A lower-cost metered plan fits a small or moderate request volume.
- Daily aggregate history is sufficient for the analysis.

## Check freshness and history with a sample

SteamWebAPI's [BUFF API page](https://steamwebapi.com/buff-api) describes roughly six-hour refreshes, with more frequent updates for liquid items. If BUFF freshness affects alerts or spreads, compare timestamps for the exact items you track. Also request the full historical window you need, because endpoint availability does not by itself establish retention depth or sampling behavior.

Disclosure: this comparison is published by cs2.sh. SteamWebAPI features and prices were checked against its official API, documentation, BUFF, and pricing pages on August 4, 2026.