Kundli Software vs a Kundli API: Which One to Buy

If kundlis (Vedic birth charts) need to show up inside your website or app, use a kundli API. Kundli software is made for an astrologer at a desk. Someone installs it on a Windows PC or a Mac and types in each birth. The chart appears on that screen, and your users never see it.

An API works the other way. Your website sends a birth date, time and place over the internet. It gets the whole chart back as data, and your own pages show it. Nobody has to type anything.

So the choice comes down to one question: who makes the chart? If a person makes each chart by hand, buy software. If your product makes a chart for every user, use an API.

The price follows the same split. Two desktop programs we checked cost $299 and $318 to buy. A third costs ₹1,000 to ₹20,000 a year, by edition. Our API has a Free plan with 2,000 calls a month, and one kundli uses one call. Paid plans start at $29 a month.

Kundli software is built for one desk

Kundli software, also sold as Vedic astrology software, is a program for astrologers. You install it on one computer. The astrologer enters a client's birth details and reads the chart on screen. On October 11, 2026, we checked three programs on their makers' own pages.

Prices are from parasharaslight.com, vedicsoftware.com and futurepointindia.com.

None of the three pricing pages mentions running the program inside another app or website. If that is your plan, ask the maker in writing before you buy. Some makers also sell a web API, but that is a separate product with its own price.

A kundli API is built for your product

An API (a way for one program to ask another for data) lets your server request a chart for any user, at any hour. Here is the request our docs use for the sample chart.

John Doe, born Aug 15, 1990, 10:30 AM, New York (America/New_York)

curl -X POST "https://apiforastrology.com/api/astrology/v1/planets" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ASTROLOGY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"year":1990,"month":8,"day":15,"hour":10,"minute":30,"second":0,"latitude":40.7128,"longitude":-74.006,"timezone":"America/New_York"}'

The answer comes back as JSON, a plain text format that every programming language can read. This is a trimmed copy of what our API returned for John Doe on October 11, 2026.

John Doe, born Aug 15, 1990, 10:30 AM, New York: the answer, trimmed

{
  "meta": {
    "ayanamsa": "lahiri",
    "ephemeris": "JPL DE440s",
    "timezone": { "zone": "America/New_York", "abbreviation": "EDT", "dst": true, "offset_hours": -4 }
  },
  "ascendant": { "sign": "Virgo", "degree_dms": "19 : 56 : 06", "nakshatra": "Hast", "pada": 3 },
  "positions": [
    { "name": "Moon", "sign": "Taurus", "degree_dms": "24 : 34 : 30", "house": 9, "nakshatra": "Mrigashira", "pada": 1, "retrograde": false, "dignity": "mulatrikona" }
  ]
}

To read it, start with the rising sign, or lagna (the sign rising in the east at birth). It is Virgo at 19°56'. The Moon is in Taurus, in the 9th house. Its nakshatra (birth star) is Mrigashira. The meta block names the ayanamsa (the zodiac offset), which is Lahiri. It also shows that New York was on daylight saving time that day, so the API used UTC-4.

One call returns the rising sign and all nine planets of Vedic astrology, Rahu and Ketu included. Each one has its sign, degree, house and nakshatra. One more call returns any of the 16 divisional charts, such as the navamsa (D9). It is the chart read for marriage and for each planet's inner strength. The kundli API page lists every field.

The API sends data, not pictures. Your app draws the chart in the North or South Indian style your users like. It is also Vedic only, so it does not return Western charts. Our astrology apps page shows how a whole app fits on these calls.

What one kundli costs with an API

Every calculation uses 1 call. A birth chart is 1 call. A kundli page that also shows the navamsa and the dasha timeline (the dates of a person's planetary periods) uses 3 calls. Kundli matching for a couple is 1 call.

These are launch prices, and they run until March 31, 2027. Join before then and you keep the launch price for 12 months. Paying for a year costs the same as 10 months. On the Free plan, any page that shows API output must carry a "Powered by API for Astrology" link. Accounts open on November 26, 2026.

Take Acme Inc., which runs a matrimony site in New York and adds 10,000 new profiles a month. Each profile page shows the chart, the navamsa and the dasha, so it uses 3 calls. That is 30,000 calls a month, which fits Starter at $29. Each kundli page costs Acme about 0.3 cents.

For scale, a year of Starter paid up front is $290 at the launch price. One copy of Parashara's Light 9 for Windows is $299. The money is close, but one serves a single person and the other serves every visitor.

What your app gets that a desktop program keeps to itself

An API hands the chart to your code, so you decide how it looks. Ours also returns more than the chart.

Answers in plain words. The reading calls turn a chart into text your users can read, from the same calculation as the chart. John Doe's career reading opens: "Work is one of the parts of your life that your chart backs most." The same birth details always get the same words, because the text comes from a fixed library, not an AI model. A reading chapter uses 1 reading credit.

Rules you can check. Every rule the API follows is in a public rulebook, 325 rules in all. Each rule has an ID. Rule CH-06, for example, says houses are counted as whole signs from the rising sign. A separate call lists the rules one chart triggers, strongest first. For John Doe it listed 64.

Hindi comes from the same call. Add lang=hi, and the chart comes back in Hindi. Virgo becomes कन्या, and the Moon becomes चंद्र. The English names stay in fields such as sign_en, so your code does not change.

Time zones are worked out for you, too. You send a time zone name, such as America/New_York. The API applies the daylight saving rules in force on the birth date, from 1850 to 2149. Positions come from NASA JPL planetary data and are checked against Swiss Ephemeris, as the accuracy page shows.

The API uses birth details only to work out the answer, and it does not store request bodies.

See it before you build. Our free kundli tool runs on this same call, for any birth you enter. The sample report shows the full written reading for John Doe.

When kundli software is still the right buy

Buy desktop software when a person, not your product, makes the charts. That is the astrologer who reads each client's chart in a session. LeoStar-I's price table, for example, lists extra modules such as numerology and muhurat (picking a good time to start something).

An astrologer platform can use both: desktop software for the session, and an API so its app shows each client their chart. Our astrologer platforms page shows that setup.

Questions to ask before you pay

If your users compare charts across apps, a rule ID gives your support team something to point to.

Ready to plan? Compare the plans on the pricing page, and read the quickstart for a first call. You can get an API key when accounts open on November 26.

The short version

Kundli software and a kundli API serve different people. Software serves the astrologer who reads charts at a desk. An API serves a product that shows a chart to every user. If the chart has to reach someone who is not sitting at that desk, software cannot take it there. An API can.