FFXIV · Tool comparison
AuricDB vs Universalis
Both track the FFXIV Market Board. AuricDB uses Universalis as its data source. Here's what each is best at, when to use which, and why we built AuricDB on top of Universalis rather than competing with it.
The short answer
Use Universalis when you want raw, live price data on a single item — the website is fast and the API is excellent. Use AuricDB when you want ranked flip opportunities, alerts, cross-world arbitrage at a glance, or you also play WoW Classic, GW2, or PoE and want one watchlist for everything.
Feature-by-feature
Live Market Board pricesYesYes
AuricDB uses Universalis as its underlying data source — same plugin uploads, same coverage.
Refresh cadenceEvery 30 minLive (push)
Universalis pushes plugin uploads immediately; AuricDB recomputes its derived views (flip scores, top movers) every 30 min.
Cross-world arbitrage tableYesManual
AuricDB ranks the biggest spreads per data center automatically. Universalis shows raw cross-world data but requires you to spot the gap.
Scored flip opportunitiesYesNo
Items ranked by spread × volume × confidence, not just by recent activity.
Price alerts (email)3 free, unlimited PremiumNo
Set a buy or sell threshold; we email when it crosses.
Price alerts (Discord / Pushover / ntfy)PremiumNo
Watchlist across gamesYesFFXIV only
AuricDB watchlists also hold WoW, GW2, PoE items in the same list.
Mobile UIResponsiveDesktop-first
Free tierYesFree (donate-supported)
Premium tier$7.99/mo—
Open data APIRead-only via /apiFull public API
In-game plugin neededNo (uses Universalis data)Yes (Dalamud — for uploaders only)
Why AuricDB uses Universalis instead of competing
FFXIV does not expose an official Market Board API. The community solution is the Dalamud market board plugin: when players visit a Market Board, the plugin uploads the scan to a community endpoint. Universalis is the community project that has spent years building this ingestion pipeline — the contributor network, the storage, the anti-spam filtering, the public API.
We could have built a competing plugin and ingestion stack. We chose not to because (1) the Universalis maintainers do excellent work, (2) FFXIV players already have Universalis installed, and (3) running a parallel network would split the contributor base, making both services worse. So AuricDB consumes the Universalis API and focuses on the layer above: ranking, alerts, cross-game watchlists, and the mobile UI.
When to use Universalis
- You want the raw, lowest-latency view of a single item's listings.
- You're a developer building your own FFXIV tool — the Universalis API is free and well documented.
- You run the Dalamud market board plugin and want to see your own upload feed.
When to use AuricDB
- You want to find profitable flips without scrolling through 15,000 items.
- You want a price alert on Cordials, Grade 8 Dark Matter, or any item — emailed or pushed.
- You play more than one MMO and want a single watchlist for FFXIV, WoW Classic, GW2, and PoE.
- You want cross-world arbitrage opportunities ranked automatically.
- You're on mobile.
Try AuricDB for FFXIV
Free — no account required to browse.