Difference between OAuth and API key?

David-Night-Fox-2260538364

Hello,
what is the difference between OAuth and API key? When to use OAuth? When to use API key? Or, do I need both?

Thanks,
David.

Sander

David API key is always full access. With OAuth you can choose a limited set of permissions (Somewhat like read-only)

David-Night-Fox-2260538364

Sander Everything I can do with OAuth is also possible with API key (but of course not vice versa), am I right?

lexy-blue-panda

David Yes, but not vice versa. API keys are intended for personal use whereas OAuth is intended for apps.

OAuth offers all the possible permissions you might need for your app. If you use OAuth, bunq users using your app will get a connection request saying what permissions they are granting your app, which equals a better user experience too.

David-Night-Fox-2260538364

Lexy So, if I only want to create (PHP) scripts for me (any maybe some of my family) API key is the right one, right?

Sander

David yes. 🙂

lexy-blue-panda

David It would be more practical in this case. However, you should not share your API key with anyone.

David-Night-Fox-2260538364

Sander Lexy How can I e.g. call a list of all my monetary accounts with an API call?

wesselt

Lexy For personal use, the big difference is that you can use an API key to send money, delete and request cards, and so on. So the key is quite sensitive. With OATH you can only read data and propose payments.
Unless you want to automate payments, I'd go for OATH.

lexy-blue-panda

David by making a POST call to the /user/{userID}/monetary-account endpoint.
All the API requests you might want to use, including getting a list of monetary accounts, are covered in our Postman collection. You can get it here: https://github.com/bunq/postman