API managers serve a wealth of important functions across the entire lifecycle of an API, from providing the tools to develop and publish to managing traffic and reporting metrics on performance. There’s no shortage of API management offerings available in this rapidly growing industry, so to help with the selection process, we’ve reviewed the most recent industry analyses from Forrester, Gartner, and Ovum and rounded up several of the major players for a comparison of their offerings.
CA Tech
CA Technologies has offered API management services since 2013, when it acquired Layer 7 Technologies. Since then, CA Tech has developed one of the more comprehensive API management packages in the market and was recognized in last year’s Gartner, Ovum, and Forrester reports as an industry leader. Their API Gateway is designed for enterprise-scale API management and includes the CA API Developer Portal, CA Live API Creator, CA Mobile API Gateway, and offers the add-on CA Mobile App Services, which offers SDKs and back-end services for IoT and mobile app development.
Pricing – Not listed
Deployment – Cloud-based (as CA API Management SaaS), on-premises, and hybrid
Security – CA’s API Management integrates with any popular IAM system with support for OAuth, SAML and RADIUS. Forrester lists CA Tech’s security integration as a particular strength, and Ovum ranks CA Tech among its top four companies in this arena.
Analytics – API Developer Portal provides analytics for API usage, latency, success rate, etc., whereas CA API Management SaaS allows users to create custom reports and view KPIs across multiple dashboards.
Monetization – Available through freemium, purchase, subscription, or consumption models.
Apigee API Platform
With high-profile clients such as BBC Worldwide, Walgreens, and Netflix, Apigee has long been considered a market leader in API management, consistently recognized by Gartner for both “ability to execute” and “completeness of vision.” In addition to dynamic routing, caching, and rate limiting policies to manage traffic, Apigee offers an autoscaling feature, and offer Apigee Link as an add-on for users who are looking to extend APIs to IoT devices.
Pricing is listed in three tiers:
EdgeStart from $300/mo for 2M calls per month and 5 proxies
EdgePro from $2250/mo for 8M calls and 25 proxies
EdgeEnterprise (price unlisted) 250+M calls per quarter, unlimited proxies
Deployment – on-premises or on the cloud, with cloud partners MS Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, and Pivotal Cloud Foundry
Security – Offers a range of security features including two-factor authentication, OAuth 2.0 support, Encrypted KVMs, and add-ons for bot prevention
Analytics – Provides API performance and developer usage analytics and allows users to create and monitor their own custom metrics
Monetization – Available as an add-on through flat fees, usage-based fees, and revenue-sharing models
IBM API Connect
Starting in 2013, IBM began offering its own solution for API management, IBM API Connect, an end-to-end platform for creating, running, managing, and securing APIs. API Connect provides users with two gateway options: a micro gateway based on Node.js, which supports API creation through Strongloop’s LoopBack framework and an enterprise gateway, which is the virtual software edition of DataPower Gateway. As Gartner points out, however, DataPower is somewhat dated and uses XML, rather than REST, as the basis of most of its functionality.
Pricing – IBM lists three tiers of pricing:
Essentials: Free (handles 50,000 calls/month)
Professional: Starting at $2,500/mo (5M calls/mo, single datacenter, up to two servers)
Enterprise: Starting at $10,000/mo (25M calls/mo, multi-datacenter, multi-server)
Deployment – Cloud or on-premises
Analytics – Provided using the ELK Stack
Monetization – Allows partnerships with billing solution providers, but no embedded features for users who wish to charge for API usage
WSO2 API Manager
Their API Manager supports full API lifecycle management, including design, integration, and publishing, where users showcase their APIs in a store similar to mobile applications, and APIs can be documented, categorized, and tested directly from the store. WSO2’s open-source platform includes several other services, including identity management and security, analytics, and mobile and IoT device management, which they are able to leverage in their offerings.
Pricing – open-source
Deployment – on-premises and cloud
Security – Support for OAuth2, SSO, XACML for fine-grained access control, and third-party key servers (apart from WSO2 Key Manager)
Analytics – Out-of-the-box support for WSO2 Data Analytics Server and Google Analytics
Monetization – Allows for paid or freemium payment configurations
TIBCO Mashery
TIBCO Cloud Integration and Mashery’s API Management combine to deliver Mashery Enterprise, a full life cycle API Management service, and Mashery API Management, which provides management without API creation and integration. Mashery’s long track record of success in the API industry continues under TIBCO’s acquisition of them, maintaining industry leader status in last year’s Ovum and Gartner reports, and “Strong Performer” status through Forrester.
Pricing – Not listed
API Portal – Users can create a customizable portal for self-service onboarding of developers and execute API calls directly from within documents
Deployment – on-premises, hybrid, or cloud
Security – Provides OAuth and SSL Support; information handling is HITRUST (Health Information Trust Alliance) certified and PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant
Analytics – provided through TIBCO Spotfire
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