Zuplo vs. Apigee API Management
As an alternative to Apigee, Zuplo’s API management platform has become a go-to APIM solution for those moving away from or considering Apigee. Known for its contemporary developer experience that uses a developer’s existing skillset, Zuplo offers a lower total cost of ownership even at (hyper-)scale. It also offers Stripe-quality developer portals for the ultimate end-user experience.
What is Apigee?#
Founded in 2004, Apigee is one of the oldest API management platforms, and for those already using the Google Cloud Platform, it is an obvious choice. Apigee was an independent API management tool provider before being acquired by Google in 2016. Now, Apigee operates as a wholly owned product of the Google Cloud Platform, with options for hybrid environments or a fully managed service for packaging serverless functions as REST APIs.
What is Zuplo?#
Zuplo, an Apigee alternative, is a fully managed API management platform that enables API developers and their organizations to adopt an API-first approach to API development. Developers can easily use Zuplo to build new APIs, layering in security, custom policies, and API key authentication in minutes. All while using familiar GitOps patterns across unlimited environments. Once deployed to 300+ edge data centers worldwide, Zuplo's powerful API management platform helps support your API’s user journey with performant, high-availability APIs accompanied by autogenerated Stripe-quality documentation.
Key Differences Between Apigee and Zuplo#
When it comes to comparing Apigee and Zuplo, there are three critical areas to focus on. These areas include:
- Total cost of ownership
- Programmability and developer experience
- Developer portals and end-user experience
Below is a brief rundown of each area of focus.
Total Cost of Ownership#
Apigee, integrated into Google Cloud in 2016, has a complex pricing model. A fully managed Apigee setup with two environments, 100,000 API calls/month, and a single region costs over $3,000/month, with an additional $1,500/month for an extra region. The hybrid option, though cheaper, requires extensive work to deploy and manage.
In contrast, Zuplo offers a cost-effective solution that doesn’t balloon your total cost of ownership as you scale your API traffic. Deploying an enterprise-grade API with features like API key authentication and rate limiting is available on all tiers, even our free tier. Zuplo's serverless architecture supports billions of requests/month, saving customers 80% compared to Apigee.
Programmability and Developer Experience#
Apigee's use of XML syntax for custom policies and a UI-based configuration can hinder developer experience. It lacks source control for gateway logic, code review for changes, and repeatability for deployments.
Zuplo's comprehensive API management solution integrates seamlessly with developer tools and your developer’s existing skillset. This includes using familiar technologies such as JSON for routes, TypeScript for policies, and Markdown for documentation. It supports GitOps workflows, making the entire API lifecycle declarative and automated. Each new Git branch becomes a fully-fledged developer environment in seconds, enhancing collaboration. Zuplo delivers a full lifecycle API management experience that developers love.
Developer Portal and End User Experience#
Apigee's developer portal setup, primarily through a Drupal-based CMS or a DIY solution, is cumbersome and disconnected from IDEs and Git providers. This results in an outdated portal with manual authorization steps for API keys that is difficult to scale.
Zuplo automates the creation of developer portals from OpenAPI specifications, ensuring a streamlined onboarding experience to help with API adoption. The portals update instantly with new routes or policies developers add, without any environment-specific limits. Zuplo's modern design includes preconfigured self-service API key management and real-time analytics capabilities.
In summary, Zuplo excels in these three core areas:
- Cost: Zuplo is significantly cheaper and simpler.
- Developer Experience: Zuplo offers better integration with modern tools and workflows.
- Developer Portal: Zuplo provides a more streamlined, automatic, and user-friendly portal experience
Detailed API management platform comparison: Zuplo vs. Apigee#
| Feature | Zuplo | Apigee |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | - Free: for up to 100K requests/month - $25/month to add a custom domain - $500/month for up to 1M requests/month 99% SLA - Enterprise package for 99.9% SLA | Pay-as-you go options that begin at $1,500/month for 100K requests and a single deployed region. |
| Deployment options | Fully-managed and auto-scaled, with deployments to 300+ edge data centers for 50ms response times around the world. | Managed deployments in Google Cloud Platform only. On-premises deployments and additional environments available through Apigee hybrid at additional cost. |
| Rate limiting | One-click support for per API, per user, or per API key rate limits, or dynamic customizations with TypeScript. | Support for adding SpikeArrest or Quota policies via (complicated) XML configurations. |
| GitOps support | Gateway configurations are stored in version control-friendly files, and Git integrations sync the desired state with existing CI/CD pipelines. | No native GitOps support; requires Apache Maven and XML configuration files to enable. |
| Customization & programmability | TypeScript-based policy and business logic customizations that deploy and run natively on the API gateway. | Offers custom policies that must be developed using the GCP Console and XML. |
| Authentication | Support for API key and JWT management, and external identity providers. Includes end-user self-service, rate limiting per API key, and open-source React integrations. | Support for standard authentication with complex extension mechanisms. |
| Developer environments | Unlimited preview, testing, and production environments are created in seconds by creating a new Git branch. | Support for multiple environments is charged individually based on monthly API call volume. |
| OpenAPI support | Support for importing OpenAPI definitions for API-first workflows. Additional policies support OpenAPI compliance with request/response inspection. | Support for importing OpenAPI definitions to deploy API routes and developer portals. |
| Stripe-like developer portal | Automatic builds and deployments using an OpenAPI definition, with built-in API key authentication, for beautiful documentation. | Integrated portal that looks outdated, can be customized using Drupal (PHP). |
| Multi-cloud | Route to multiple backends with unified API policies for consistent authentication, logging, metrics, and more. | GCP only 💔. |
| High availability | Built-in and included in all tiers. | Can be manually implemented for additional cost. |
| Integrated Web Application Firewall (WAF) | Built-in for all edge deployments, in partnership with Cloudflare. | VPC connectivity to GCP only. |
Still Considering Apigee? Try Out Zuplo Instead!#
Apigee remains a popular choice for organizations invested in the Google ecosystem. Unfortunately, it remains a legacy-centric API management platform with only a few new features to support API developers in an API-first era. Apigee’s total cost of ownership makes it incompatible with teams without massive operations teams and budgets, and its developer experience falls behind in supporting today’s local-first development workflows and Stripe-quality developer portals.
As an alternative to Apigee, Zuplo redefines API lifecycle management to help you build consistent, secure, and resilient APIs using the tools you already love.
