Zuplo
API Gateway Comparisons

Zuplo vs
Apache APISIX (API7.ai)

  • SOC 2 Type II
  • 99.999% SLA
  • 300+ edge locations

The Managed API Gateway for Teams Beyond Self-Hosted APISIX

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Feature
Zuplo
APISIX
Compliance and Audit Readiness
Enterprise Identity (SSO + RBAC)
Managed Dedicated Deployment
Unified API and AI Gateway
Developer Portal
API Key Management
AccuWeather
Read the Case Study
Blockdaemon
Read the Case Study
Lake Michigan Credit Union
Read the Case Study
Finsolutia
Read the Case Study
VNDR
Read the Case Study
Mews
Read the Case Study
Yext
Read the Case Study
Zumiez
Read the Case Study

What's wrong with APISIX

APISIX's key limitations for modern engineering teams

The forces driving enterprises off APISIX in 2026 — operational tax, plugin sprawl, retrofitted AI, and pricing that doesn't predict.

Self-Hosted Data Plane

Production APISIX in its traditional mode runs on etcd plus Nginx and compute you provision. API7 Cloud manages the control plane, but the data plane still runs in your own infrastructure.

Self-Managed Operations

APISIX is open-source software you run and upgrade yourself (or via API7 Enterprise). Policy logic is written in Lua, or in Go/Python/Java via the external plugin runner — versus Zuplo's fully managed, TypeScript model.

No Built-In Developer Portal in Open Source

APISIX open source has no integrated developer portal or self-serve API key lifecycle. A portal requires API7 Enterprise (which now ships one) or building your own.

Why Zuplo

Built for teams replatforming off Apache APISIX (API7.ai)

Managed, modern API management with predictable economics across procurement cycles — no operator overhead, no plugin sprawl, no consumption-pricing surprises.

Compliance and Audit Readiness

First-class managed compliance vs. compliance dependent on customer environment.

Enterprise Identity (SSO + RBAC)

Direct SAML/SCIM with project-level RBAC vs. plugin-based identity.

Managed Dedicated Deployment

Managed dedicated across major clouds vs. self-hosted data plane.

A solutions architect can walk you through your current APISIX setup, surface the biggest operational tax, and map a migration path — no slide deck required.

Talk to an Architect

Enterprise ready

Production-ready for regulated and high-volume workloads

Compliance & Audit

  • SOC 2 Type II audited annually
  • Third-party penetration test reports available under NDA
  • GDPR-aligned data processing
  • Audit logs across the control plane
  • API governance with policy enforcement

Identity & Access

  • SAML SSO and SCIM provisioning
  • Role-based access control across organizations, projects, and environments
  • Service-account credentials with scoped permissions
  • API key metadata for downstream authorization

Deployment Flexibility

  • Managed edge across 300+ locations — global by default
  • Managed dedicated single-tenant on AWS, Azure, GCP, Akamai, or any major cloud
  • Self-hosted on Kubernetes with full control plane
  • Bring-your-own-cloud for data residency requirements

Support & Success

  • Up to 30-minute response SLA on Enterprise
  • 24/7/365 emergency hotline for critical incidents
  • Named technical account manager
  • Architecture and migration professional services

Built for the AI era

One managed gateway for API and AI traffic

APISIX added native AI plugins (ai-proxy, ai-rate-limiting, prompt guard, RAG) and MCP-to-HTTP bridging, but they run on the same self-hosted Lua and Nginx stack you operate. API7.ai also ships AISIX, a separate Rust-based AI gateway. Zuplo delivers API and AI traffic in one fully managed platform — no self-hosted data plane and no second product to run.

Unified API and AI Gateway

Single platform for traditional API management and AI workloads — no separate AI gateway product to operate.

MCP Gateway

Turn any API into a remote MCP server, or govern third-party MCP servers behind a single managed gateway.

Agentic auth and identity

Per-agent API keys, scoped credentials, and dynamic per-call policies.

Token economics built in

Per-token metering, per-customer model budgets, native API monetization (beta).

See it in action

See Zuplo running on your stack

A 30-minute working session with a Zuplo solutions engineer. Bring an OpenAPI spec or a Kong route definition and walk away with a working preview.

Talk to Sales Compare features

Side by side

Feature-by-feature comparison

Feature
Zuplo
APISIX
Compliance and Audit Readiness
SOC 2 Type II audited annually, third-party penetration test reports under NDA, audit logs, GDPR-aligned data processing.
Compliance posture inherited from customer-operated environment.
Enterprise Identity (SSO + RBAC)
SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, and RBAC across organizations, projects, and environments.
Customer-managed identity through configured plugins and Kubernetes RBAC.
Managed Dedicated Deployment
Single-tenant managed deployment on AWS, Azure, GCP, Akamai, or any major cloud with up to a 30-minute response SLA.
Self-hosted in customer infrastructure with etcd, Nginx, and compute. API7 Cloud manages control plane only.
Unified API and AI Gateway
Single platform for API and AI traffic with MCP server hosting, MCP Gateway for governance, semantic caching, provider failover, and budget enforcement.
APISIX has native AI plugins and MCP bridging, but on a self-hosted Lua/Nginx stack; API7.ai's AISIX is a separate Rust AI gateway. Either path is self-managed.
Developer Portal
Auto-generated from OpenAPI spec with self-serve API key management, interactive docs, and monetization support.
APISIX open source has no developer portal. A portal requires API7 Enterprise (which now ships one) or building your own.
API Key Management
Built-in API key service with self-serve creation, rotation, leak detection, and per-consumer metadata.
Key authentication via plugin, but no built-in key lifecycle management, self-serve portal, or leak detection.
Operational Simplicity
Fully managed and serverless across 300+ edge locations.
Self-hosted Nginx data plane plus etcd in traditional mode (or static config in standalone mode), all on your own compute.
Developer Experience
TypeScript-based programmable policies with full IDE support, preview environments per PR, and Git-native config.
Plugins in Lua, or Go/Python/Java via the external plugin runner, plus YAML config and Admin API. 100+ built-in plugins.
GitOps and CI/CD
Git-native — repo is the source of truth. Every push deploys, every PR gets a preview environment.
YAML config and Admin API. Declarative config via the ADC CLI is available, but in traditional mode etcd remains the runtime source of truth.
Global Edge Performance
V8 isolate runtime across 300+ edge locations with near-zero cold starts.
High-performance Nginx-based architecture deployed in customer data center or cloud region. Global distribution requires multi-region setup.
Protocol Support
HTTP/REST, GraphQL, and WebSocket with TypeScript handlers.
Broad protocol support including HTTP, gRPC, WebSocket, MQTT, GraphQL, QUIC, TCP/UDP proxying.

Migration path

Migrating from APISIX to Zuplo

APISIX routes and upstream configurations map to OpenAPI-defined routes in Zuplo. Common APISIX plugins (rate limiting, key authentication, JWT validation, request transformation) have direct Zuplo equivalents or short TypeScript custom code.

Migration phases

Typical migration in 4–8 weeks

  1. Inventory APIs and plugins

    Catalog APISIX routes, upstreams, plugins, and consumers. Identify Lua plugins that require translation to TypeScript.

    2 wksPlan locked

  2. Foundation deployment

    Stand up Zuplo Enterprise on managed dedicated deployment. Configure SSO/SCIM, RBAC, and CI/CD wiring.

    2 wksFoundation live

  3. Policy and consumer migration

    Translate APISIX plugins to Zuplo policies. Migrate consumers and API keys via the Zuplo Developer API.

    4 wksSide-by-side

  4. Cut-over and decommission

    Move primary traffic to Zuplo with weighted routing. Validate SLOs, then decommission APISIX data plane.

    2 wksCut-over done

What our customers say

Trusted by engineering teams at scale

Blockdaemon

90%

Hardware footprint reduction at scale

Read the Blockdaemon case study →

"The move to Zuplo from our existing API Management vendor was easy, taking just over 2 months to switch mission critical systems, and we're saving over 70% on costs."

Ryan Waites

Senior Director, Blockdaemon

Case study →

"Zuplo gives us the flexibility to scale efficiently, ensures security and compliance, and reduces operational complexity so we can focus on building new capabilities."

Daryl Benzel

Staff Software Engineer, Yext

Case study →
AccuWeather

1B+

End users served via Zuplo APIs

Read the AccuWeather case study →

Finsolutia

Hours

To launch MCP server on regulated APIs

Read the Finsolutia case study →

"We didn't touch a line of code, it's just plug and play. The results were very surprising, in just a couple of hours we had a great result and a fully working MCP Server."

Miguel Madeira

CTO & Co-Founder, Finsolutia

Case study →

Trusted for regulated and high-volume workloads

SOC 2 Type II Third-party penetration testing GDPR-aligned 24/7/365 emergency hotline
300+ Global edge locations
Billions API requests served / month
Up to 99.999% Enterprise uptime SLA
<20s Global deploy time

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Zuplo vs Apache APISIX (API7.ai).

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