Zuplo vs.AWS API Gateway
Zuplo is redefining what it means to be an API Management platform and is an alternative to AWS API Gateway. With Zuplo, you can easily build and share quality APIs with other developers. Compare features, pricing, deployment options, and customizability below.
Overview
Most customers we speak with are building on AWS and have an obvious question... why would I choose Zuplo over AWS API Gateway?
Here’s a rundown of why Zuplo will get you to market faster, with the right features and with lower on-going maintenance burden, and offer a better developer experience.
| Feature | AWS API Gateway | Zuplo |
|---|---|---|
| API Key Authentication | ❌ Not for use as auth! [1] | ✅ Unlimited keys |
| API Key Portal | ❌ | ✅ |
| Rate Limiting | Per API Key only | Dynamic - can write code to set rate limits on each request (demo) |
| Edge deployment | ❌ | ✅ (270+ of datacenters worldwide) |
| Multi-cloud | ❌ | ✅ [2] |
| Open API support | ❌ | ✅ |
| Policy Library | ❌ | ✅ 32 built-in (more coming) |
| Max response time | 29s | Over 120s |
| Custom Policies | ❌ | ✅ (demo) |
| Dynamic Routing | ❌ | ✅ (demo) |
| Hosted Developer Portal | ❌ | ✅ |
| Programmability | via call to Lambda - slow | ✅ Runs inside the gateway - fast! (demo) |
| Cognito JWT Auth | ✅ | ✅ |
| Open ID JWT Auth | ❌ requires a custom authorizer | ✅ built-in policy |
| Lifecycle Management (versioning) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Direct AWS Lambda proxy | ✅ | ✅ (high performance) |
| SDK Generation | ✅ | ❌ [3] |
| VPC Connectivity | ✅ | ✅ via secure tunnel provided by CloudFlare |
| Reliability | ✅ | ✅ Serving Billions of requests every month, with zero downtime to date |
| Stripe quality developer experience 🙌 | ❌ | ✅ |
Performance
AWS API Gateway
AWS API Gateway offers good performance when exposing services hosted in AWS - especially when the consumers of those services are geographically close to the AWS Region. When dealing with multiple regions or services where performance is important, developers typically augment their Gateway solution with load balancers and caching solutions such as AWS Cloudfront or AWS Lambda Edge Cache.
Zuplo
Zuplo is built on the most reliable and fastest network in the world. The default Zuplo deployment is to more than 250 locations around the world with more than 90% of the global population within 50ms of an edge location. By running at the edge close to your customers, Zuplo gateway out-performs AWS API Gateway calling AWS, even when calling Lambda. Median latency is approximately the same - but Zuplo’s 0ms cold-start platform means less spikes, more consistency. Coupled with Zuplo's built-in edge caching capabilities and programmability, developers transform slow APIs into blazing fast solutions in only a few hours.
Deployment Options
AWS API Gateway
AWS API Gateway is deployed exclusively as a managed service on the AWS cloud.
Zuplo
Zuplo's default deployment is to 270+ data centers at the edge around the world. Over 90% of the world's population is within 50ms ping of our edge locations. The easiest deployment model for Zuplo is simply to deploy it everywhere with a single click in seconds. The edge deployment model works extremely well when your gateway runs in a single or many cloud or private data centers.
Notes
[1] I thought AWS API Gateway had API Keys?
Yes, but these are not recommended for authentication. See best practices in their docs. AWS API Gateway Keys are primarily for use with usage plans. Also, you are limited to 500 API Keys by default. Also, we think API Keys are the best choice for public APIs - read more.
[2] Multi-cloud
By default, we deploy your production Zuplo gateway to the edge in 100s of data centers worldwide, it works well with any cloud (btw - you can contact us if you’re interested in a private deployment of Zuplo).
[3] Why no SDK Generation?
We believe software developers are craftspeople who feel pride in what they create; they’re passionate about sharing great developer experiences with others. We haven’t seen an approach to SDK generation that meets that pride. Generally, the feedback on SDKs generated by tools is that they are ‘meh’ at best. We don’t want to tackle this problem until we’re sure we can deliver something our customers would be proud to share with their developers.
Other Features That Make Zuplo Unique
Stripe-like Developer Portal
Just import your OpenAPI spec to generate beautiful documentation and developer portal. Check out an example portal here.
Secret Know-How
Founded by a product leader who also founded Azure API Management at Microsoft in 2013, but felt the product was stuck in the dark ages and decided to build redefine what it means to be an API Management Platform. Read Zuplo's story here.
