API Gateway Hosting Options
By 2029, organizations spend $17 billion annually on API management solutions. The choice between fully-hosted, self-hosted, or hybrid API gateways determines how that investment performs. API gateways handle critical functions like traffic management, security, and request routing that keep modern applications running. As systems become more complex, selecting the right hosting model directly impacts performance, security, and operational costs.
Three main hosting options exist for API gateways: fully-hosted, self-hosted, and hybrid. Each model offers distinct advantages and trade-offs that align with different organizational needs. Recent trends toward componentized API management highlight how organizations need flexible solutions that adapt to their specific requirements while maintaining security and performance standards.
Table of Contents#
Fully-Hosted API Gateways#
Fully-hosted API gateways (aka SaaS API gateway, Fully-Managed API gateway, or Cloud API gateway) operate as managed services that handle API traffic, security, and monitoring without requiring infrastructure maintenance. Where these APIs are deployed to often depends on the gateway vendor you choose. Many offer a "serverless" deployment where your API is deployed to multiple regions across the world to handle global traffic. Recently, gateways have even been deployed to "the edge" (ie. deploy to hundreds of network edge locations worldwide), providing global scalability and reduced latency for API consumers.
Benefits and Implementation#
Fully-hosted platforms automatically handle deployment across regions, and manage scaling, security, and monitoring for your APIs. This approach often reduces the total cost of ownership compared to self-hosted solutions that require an engineering team to set up, dedicated infrastructure and maintenance.
Modern gateways (ex. Zuplo) can be configured and deployed via Git enabling any API developer to deploy updates to your API. In this approach, organizations maintain API configurations in their preferred Git provider and use standard OpenAPI specifications to define their APIs. The gateway also handles complex tasks such as multi-cloud routing and secure tunneling to server-side services in any cloud provider.
Trade-offs#
While fully-hosted solutions offer substantial advantages, they come with specific considerations. Vendor lock-in presents a legitimate concern, as switching providers may require changes to API configurations and deployment processes. Some solutions may limit customization options compared to self-hosted alternatives. However, modern providers address these concerns by using industry standards such as OpenAPI and providing programmatic control over gateway behavior.
Over 10,000 developers trust Zuplo to secure, document, and monetize their APIs
Learn MoreSelf-hosted API Gateways#
Self-hosted API gateways give organizations complete control over their API infrastructure by running gateway software on their own servers or cloud infrastructure. There are several such solutions, including Zuplo Self-hosted, Kong and Solo.io - which offer distinct approaches to API management while maintaining full authority over deployment and configuration decisions.
Infrastructure Requirements and Control#
Self-hosted gateways require substantial infrastructure preparation. Organizations must provision servers, configure load balancing, and ensure high availability through redundancy. For container-based deployments, a functioning Kubernetes cluster becomes necessary, along with supporting utilities for installation and management.
The ability to deploy within the same virtual network as server-side services can significantly reduce latency compared to cloud-hosted alternatives. Organizations can implement custom security policies, improve performance through caching and rate limiting, and maintain complete data sovereignty.
Operational Considerations#
Self-hosted gateways require expertise in infrastructure management, security hardening, and performance optimization. Organizations become responsible for updates, patches, and security fixes. This increased operational burden can affect development velocity and require dedicated DevOps resources. Scaling requires careful capacity planning and infrastructure management to maintain performance during traffic spikes.
Hybrid API Gateways#
Hybrid API gateways combine fully-hosted benefits with self-hosted control by separating the control plane from the data plane. This approach enables organizations to maintain a unified API management strategy across diverse environments, including public clouds, private data centers, and edge locations.
Multi-Cloud and Compliance#
Hybrid gateways excel in regulated industries where data sovereignty requirements demand specific workloads remain on-premises. Organizations can process sensitive data locally while leveraging cloud resources for public-facing APIs, enabling compliance with regulations like GDPR or HIPAA.
The primary obstacle lies in maintaining consistency across distributed gateway instances. Organizations must manage complex networking configurations and ensure secure communication between control and data planes. Misaligned policies across environments can create security vulnerabilities, making configuration synchronization critical.
Making the Right Choice#
Your API gateway choice should align with your operational capabilities, technical requirements, and business goals. Here's a quick reference guide:
- Consider Fully-hosted If:
- You're focused on rapid API development
- You're just starting out building APIs
- Your engineering team's bandwidth is very limited
- Consider Self Hosted If:
- You have a high request volume (billions per day)
- Your team has extensive infrastructure experience
- You're primarily developing internal APIs
- Consider Hybrid If:
- You want a unified approach and management plane for your internal and external APIs
- You have regulatory/privacy requirements that don't let you adopt fully-hosted
- You're a multi-cloud organization
Remember that your choice should support both immediate requirements and future expansion, ensuring your API gateway can grow alongside your business. For example, you may not be multi-cloud now, but many organization become multi-cloud by accident upon acquiring a company with a different stack.
You might also be considering building your own API gateway to save costs or have greater customization. Check out this article on hosted API gateways advantages to learn why this may not be a good idea.
Lastly, if you're looking for a programmable, multi-cloud ready, OpenAPI-native API gateway, check out Zuplo today!
