Top API Lifecycle Management Tools for 2024

In today’s API landscape, there are many tools out there designed to speed up the processes involved at every stage of the API management lifecycle, including design, creation, deployment, and monitoring. 

‍

Some newer up-and-coming examples include Liblab, which provides SDK development tools for authentication, error handling, security, and more, or the exceptional Lottielab, which simplifies the creation of animations in apps and websites. Mirrord lives up to its name by mirroring Kubernetes clusters on local machines for easier debugging, and Descope provides the easy code-free addition of authentication, authorization, and identity management to customer-facing apps. 

‍

As 2023 draws to a close, we’ve assembled a list of some of the top API lifecycle management tools that we think you should be considering in 2024. We’ve looked to Gartner API management user reviews (and elsewhere) for our recommendations but haven’t included scores. These can vary by a couple of points between different reviewers, so it seems more sensible to showcase all of these capable platforms as top choices. 

‍

We will also mention Lunar.dev and where it fits in this cosmos of API consumption as it’s a valuable component in what we see as a new category of API consumption tech. In fact, it’s the only “Egress-Proxy” and platform that’s been built to let you effectively manage your third-party API consumption, with no new code or middleware required. 

‍

Here’s an overview of some of the best API lifecycle management tools to consider using in 2024.

‍

Previously recommended by Gartner:

IBM API Connect

Lifecycle stages covered

Planning and Design, Development, Testing, Deployment, Security, Documentation and Developer Portal, Monitoring and Analytics

‍

Capabilities and features

IBM API Connect is a popular single-platform API management solution that integrates well with other systems. It offers a user-friendly interface, version control governance, strong security, and reliability for businesses wishing to create APIs for particular consumer markets. It features an enterprise-level gateway to help protect endpoints, with subscription tools and self-service portals to take care of community management.

‍

What we like about it

Best-in-class API Management tooling and it offers a cloud-native solution.

‍

Pricing

Prices start at $83 a month if you decide to rent it on a SaaS basis via Amazon Web Services, but expect to pay upwards of $6504 a month if you go the single-tenant service route, with hosting on IBM Cloud.

‍

Microsoft Azure API Management

Lifecycle stages covered

Planning and Design, Development, Testing, Deployment, Security, Documentation and Developer Portal, Monitoring and Analytics

‍

Capabilities and features

Key features of Microsoft Azure API Management include security features such as authentication, request authorization, and rate-limiting. It facilitates the transformation of legacy web services into REST-based APIs and offers real-time analytics of error tracking, traffic trends, usage patterns, and more. Its user-friendly developer portal lets developers obtain keys and register applications, and this fully managed service enables customers to publish, secure, transform, maintain, and monitor APIs, helping them to manage the entire API lifecycle.

‍

What we like about it

Highly scalable and secure platform for quick exposure of APIs.

‍

Pricing

Standard pricing is $0.042 per 10,000 calls. The Developer tier costs $48.04 per month, Basic is $147.17, Standard is $686.72, and Premium costs $2,795.17. Pricing for the Isolated tier for enterprises has yet to be confirmed.

‍

Workato

Lifecycle stages covered

Planning and Design, Development, Testing, Deployment, Security, Documentation and Developer Portal, Monitoring and Analytics

‍

Capabilities and features

Workato features full API lifecycle management for building and maintaining APIs completely in the cloud. Its user-friendly dashboard is very customizable. Managing the API lifecycle is straightforward, and you can set up client and access profiles for endpoint control. Workato has an extensive library of connectors for quickly enabling integrations and an intuitive interface that allows users to streamline complex workflows. 

‍

What we like about it

Customizable, non-code-based way to integrate cloud applications and quickly get systems talking to each other.

‍

Pricing

A free trial is available, with paid tiers ranging from the Premium Plan at $119 per month, 

Professional at $599, and Enterprise at $2199.

‍

SAP Integration Suite

Lifecycle stages covered

Planning and Design, Development, Testing, Security, Monitoring and Analytics

‍

Capabilities and features

SAP Integration Suite lets companies connect their cloud-based and on-premises applications, processes, systems, events, and data. Its API management capabilities simplify API creation, management, and security, and its real-time monitoring and processing means quicker responses to customers, employees, and partners are possible. SAP Integration can automate tasks, deliver insights, and ramp up operational efficiency thanks to its predictive analytics and AI assistance features. The suite blends cloud integration, API management, its Integration Advisor, and open connectors into one toolkit for enterprise integrations. SAP is OData and OpenAPI specification-compliant and it comes with strong security features.  

‍

What we like about it

Great for quickly assembling content-rich applications with less IT dependence.

‍

Pricing

The standard SAP plan costs $4,150 per tenant per month. You’ll need to contact the sales team for a quote for the Premium tier.

‍

Postman

Lifecycle stages covered

Planning and Design, Development, Testing, Deployment, Security, Documentation and Developer Portal, Monitoring and Analytics

‍

Capabilities and features

One user described Postman as the Swiss Army knife of the API world, which may explain why it has a user base of 17,000 developers. The platform features an API Builder that teams can use to collaborate, designing API specifications using the OpenAPI, RAML, GraphQL, gRPC, or SOAP formats. It links to the source code repository and keeps API specifications, tests, and documentation up to date automatically alongside the code. 

‍

96% of users on Gartner Peer Insights said they would recommend it, so it’s well worth investigating. 

‍

What we like about it

Popular among developers, user-friendly UI, flexible, efficient for API testing, supports a wide range of authentication types, data formats, and HTTP methods.

‍

Pricing

Postman has a free version, and paid plans called Basic, Professional, and Enterprise. The Basic plan begins at $12 per user per month.

‍

SwaggerHub

Lifecycle stages covered

Planning and Design, Development, Testing, Deployment

‍

Capabilities and features

SwaggerHub is an endlessly scalable API management platform that makes the process of designing and managing APIs simpler. With its powerful collaboration features teams can use it to design, create, and maintain APIs, safe in the knowledge that Swaggerhub’s easy-to-use Smart API editor conforms to OpenAPI specifications (OAS).

Straightforward deployments are possible thanks to automated notifications, API versioning, and secure integrations. It enables oversight and control during the entire API lifecycle and features a cloud-hosted central internal repository. 

‍

What we like about it

Easy to use, it can manage a large number of APIs, intuitive interface, good for creating API-specific documentation.

‍

Pricing

SwaggerHub has six pricing options, ranging from $75 per month per user to $300 per month per user.

‍

Boomi

Lifecycle stages covered

Planning and Design, Development, Testing, Deployment, Security, Documentation and Developer Portal, Monitoring and Analytics

‍

Capabilities and features

Boomi is a flexible and simple full API lifecycle manager with API monitoring, and a smart, user-friendly interface. It comes with a great set of features that cover most integration patterns, and the company offers excellent support.  It is developer-friendly, and adopters benefit from a helpful user community. 

Boomi lets organizations set up and expose integrations in real-time using APIs and third-party services. You can easily publish and govern APIs, whether they're on-premises or cloud-based.

‍

What we like about it

Quick, user-friendly, and thorough. 

Pricing

Developers can create composite applications spanning mobile, social, and IoT networks, and the API Developer Portal makes data access from existing apps simpler. Pricing is a straightforward $550 a month.

‍

Kong Konnect

Lifecycle stages covered

Deployment, Security, Monitoring and Analytics

‍

Capabilities and features

Kong Konnect is a full API lifecycle management platform that simplifies multi-cloud API management. It lets organizations securely connect large numbers of services across many environments. Kong features multi-cloud API management, integral security, and traffic control plugins, and it benefits from high-quality customer support, too. The platform organizes runtimes, services, teams, and environments into logical groups so that APIs and policies can be consistently configured at scale. 

‍

Kong Konnect has customizable controls and plug-ins that can be adjusted to ensure security best practices are applied and to meet compliance requirements. 

‍

What we like about it

Connects APIs and microservices across hybrid or multi-cloud environments quickly and easily.

‍

Pricing

Pricing plans begin at $250 per service per month, but a free trial is available for those wishing to test the water. 

‍

WSO2

Lifecycle stages covered 

Planning and Design, Development, Testing, Deployment, Security, Documentation and Developer Portal, Monitoring and Analytics

‍

Capabilities and features

WSO2 API Manager is an open-source platform that enables users to design, manage, and publish APIs. Use it to share APIs with consumers, set up industry-standard authorization flows, and even integrate with current key management or identity access tools. It offers OAuth, OpenID, Connect, and JWT standards out of the box. WSO2 offers runtime and design governance of the complete API lifecycle, so users can create APIs from current services, manage in-house and third-party applications, and keep tabs on their performance and usage at every stage from set up to retirement. 

‍

What we like about it

Adaptable design, robust third-party consumption features, and a helpful community.

‍

Pricing

WSO2 is available as a free package to non-commercial users. Professional users need to pay to access the full range of features, and pricing information is available from the sales team.

‍

TIBCO Cloud API Management

Lifecycle stages covered 

Planning and Design, Development, Testing, Deployment, Security, Documentation and Developer Portal, Monitoring and Analytics

‍

Capabilities and features

TIBCO Cloud API Management is a full lifecycle API management SaaS solution that offers API creation, security, and analytics. It can be deployed on any public or private cloud or containerized on the premises. It allows API management through a single interface regardless of where API-led services are running. It offers robust security features such as authentication, authorization, and encryption for unauthorized access protection and to ensure data privacy. It also provides a centralized governance framework, so admins can create and apply policies, track API usage, and create reports. The solution is designed for cloud-native tooling and DevOps processes and can scale to meet enterprise needs. 

It works with any PaaS, so it can be used to manage APIs from almost anywhere. It offers a codeless Visual API Modeling environment, which generates AsyncAPI and OpenAPI documents for easy testing. 

‍

What we like about it

Comprehensive features and tools for streamlined API design, development, security, and governance.

‍

Pricing

TIBCO comes as a 30-day free trial and paid plans start at $400 a month, billed annually, rising to $1500 for the enterprise version. Hybrid plan pricing is obtainable from the sales team.

‍

Apigee API Lifecycle Management

Lifecycle stages covered 

Planning and Design, Development, Testing, Deployment, Security, Documentation and Developer Portal, Monitoring and Analytics

‍

Capabilities and features

This comprehensive solution provides tools and RESTful APIs to integrate API proxy deployment and management into your organization's software development lifecycle. This includes developing, testing, and deploying applications. Apigee API Services allows users to deploy API proxies seamlessly, keeping disruption to apps and users to a minimum during the deployment process. Apigee also lets users manage and productize the full lifecycle of GraphQL APIs for consumption, in the same way as REST does. 

‍

86% of users on Gartner Peer Insights said they would recommend it, so there is a very good chance that you’ll find it useful too.

‍

What we like about it

Automation, ease of use, flexibility, scalability and security.

‍

Pricing

Evaluation, pay-as-you-go, and subscription models are available (details here). 

‍

‍Conclusions

‍

So, that’s our selection of some of the best API lifecycle management tools available, and here’s a quick shout-out to some smaller companies making waves in this field that you should definitely check out too: 

‍

• SpeakEasy - developer experience portal that quickly creates software development kits and speeds up time to deployment
• Zuplo - Zuplo lets businesses secure their APIs in minutes by adding rate-limiting, lets them add over 50 plugins with a single click, automatically produces API documentation and analytics, and more.
• Merge.dev - provides unified APIs for HR, payroll, accounting, ticketing, CRM, and ATS integrations.

‍

You may be familiar with a few of the entries on our list already, but you’re probably wondering where Lunar.dev sits within this vast cosmos of API traffic and how it compares. 

‍

Well, while it’s not an API-building tool, it does provide tremendous value for developers once your APIs have been built. Lunar.dev’s sole focus is on being the best solution for a much-neglected function: providing simplified and centralized third-party API consumption management at scale. It’s the right tool to help you manage usage right after you have integrated any API, empowering you to focus on traffic optimization, cost reduction, and volume limits. You can choose to tunnel any or all traffic via Lunar.dev, monitor it and optimize it through the proxy. 

‍

It’s also open source and it integrates seamlessly into your stack with just a single line of code. Intrigued yet? Great! Then why not give it a try?