Apigee vs Microsoft Azure API Management vs MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Apigee, Microsoft Azure API Management, and MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others in API Management.
To learn more, read our detailed API Management Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"API/proxy lifecycle workflow for API providers is quite good and one of Apigee's strongest features.""The most important feature is the security capabilities and the way it integrates very quickly with other security providers. We have integrated it with Azure and it integrates quite seamlessly.""The most valuable feature of Apigee is its simplicity of deploying an API and restricting access, like rate limit, with the API.""The ability to convert from language to language using a single tool.""It nice and easy for the clients and those using the product to access the product's help resources.""The developer portal is very useful to customers.""Anyone with basic knowledge can build an API.""A special feature is configuring target servers, proxy config, and Cert related security, which regularizes incoming traffic from cloud users or external applications to internal applications in a secured manner."

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"The solution is reliable and very stable.""Azure APIM's best features are its straightforward access management (it's a single point of access for all monitoring and logging and for policy implementation) and its integration with the Azure Cloud infrastructure.""I like the support they provide for the APIs more than the solution itself. First of all, documentation-wise, both Microsoft Azure and even Google Cloud are up there. But in comparison, the real-time consulting and support for APIs make Microsoft stand out a little. I also like the performance. Standard public cloud provider-built APIs are more resilient and flexible in terms of what feature you want to use and what feature you don't want to use, and they're more customizable. They are more resilient in terms of performance in that particular environment because that is the design aspect of the offering. When public clouds build APIs and deploy them after testing them on their framework for a certain amount of time, I feel there is a massive difference in the product's performance. On the interface, everything is strong.""The most valuable features are the ease of use and it is a platform that has self-enablement for the customers to be able to register themselves.""It’s easy to set up.""Initial setup was quite easy.""I like that security features can be integrated with API Management. I also like that you can perform rate-limiting and throttling functions.""The most valuable features are the API and integrations."

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"The tool has a private area. It also has a cloud deployment option.""We use it heavily because Azure offers better pricing than its competitors.""Anypoint API Manager's most valuable feature is its connectors.""It is a good management tool for controlling purposes.""When using the Mulesoft Anypoint Platform, it has a wide range of connectors that are readily available to connect with the multiple applications.""It provides various advantages in the integration field, including support for Azure services and cloud integrations.""Offers good integration and flexibility.""We have all the policies available via drag and drop. It made it very easy."

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Cons
"It is an expensive solution.""The integration could be improved within the solution. There is a need to pay more attention to this.""When it comes to the rate limit, we don't have a specific category for rate limits for a particular customer.""iPaaS is something that we would like to see. For example, MuleSoft is kind of an integrated platform as a service (iPaaS), and it provides a lot of out-of-the-box connectors and other such things. This is where Apigee lacks. I'm not sure if that's the roadmap for Apigee, but any improvements on those lines would be helpful where things become easier to implement.""Sometimes there are glitches, which means there's still room for improvement in the platform.""Areas like traffic handling of incoming requests, security features between third-parties and Apigee, and between Apigee and internal network servers, resources, or JSON areas, etc.""When there is an update on a new version or an automatic update, you have to be present and double-check that the update is reflected in the environment with no issues.""The ability to work across different management solutions in a plug and play fashion would make it easier for faster uptake."

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"Microsoft Azure API Management could improve the documentation. The documentation feels like marketing information and not sufficient technical information. Your easiest option is to purchase services from a Microsoft partner and this is their marketing.""They're trying to implement versioning and trying to be able to manage different versions of your API all at the same time, but they're not doing that just quite right yet.""The documentation could be improved for the customer.""The API gateway can be very complex.""Microsoft Azure API Management needs to improve stability.""The scalability of this solution could be improved. The volume which the API Management task service can handle needs to be improved. Cost wise, this solution could be optimized.""Could use clearer configuration when it comes to API policies.""In the next release, Azure APIM should include deployment in various environments and CI/CD for deployment."

More Microsoft Azure API Management Cons →

"The API gateway and API runtime are too heavy, which means that it is not suitable for microservices.""Not many stand-out features.""Rather than focusing on numbers, they should focus more on the customer support service.""I would like to see MuleSoft expand the range of APIs you can manage with it beyond HTTP, GIPC, and others.""One improvement is maybe to add a plugin in the API manager. Let's say an organisation is using SOAP services or legacy APIs. Maybe I don't want to migrate it to rest API, but my plugin should be able to convert Jason to XML. Basically, protocol transformation features in API Manager.""They should develop on MuleSoft as it would be a good way of improving API monetization.""Migrating any existing middleware platform to Mulesoft is difficult because of the transformation, conversion and integration involved. Better tools are needed to achieve quicker time to market.""Better documentation to help explain each of the features would be really helpful."

More MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "As most of the customers say, the tool is a bit expensive."
  • "Based on your usage of the APIs you can take a decision to go with either an on-cloud or OPDK version. Get in touch with the sales representatives of Apigee."
  • "Since it was acquired by Google, we can get a license based on our requirements and the cost level will depend on cloud access and support."
  • "Pricing options need to be chosen on a case-by-case basis."
  • "The cost of the licensing is based on the number of API calls that are made."
  • "It is not suited for small companies. It's expensive."
  • "It is more expensive when you compare to open-source products or other vendors."
  • "We have a contract for three years. I don't know the cost."
  • More Apigee Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The developer and standard pricing tiers of Azure API Management are very competitive compared to other products."
  • "It's being paid monthly."
  • "Based on the resources that we are leveraging, the price we are paying to use this solution is slightly higher than other competitors. In a few cases, it has its own advantage in some resources."
  • "Since this is a cloud-based solution you have to abide by those financial limits, this creates some different challenges compared to other solutions."
  • "The licensing fees are expensive."
  • "The price of the solution is reasonable compared to others."
  • "Since everyone is isocentric here, it is reasonable for me."
  • "We pay for a yearly license."
  • More Microsoft Azure API Management Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "I'm unsure about licensing costs because I'm not the person who handles this. But, ballpark, it's probably somewhere around $300,000-$400,000 or something like that."
  • "The licensing fees are approximately $80,000 USD per year and there are costs for additional functionality, as well as premiums for connectors to systems such as Oracle and SAP."
  • "The pricing is very expensive, although you get a lot of power from the product."
  • "When it comes to determining price, the pre-sales team interacts with the customer's primary integration team and the price is negotiated based on the specific usage of the system."
  • "The licensing model is based on how many cores are used. It is a very simple licensing scheme."
  • "Anypoint is the most expensive solution on the market, as far as I know, though it's also the most capable."
  • "Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
  • "The price of Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager is very high."
  • More MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: Apigee offers both cloud-based and on-prem options while Microsoft Azure API Management currently only offers a… more »
    Top Answer:Amazon API Gateway is a platform that supports the creation and publication of API for web applications. The platform… more »
    Top Answer: Its flexibility allows seamless management of different products, showcasing scalability to handle extensive solutions… more »
    Top Answer:If you use Azure products, API Management is a great solution. It solves many of the problems of externalizing web… more »
    Top Answer:It seems quite good so far. It handles our current workload well, and I'm optimistic it can scale effectively as our… more »
    Top Answer:The price is very high. It is very expensive. We have an enterprise agreement. So, every anniversary, we renew.
    Top Answer:The Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager was designed with its users in mind. Though it is a reasonably complex piece of… more »
    Top Answer:I have found that Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager is the best integration tool out there for API management. It is easy to… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable features of the solution for securing APIs stem from the tool's ability to allow users to deploy… more »
    Ranking
    2nd
    out of 64 in API Management
    Views
    34,877
    Comparisons
    25,156
    Reviews
    35
    Average Words per Review
    390
    Rating
    8.1
    1st
    out of 64 in API Management
    Views
    38,702
    Comparisons
    31,743
    Reviews
    37
    Average Words per Review
    446
    Rating
    7.9
    4th
    out of 64 in API Management
    Views
    18,014
    Comparisons
    14,570
    Reviews
    26
    Average Words per Review
    425
    Rating
    8.3
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Azure API Management, MS Azure API Management
    Anypoint API Manager
    Learn More
    Overview

    Apigee is a platform for developing and managing APIs. Apigee offers an interface for your core services by wrapping them with a proxy layer which is then accessed by other developers. With Apigee, you can design and build APIs and then securely share their services and data without exposing any code.

    Because app developers make HTTP requests to an API proxy rather than directly to your services, your services are separated from the developers. All the developer needs to know is the URL of the API proxy endpoint, necessary query parameters, authorization credentials (if they exist), and the response data format.

    The API proxy isolates the app developer from your backend service. Therefore, you are free to change the service implementation if the public API remains consistent. By maintaining a consistent frontend API, existing client apps will continue to work regardless of changes on the backend.

    Key capabilities of the Apigee API management platform include:

    • Security: Protect APIs, messages, and backends with configurable policies such as OAuth, API key verification, XML/JSON threat protection, and access control.

    • API gateway: Secure and mediate the traffic between clients and backends, and between a company’s APIs and the developers who use the APIs.

    • Developer portal: Attract and engage application developers, enabling them to discover, explore, purchase, and test APIs and register to access and use the APIs.

    • API console: The console helps developers learn and work with APIs.

    • API lifecycle management: Manage the process of designing, developing, publishing, deploying, and versioning APIs.

    • Automated documentation: Automate the development of API documentation and software development kits.

    • Machine learning: Utilize machine learning and analytics to generate actionable insights and reports.
    • API monitoring: Apigee offers monitoring tools for API troubleshooting, security, and optimization.

    Reviews from Real Users:

    Apigee stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Several major ones are its rich developer portal, its advanced analytics, and its central monitoring system.

    Carlos R., a software architect at Caja Los Andes writes, “The central monitoring feature is the most valuable. It also provides security for the APIs and high availability for our use cases. Apigee is the best product in the industry in comparison to other API management solutions. It helps in fast development, which is a top point. It also supports a lot of industry standards and has excellent documentation.”

    An associate vice president at a tech services company notes, “The analytics function and the developer portal are the two valuable features of Apigee. The analytics part is very good, and the developer portal is quite rich in features. The authentication mechanisms are quite easily built into Apigee, which is something that most of the other products have also now started supporting.”

    Microsoft Azure API Management is a reliable and scalable way to publish, consume, and manage APIs running on an Microsoft Azure platform. Azure API Management provides all essential tools required for end-to-end management of APIs. It ensures optimal performance of the APIs by tracking and enforcing usage and authentication.

    Microsoft Azure API Management is primarily used to provide a central interface to create, provision, and manage APIs for web and cloud applications and services. Today's innovative enterprises are adopting API architectures to accelerate growth. With Microsoft Azure API Management, businesses can streamline their work across hybrid and multi cloud environments with a unified place to manage all their APIs.

    Microsoft Azure API Management Features

    Microsoft Azure API Management has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Manage APIs across clouds and on premises: Optimize API traffic flow by deploying API gateways side by side with the APIs hosted in Azure, other clouds, and on premises. Meet security and compliance requirements with a unified management experience and full visibility across all APIs.
    • Customized usage limits: By applying authentication, authorization, and usage limits, you can protect your resources by controlling how data and services are exposed to employees, partners, and customers.
    • API-first approaches: Accelerate your business by building apps faster and delivering immediate value to customers through API-first approaches. This helps you decouple front- and back-end teams through API mocking, API revisions and versioning, and automated API documentation.
    • Customizable developer portal: Improve API discoverability by creating a customizable developer portal for all your APIs. This enables you to simply manage and share APIs with internal teams, external partners, and customers.
    • Facades for back-end services: Transform your existing services and automatically turn legacy web services into modern REST-based APIs using facades.
    • Security for your API’s: Keep all your APIs behind a single static IP or domain, and help protect them with tokens, keys, and IP filtering.

    Microsoft Azure API Management Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Microsoft Azure API Management. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Monitor the health of APIs, configure throttling, identify errors, and rate limits.
    • Enforce flexible and fine-grained quotas and rate limits. Modify the shape and behavior of your APIs using policies. Improve latency and scale your APIs with response caching.
    • Connect on-premises APIs to cloud services by creating a façade that lets you safely integrate.
    • Create and manage user roles and define end-to-end API usage policies.
    • Consolidate and manage thousands of APIs across multiple platforms in a central interface.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Microsoft Azure API Management stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Some of these include its DevOps integration, its easy setup, and its dynamic pricing. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

    Cecil S., a Software Engineer, writes of the solution, “The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure API Management is the developer portal because it's very quick and easy to get something published."

    Dmitri E., an Integration Architect at MiBanco, notes, “In particular, in API Management, used as front-end APIs, it's easy to manage. We use Microsoft due to the stability of the company. It is easy to set up. The solution is scalable. It is stable as a product as well.

    Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager is the portion of the Anypoint Platform that is used for the designing, building, managing, and publishing of APIs. Anypoint Platform uses Mule as its core runtime engine.

    Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager is an extremely versatile solution. It offers users the ability to deploy their APIs in a number of different settings. You can use API Manager on a public cloud, a private cloud, or a hybrid. Additionally, users can use the solution to manage their deployments with ease. A few clicks are all you need to alter your deployment.

    Benefits of Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager

    Some of the benefits of using Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager include:

    • The ability to deploy APIs and integrations in the location of your choice. Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager enables users to deploy APIs on their own servers or on the cloud via Mulesoft’s cloud service. It also allows users to change the deployment location with only a few clicks.
    • The ability to automatically protect your APIs with cutting-edge security software and protocols. Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager’s security software can automatically detect attacks against your APIs. This triggers an escalation of security protocols that push the attack to the perimeter of the system. The solution then proceeds to seal up any vulnerabilities. Mulesoft uses machine learning in order to adapt to any new threat that emerges.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager is a highly effective piece of software whose purpose is to enable users to design, build, manage, and publish APIs. It stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are the ease with which users can connect it to their applications and the high level of value that its support offers. It provides users with the ability to easily connect this solution with whatever program they need to join it with. Users can create connections without having to write code. It offers different types of support which ensure that users have a high level of understanding about the product and how to use it.

    PeerSpot user Tolulope A., a technical lead specializing in integration and middleware at a financial services firm, notes the ease with which users can connect Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager to their applications. He writes, “One good thing about MuleSoft is that they have a lot of connectors to those back-end applications. We don't really need to write code to be able to connect to a database or to connect with SAP. You just need credentials and the connectivity details. Most of the development of what we do is just drag and drop. They're able to connect with applications using standard connectors that are provided by ESB, by MuleSoft.”

    The CEO & Co-Founder at a computer retailer notes the value of Mulesoft’s supporting documentation. They write, “The documentation is great; it is always up-to-date and well-presented. If any details are missing, then there is a blog available that contains a lot of details. There are also channels on YouTube to help you better understand the solution and what some of the processes look like.”

    Sample Customers
    Adobe, advance.net, Amadeus, AT&T, Bechtel, Belly, Burberry, Chegg, Citrix, Dell, eBay, Equifax, GameStop, First Data, Globe, HCSC, Intralinks, Kao, Meredith, Mitchell, Orange, Pearson
    adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH, Opensistemas
    Coca-Cola, Splunk, Citrix, UCSF, Vertu, State of Colorado, National Post, TiVo, Deakin, LLS, Oldcastle Precast, ParcelPoint, Justice Systems, Ube, Sumitomo Corporation, PacificComp, University of Witwatersrand, Groupe Initiatives, Camelot, Panviva
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company32%
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Retailer15%
    Insurance Company10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Insurance Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Comms Service Provider6%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Insurance Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company33%
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Manufacturing Company12%
    Computer Retailer9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Insurance Company7%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise68%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise74%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise58%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise69%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise63%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise72%
    Buyer's Guide
    API Management
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others in API Management. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.