Report:

The Forrester Wave™: API Management Software, Q3 2024

Top Vendor Products for API Management Software in 2024

• Axway
• IBM
• MuleSoft
• Software AG
• WSO2

API Management Software Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

• Axway - Leaders
  

  Pros:

  • Focuses on digital business that is multicloud, multiprotocol, and multigateway
  • Amplify Enterprise Marketplace productizes and monetizes APIs including non-REST protocols via payment tiers, billing provider integration, and in-portal invoicing
  • Only vendor in this evaluation to provide robust support for third-party federated gateways, with API discovery and analytics collection from many
  • Automated governance ensures compliance with design, security, and quality standards
  • Customer success manager identifies required value, milestones, and metrics upfront for each client
  • Offers program to train business leaders on how to execute a successful API business strategy

  Cons:

  • Gateway has a significant number of policies but consumes a significant amount of compute resources and depends on Cassandra for typical deployments
  • Reference customers would like to see a faster pace of releasing new features
  • Reference customers would like to see a more unified product line


• IBM - Leaders
  

  Pros:

  • Supports API product managers without limiting API products to REST
  • Vision is secure API management that governs all types of APIs in support of AI and business agility
  • Stays innovative by leveraging award-winning IBM research division, partnerships, and acquisitions like StepZen GraphQL
  • Broad set of global partners, and global systems integrators note IBM as a key API management vendor
  • Offers two portals: a Drupal CMS targeting API product managers for maximum flexibility to market APIs externally, and a noncustomizable portal targeting internal APIs for easy setup
  • Lets API product managers package REST and non-REST interfaces including asynchronous event streams and GraphQL as tiered API products with pricing options and Stripe integration
  • Pricing is consumption-based with add-on charges for advanced features
  • Thorough roadmap with clear target dates emphasizing third-party federated gateways, advanced security, non-REST protocols, governance, API productization, improved analytics and portals

  Cons:

  • Reference customers find in-product analytics reporting lacking
  • Reference customers would like to see support for third-party federated gateways
  • Reference customers would like customizable analytics dashboards with end-to-end monitoring


• MuleSoft - Leaders
  

  Pros:

  • Provides advanced tooling to automate API governance, including AsyncAPI specifications
  • API Experience Hub builds flexible, engaging API portals for external audiences including integration with Salesforce CRM
  • Distinctive end-to-end visualization and customizable dashboards for analytic data
  • Wide range of supporting services and offerings to enable integration and architectural best practices
  • Reference customers appreciated API expertise, proactive customer support, and new pricing model
  • Recently transitioned from unpopular vCores pricing to preferable API and transaction count based pricing

  Cons:

  • Turnover in product strategy and marketing teams from layoffs and departures in 2023 raises questions about future innovation
  • GSIs have noted waning interest in MuleSoft
  • Reference customers would like to see better documentation
  • Reference customers would like reduced CPU and memory consumption from the Mule gateway


• Software AG - Leaders
  

  Pros:

  • Provides broad features for tech- and business-led API programs
  • Vision is an extensible product to govern APIs across all gateways and API styles
  • Strong investments in R&D, hosts hackathons with employees and customers, and has deep engagement with customers, analysts, and industry feedback
  • Partnerships with multiple API security specialty vendors
  • GSIs note Software AG as a key partner
  • Provides tools for building engaging API portals with self-service billing, analytics for consumers, multistep subscription approvals, and flexible CMS
  • API lifecycle and versioning stand out with options to easily migrate consumers to new version and ability to define custom lifecycles with stage transition policies
  • Product tiering, Stripe and Worldpay integration, and customizable usage dashboards support API product managers
  • App Mesh supports cloud modernization by service registry introspection and injection of microgateways into Kubernetes services
  • Reference customers cited impressive collaboration, support, breadth of features, and rapid delivery of enhancements

  Cons:

  • At the time of this evaluation, IBM had an agreement to acquire webMethods from Software AG
  • Reference customers would like to see more features for API security
  • Reference customers would like more support for third-party gateways and GraphQL


• WSO2 - Leaders
  

  Pros:

  • Provides a breadth of features for advanced API strategies
  • Vision is to help customers create engaging and secure digital experiences with a simplified tech stack
  • Maintains healthy R&D budget and engages with academic institutions, open-source foundations, analysts, and industry field feedback
  • Customer success teams proactively focus on key metrics and milestones
  • GSIs report WSO2 is a key partner
  • Delivers high-end versioning and formal lifecycle management with tools to ease migration of users to new API version and ability to define custom lifecycles and policies
  • Enables many protocols with deep support for GraphQL and asynchronous APIs: automated governance, AsyncAPI designer, and integration with Solace event broker
  • Robust features for defining API products with monetization plans
  • Reference customers say WSO2 is strong for partnership and collaboration to meet business objectives

  Cons:

  • During this evaluation, EQT announced that it would acquire WSO2
  • API portal for consumers offers limited customization
  • Reference customers would like to see support for third-party federated gateways
  • Reference customers would like improved ease of use


• Sensedia - Strong Performers
  

  Pros:

  • Partner for business transformation
  • Vision is to advance business outcomes while supporting AI, platform engineering, federated gateways, and open finance
  • All clients have customer success managers who proactively engage in monitoring progress toward milestones
  • Professional services support clients well with business and technical workshops, architectural reviews, playbooks, and best practices for fostering API adoption
  • Provides top-notch formal lifecycle management with ability to define custom lifecycles, policies for APIs' transition to a new stage, and webhook notifications of lifecycle events
  • Automated governance ensures consistent compliance with design, security, and quality standards
  • Facilitates responsive, secure, and manageable microservices via integration with Istio-based service mesh
  • Reference customers gave strong praise for supporting services, trustworthiness, and industry knowledge

  Cons:

  • Largely limited to REST
  • Non-REST is limited to partial support for GraphQL, with some GraphQL-specific policies but no GraphQL-specific features for publishing such services on the API portal
  • Services through third-party partners are more limited and regional than most vendors in this evaluation
  • Reference customers would like better documentation


• Google - Strong Performers
  

  Pros:

  • Provides robust API management with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) emphasis
  • Vision is to build, discover, govern, and secure APIs with a product that is GCP-first but not GCP-only
  • Strong partner network with positive feedback from GSIs
  • Promotes microservices with support for Envoy proxy and integration with Istio
  • API product managers enjoy robust tools for API productization, including variety of price-tier configurations and productization of REST, GraphQL and gRPC together
  • Customizable dashboards, prebuilt visualizations, and capture of custom analytics from API payloads
  • Engage users with AI-powered search, billing subscription self-service
  • Reference customers love Apigee's features for API productization and analytics

  Cons:

  • Key roadmap item API Hub was not generally available at time of evaluation
  • Will not find features tailored to API versioning and formal lifecycle management
  • Provides simple, noncustomizable API portal plus Drupal plug-in for advanced bespoke portals, but buyers must support their own Drupal
  • Reference customers dislike Google's push to GCP-ize the product
  • Reference customers note high cost


• Gravitee.io - Strong Performers
  

  Pros:

  • Pioneers a vision of event-driven API management
  • Unique vision to treat asynchronous events on par with synchronous protocols like REST
  • Rapid pace of recent innovation and high investment in R&D foster confidence as key innovator
  • Most robust support for asynchronous event protocols in the market, including broker protocol mediation and automated governance of AsyncAPI design files
  • Provides features for managing GraphQL APIs, including asynchronous mutations
  • Can document API specs using Swagger or Redoc with governance rules to ensure documentation exists and has been translated to target languages
  • WYSIWYG editor supports creation of standalone pages with option to store and version all API documentation in Git
  • Reference customers appreciate pace of delivering new features and support from knowledgeable, accessible teams

  Cons:

  • Young startup showing its youth
  • Vision does not emphasize business-led API strategies
  • Has not yet developed strong partnerships with GSIs
  • Has not yet matured its supporting services and offerings as much as many competitors
  • Reference customers want Gravitee.io to continue expanding its non-REST protocol features


• Boomi - Contenders
  

  Pros:

  • Vision is to address complexity and sprawl of distributed architectures while enabling business-led API and AI strategies
  • Recruited product leaders from top API management firms and dramatically increased API management engineering budget
  • Versioning and delivery tooling is on par, including field to track API versions and CI/CD interfaces to deliver new versions
  • Reference customers appreciate accessibility of Boomi's product team, supportive professional services, and strong roadmap
  • Announced acquiring APIIDA's federated API management business and former Mashery API management business from TIBCO Software

  Cons:

  • Known for leading iPaaS and a neglected API management bundle
  • Product gaps pervade entire product: inflexible portal, dearth of endpoint security policies, no formal lifecycle management, minimal analytics, and other gaps
  • Public roadmap is ambitious but unproven
  • Reference customers would like to see Boomi fill its many product gaps, particularly around the API consumer portal


• Microsoft - Contenders
  

  Pros:

  • Vision is to make API management accessible to businesses of all sizes and emphasizes consolidated API discovery for consistency and quality across clouds
  • Variety of pricing and hosting options, including pay-as-you-go serverless consumption model and reduced cost for nonproduction environments
  • Features to integrate with other supporting Azure offerings
  • Provides strong developer experience for designing and validating APIs with visual designer, testing harness, schema management, and VS Code plug-in
  • Integration with other Azure dev tools accelerates rapid creation of code implementing an API
  • New API Center product expands governance to all APIs via shadow API discovery
  • Customers praised ease of use and integration with other Azure components

  Cons:

  • Caters to developers but primarily Azure ones
  • API Center was not generally available at time of evaluation
  • Adoption strategy for API management product is not clear
  • Lacks features for business users such as API productization, analytics designed for business users, and formal lifecycle management
  • Offers fewer security policies than peers
  • Customers would like to see support for AsyncAPI and better integration with non-Microsoft monitoring tools
  • Microsoft declined to participate in the full Forrester Wave evaluation process


• Kong - Contenders
  

  Pros:

  • Vision emphasizes cloud migration and rapid API delivery on cloud-native architecture
  • Supports strong API designer (separate open-source project)
  • Many features for supporting microservices and cloud-native architectures, including implementation of Kubernetes Gateway API and ingress router
  • Supporting offerings and services include tools for managing all forms of Kubernetes connectivity and professional services for quick start or building custom plug-ins

  Cons:

  • Focuses on cloud-native architecture but neglects business enablement
  • Vision appeals more to tech-oriented buyers than those implementing business-led API strategy
  • API designer is not seamlessly integrated with core Kong product
  • Gateway's memory consumption is on the higher end compared with other vendors
  • Poorly suits business-led API strategies, with little in way of API productization and formal lifecycle management as well as inflexible API portal
  • Some GSIs report growing relationship with Kong but does not have strongest partner ecosystem
  • Kong declined to participate in the full Forrester Wave evaluation process


• Broadcom - Contenders
  

  Pros:

  • Vision is to lead API security
  • Deeply engaged in fostering strong partnerships, reflected in feedback from partner GSIs
  • Large library of policies for authentication, authorization, payload validation, and other attack protections plus protocol mediation policies
  • Users can configure compliance report to automate security governance
  • Information security teams can define parameterized policy templates to ease enforcement of policy standards
  • Reference customers love communicativeness and support from customer success and product management teams

  Cons:

  • Vision neglects other areas such as support for business-led API strategies
  • Supporting offerings are thinner than most in this evaluation
  • Licensing based on number of CPU cores or instances, which clients usually find less desirable than pricing based on transaction volume
  • Roadmap focuses on further expanding security features but does not look much beyond security
  • API portal offers minimal customizations
  • Support for publishing non-REST endpoints is largely limited to SOAP, WebSockets, and generic HTTP
  • Reference customers would like to see support for additional protocols and improved API developer portal


• TIBCO Software - Contenders
  

  Pros:

  • Vision is to empower customers to manage their APIs as critical business assets for all API types across multiple clouds
  • Offers flexible tools for building customized API portal and documentation
  • Features for engaging API consumers such as discussion forums, usage analytics for API consumers, and mocking server
  • Customer praised support and reliability

  Cons:

  • Innovation has stalled due to underinvestment by new owner Cloud Software Group
  • No longer offers professional services due to Cloud Software Group's cost cutting
  • During this evaluation, Cloud Software Group announced sale of API management assets to Boomi
  • Gaps in most areas: little to no support for non-REST protocols beyond SOAP, no integration with service meshes or Kubernetes networking, and no formal lifecycle management
  • Has significant number of prebuilt analytic reports but does not offer ability to build custom analytic reports and dashboards
  • Customer would like to see more cost transparency and clearer vision
  • TIBCO Software declined to participate in the full Forrester Wave evaluation process


• Red Hat - Challengers
  

  Pros:

  • Focus is integrating and bundling with popular OpenShift container platform
  • Offers bundles with Red Hat AMQ brokers, OpenShift Service Mesh, and integration platform Fuse
  • Many options for setting monetization policies of API product tiers
  • Deployment options include vendor management and self-hosting, with options for cloud and on-premises hosting
  • Provides open-source Apicurio as registry for managing API schemas

  Cons:

  • Focuses its attention on the OpenShift container platform instead of APIs
  • Partners focus on other Red Hat products and do not mention 3scale
  • Public pricing shows licenses with tiers based on CPU allocation, which most buyers find less preferable than consumption-based pricing
  • Roadmap was unavailable during this evaluation
  • Visual designer capabilities are lacking compared with others in this evaluation
  • Customizing look and feel of API portal involves editing text files with less-known markup language called Liquid
  • No features to facilitate creating and migrating users to new versions of an API, nor features for formal lifecycle management
  • Number of security policies for authentication, authorization, payload validation, and other attack protections is minimal compared with others
  • No features found to automate governance of API design and security
  • Red Hat declined to participate in the full Forrester Wave evaluation process


• Tyk Technologies - Challengers
  

  Pros:

  • Vision is to build a place for teams to plan, create, and collaborate on APIs across Kubernetes and any cloud
  • Tyk-hosted cloud product has preferable metering based on transactions and throughput
  • Provides strong GraphQL support, including GraphQL server embedded in the product
  • gRPC, WebSockets, and SSE protocols are also supported
  • Users can design APIs via visual API builder or VS Code plug-in
  • Standard versioning capabilities including version number field and button to copy an API into a new version

  Cons:

  • Provides basic API management for techies, not business leaders
  • Self-hosted pricing based on number of instances, which clients find less desirable
  • Does not offer professional services or other product bundles
  • Leverages partnerships with regional players (no GSIs) to provide professional services
  • Forrester was not able to validate that roadmap investments are on par or will keep pace with peers
  • Lacks features to support formal lifecycle management through API stages or productization of APIs for business-led API strategies
  • Customizing API portal and documentation is performed primarily by editing text files, with minimal visual user experience and no WYSIWYG editor
  • No capability found for custom reports and dashboards for analytics, though buyers can access analytics data via OpenTelemetry
  • Tyk Technologies declined to participate in the full Forrester Wave evaluation process

Reference

• Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: API Management Software, Q3 2024, 30-Jun-2024, ID

View Market Definition
View Vendor Movements