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3scale API Management vs Frends comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

3scale API Management
Ranking in API Management
23rd
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Frends
Ranking in API Management
37th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of 3scale API Management is 2.0%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Frends is 0.6%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
3scale API Management2.0%
Frends0.6%
Other97.4%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2747757 - PeerSpot reviewer
Program Manager at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Facilitates API exposure securely and highlights developer portal flexibility needs
Not much stands out for me regarding the advantages of this product. We usually don't tinker with it. Developing developer portals could be more standards-based. I think currently it's Ruby-based. Having more options on designing that would be beneficial. Additional flexibility would have been great; we would have used it more if it aligned with our platform. I don't use the analytics part. We don't use monetization features, which help to create a revenue generation model.
Kalle Reponen - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Integration Architect at Visma
Offers simplicity, ease of customization, and visibility of integrations
One thing is that Frends keep the integration, and that is something I know that it's coming, like, a later version; that is something we will be currently missing. So the end-users could take an interest in use by themselves, with the release thing some result flow. That is the most wanted and requested feature for now. Another enhancement includes the monitoring part. It would be nice to have some sort of maybe mobile app on which we can see how integrations are running if there are some problems, and getting those alerts on the mobile would be really nice.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"To me, the most valuable feature of 3scale API Management is that it lets you add a backend to the product. I also like that you can integrate it well with OpenShift clusters, making 3scale API Management a useful solution."
"To me, the most valuable feature of 3scale API Management is that it lets you add a backend to the product."
"The most valuable features are the gateway and security features."
"It's good that they aren't adding a lot of features like ESP, etc. It's okay with just being a gateway."
"One of the most valuable aspects of this solution for us is its ease of deployment."
"3scale: what a really good product to secure an unsecure API if you have multiple backend unsecured routes provided by an ESB (Red Hat Fuse), and available through one unique frontend acting as a secure gateway (with HTTPS protocol and API keys)."
"3scale API Management's best feature is API management."
"3scale API Management is a containerized product, so all its parts are deployed into containers, and standard deployment is very simple because it goes on the OpenShift."
"The product has valuable features for version control."
"One of the benefits is the speed of creating something new. Second, it's replacing the old integration quite fast. Then it is like the visibility of the integration and the possibility to see what is happening in the integration."
"The user-friendly interface for constructing integration solutions is also a notable benefit."
 

Cons

"It may not fit for an enterprise who is trying to manage their API users and the approval process."
"The product is not that flexible for developers. It's less flexible and rigid. It's not easy to make changes or customize it."
"We tried to use the portal, but we decided that it wasn't enough. The content management system (CMS) is not easy to use if you want to customize things, and it's hard to get someone who has the knowledge to work with the CMS."
"We tried to use the portal, but we decided that it wasn't enough. The content management system (CMS) is not easy to use if you want to customize things, and it's hard to get someone who has the knowledge to work with the CMS."
"I believe the CMS part of it has room for improvement though. That is where you write a couple of things if you want to publish your API; it's based on liquid scripting, which doesn't seem like the obvious one to script with."
"It would be helpful to improve the customization features so that the customer can do it based on their own needs."
"In my previous company, I used Kong, and in my current company, I'm using 3scale API Management, but I prefer Kong."
"Setting up OIDC authentication would be another use case for this product."
"One of the primary areas for improvement is a more mobile-friendly interface for the control center."
"Another enhancement includes the monitoring part. It would be nice to have some sort of maybe mobile app on which we can see how integrations are running if there are some problems, and getting those alerts on the mobile would be really nice."
"It is a new application and lacks some essential features compared to competitors."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"3scale API Management has reasonable pricing, judging from its competitor, Kong. My organization pays yearly for the 3scale API Management license, though I'm unable to give the exact figure because every single day there are new clusters deployed. I'm in charge of three to four clusters in my team, but give or take, it costs a few thousand lakhs."
"The cost was around $45,000 per year."
"The pricing is affordable, it's cheap."
"I don't think that 3scale is very expensive."
"The pricing is quite fair."
"Recent changes in their pricing have removed this benefit, moving towards process-specific pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Government
12%
Insurance Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for 3scale API Management?
I rate the product’s pricing as two out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.
What needs improvement with 3scale API Management?
Not much stands out for me regarding the advantages of this product. We usually don't tinker with it. Developing developer portals could be more standards-based. I think currently it's Ruby-based. ...
What is your primary use case for 3scale API Management?
Our company exposes different APIs, and we use it to monitor traffic, limit traffic, and similar functions. I don't have much involvement with the solution, though I did conduct some research. We s...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Victor Ops, Coca Cola, The Telegraph, Skava, Orange, Typeform
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about 3scale API Management vs. Frends and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.