3scale API Management vs SwaggerHub comparison

Red Hat and SmartBear are both solutions in the API Management category. Red Hat is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.5, while SmartBear is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.6. Red Hat holds a 2.3% mindshare in APIM, compared to SmartBear’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 84% of Red Hat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of SmartBear users who would recommend it.

3scale API Management

Read 12 3scale API Management reviews

2,562 Views
2,562 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

SwaggerHub

Read 10 SwaggerHub reviews

1,458 Views
1,458 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

3scale API Management

SwaggerHub

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

3scale API Management and SwaggerHub compete in the API management space. SwaggerHub is often seen as having the upper hand due to its robust feature set that justifies its higher cost.

Features: 3scale API Management offers scalability, advanced traffic control, and integration with OpenShift clusters. SwaggerHub provides intuitive collaboration tools, a user-friendly design interface, and efficient API documentation management.

Room for Improvement: 3scale API Management could enhance its user interface and expand its feature set beyond basic traffic control. SwaggerHub could improve by offering more customization options, expanding support for OpenAPI documentation, and providing more integrations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: 3scale API Management allows on-premise and cloud deployment and is praised for its responsive customer service. SwaggerHub offers cloud-based deployment, enabling quick setup and integration, which might make it easier for businesses seeking swift implementation.

Pricing and ROI: 3scale API Management typically involves a higher initial setup cost but is valued for its strong ROI due to efficient API traffic handling. SwaggerHub's higher pricing is justified by its sophisticated feature set which enhances API design productivity.

To learn more, read our detailed 3scale API Management vs. SwaggerHub Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

3scale API Management vs. SwaggerHub

July 2025

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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

19th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SwaggerHub

Ranking in API Management

15th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of 3scale API Management is 2.3%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SwaggerHub is 1.4%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SwaggerHub	1.4%
3scale API Management	2.3%
Other	96.3%

API Management

Featured Reviews

Jose Luis Bonilla

CIO at Banco Pichincha España

Provides cost savings while maintaining the same functionality and capabilities

There were two main reasons for consideration. One of them was the cost. It is true that the other solution had more capabilities, but we didn't have plans to use them. We didn't need them, but the cost was slightly higher. Also, we were already working with the Red Hat solution and integrating it with some other solutions we have in place. It was better and more convenient for us. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

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SwaminathanSubramanian

Director/Enterprise Solutions Architect, Technology Advisor at Kyndryl

Facilitating enterprise-wide API governance and management

Some areas of SwaggerHub that could be improved include the interface between the code editor and the visual editor, the integration with private APIs, which currently requires an upgraded account. The scalability also needs enhancement, as it becomes flaky under increased load. Additionally, the versioning management could be improved to be on par with source code management tools.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"3scale API Management's best feature is API management."

"I like the API automation."

"The solution is quite lightweight, and the installation is very easy. It's like a two-click installation."

"It's good that they aren't adding a lot of features like ESP, etc. It's okay with just being a gateway."

"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."

"The gateway is the most valuable feature because it makes it possible for us to gather all traffic into one proxy, which is a good thing."

"The product is stable."

"The standard deployment is very simple."

More 3scale API Management pros

"I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten."

"The tool's most valuable feature is licensing."

"The product's initial setup phase was easy and not at all difficult."

"It is a stable solution."

"The most valuable features are the collaboration between multiple teams and the control and distribution of specifications."

"One of the best features of SwaggerHub is how it allows me to create APIs and control the evolution of APIs within an organization."

"The scalability is endless."

More SwaggerHub pros

Cons

"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."

"It would be helpful to improve the customization features so that the customer can do it based on their own needs."

"What was suggested by Red Hat was a crucial part of the configuration, but when we started to ask about the supportability of this configuration, Red Hat said only some parts of the configuration would be supported."

"The user experience could be better. The developer portal is too complex and hard to configure."

"What I'd like to improve in 3scale API Management is its route-limiting feature. Currently, I don't know how to do that effectively on the solution, but in Kong, I know how to do it, so I would love to see route-limiting being easily done on 3scale API Management. It would also be good if there was some authentication that you could do from 3scale API Management because Kong offers that functionality out of the box. What I'd love to see in the next release of 3scale API Management is the ability to integrate more plug-ins easily onto the platform, so you'll be able to extend it, and even do customs management. If Red Hat could offer that extension where it allows the internal organization where 3scale API Management is deployed on-premise to integrate its tools on top of 3scale API Management and provide an API for that, that will make the solution very powerful."

"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 ones to script with."

"The product is not that flexible for developers. It's less flexible and rigid. It's not easy to make changes or customize it."

"3scale API Management only supports restful APIs and doesn't support SOAP."

"SwaggerHub could be improved with better integration for tools."

"It has limited functionality...Unfortunately, some of its features are not what we need."

"Some areas of SwaggerHub that could be improved include the interface between the code editor and the visual editor, the integration with private APIs, which currently requires an upgraded account."

"More integration and usability with the cloud microservices would be nice"

"The scalability aspect of SwaggerHub can be improved. It becomes a bit unreliable when the load is increased and isn't up to par with expectations for scalability."

"We have to use additional tools to test APIs."

"SwaggerHub's UI needs to be improved as it looks very old school."

"It could be more intuitive compared to one of its competitors."

More SwaggerHub cons

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."

"I don't think that 3scale is very expensive."

"The cost was around $45,000 per year."

"The pricing is affordable, it's cheap."

"The tool is cheap."

"It has a yearly subscription, but I am not sure."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Insurance Company

12%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about 3scale API Management?

The product is stable.

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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.

See all answers

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. ...

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What do you like most about SwaggerHub?

The tool's most valuable feature is licensing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SwaggerHub?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SwaggerHub?

I started using SwaggerHub in its previous version, SmartMiner, with a tool called SoapUI. I used it to create mock web services to test web services and create test scripts and mock APIs. This usa...

See all answers

Comparisons

Apigee vs 3scale API Management

Compared 16% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs 3scale API Management

Compared 14% of the time

IBM API Connect vs 3scale API Management

Compared 12% of the time

WSO2 API Manager vs 3scale API Management

Compared 11% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs 3scale API Management

Compared 10% of the time

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Microsoft Azure API Management vs SwaggerHub

Compared 22% of the time

Apigee vs SwaggerHub

Compared 17% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs SwaggerHub

Compared 10% of the time

Stoplight vs SwaggerHub

Compared 8% of the time

Postman Enterprise vs SwaggerHub

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

API Management

July 2025

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Buyer's Guide

API Management

July 2025

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Overview

3scale is an API management platform that delivers flexible, highly scalable solutions to package, distribute, control, and monetize your APIs, giving you the power to make the most of your API program.

Share company data, content, or services through Web or mobile applications.
Provide an API to external organizations, internal teams, or both.
Avoid the hassle and constant maintenance of building a solution from scratch.

3scale delivers centralized API management features through a distributed, cloud-hosted layer. The platform includes built-in features to help you build a more successful API program, including access control, rate limits, payment gateway integration, and developer experience tools.

Red Hat

SwaggerHub is an integrated API Development platform, built for teams, that brings the core capabilities of the Swagger framework to design, build, document and deploy APIs. SwaggerHub enables development teams to collaborate and coordinate the entire lifecycle of an API with the flexibility to integrate with the toolset of your choice.

SmartBear

Sample Customers

Victor Ops, Coca Cola, The Telegraph, Skava, Orange, Typeform

Sonic, Zuora, Woolworths, CrowdFlower

Buyer's Guide

3scale API Management vs. SwaggerHub

July 2025

Free Report: 3scale API Management vs. SwaggerHub

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