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Apigee vs Microsoft Azure API Management comparison

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Buyer's Guide
Apigee vs. Microsoft Azure API Management
September 2023
Executive Summary
Updated on Apr 21, 2022

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Azure API Management and Apigee based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Most users of Microsoft Azure API Management say that the initial setup is simple and straightforward, with the exception of a few reviewers who mentioned they experienced some challenges with deployment. Likewise, Apigee users express varied opinions on deployment, some saying it was straightforward and others saying it isn’t simple.
  • Features: Users of both solutions are happy with their stability.

    Microsoft Azure API Management users like the solution’s ease of use, flexibility, and good integration. Reviewers would like to see more integration options for third-party solutions, better documentation, and an on-premise version.

    Valuable features of Apigee include high availability, customization, good scalability, and solid security features. Users would like to see more caching capabilities and improved performance.
  • Pricing: Microsoft Azure API Management users say that the pricing is fair and reasonable in comparison to competitors. In contrast, Apigee reviewers say the solution is expensive.
  • Service and Support: Some users of Microsoft Azure API Management feel that the service and support are average, while other users express that they have been satisfied with it. Apigee users report that the service and support they receive is good.

Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Apigee received higher ratings than Microsoft Azure API Management. Although Apigee is the more expensive solution, it comes out on top with more favorable features and good technical support.

To learn more, read our detailed Apigee vs. Microsoft Azure API Management Report (Updated: September 2023).
Download the complete report
744,865 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: How does Apigee differ from Azure API Management?
Answer: Apigee offers both cloud-based and on-prem options while Microsoft Azure API Management currently only offers a cloud-based solution. Both solutions are easy to use. Apigee allows for the ability to code in any language. It also offers generous flexibility in setting up your workspace based on how you want to manage your APIs, which is a big win for many of our clients. It is great for fast development and also offers excellent support documentation. Microsoft Azure API Management offers source code examples to help developers learn API. It easily integrates with Microsoft/Azure and is a great tool if you are heavily integrated into that ecosystem. Apigee has some lagging and functionality issues with integration that could be improved. It can also be pretty demanding on the infrastructure, so setup costs can be pretty high for onsite deployment. It does not offer the flexibility and customization of other solutions on the market today (including Azure API Management, which is very flexible). More analytics capabilities would be preferred so that we could get a better idea of actual traffic to the space. Conclusions Microsoft Azure API Management is a great solution if you are already heavily invested in the Microsoft Azure ecosystem as it will integrate easily and function seamlessly. However, Apigee offers a greater level of flexibility, It is very stable and scalable. It is a very lightweight solution with excellent technical support.
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Featured Review
Ganesan Thangapandian
Researched Microsoft Azure API Management but chose Apigee: Enables us to do analysis with all the statistics you want to track
We have seen product improvement. Initially, we didn't use much of the analytics part. Later on, we saw that as an improvement. The rate-limiting... Read more →
Anonymous User
Researched Apigee but chose Microsoft Azure API Management: Good platform components with helpful API management and the ability to expand
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It's stable.""It is scalable.""It is easy to deploy, configure, and monitor the APA.""Items around the mobilization of the API interface and the ability to automate validations for our APIs are the most valuable aspects.""The solution is stable and reliable.""The security that you have with Apigee is very good and aligns with compliance.""The initial setup isn't too complex.""Its customer service is good."

More Apigee Pros →

"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 API management is very good.""I like the API Management functions.""Azure API is scalable.""API Management does not take long to deploy.""The Application Gateway we have found to be the most useful in Microsoft Azure API Management. We have integrated the Microsoft Azure API Management with Application Gateway. Application Gateway is a type of load balancer that we are using for the high availability of our API calls.""The most valuable features are the API and integrations.""The product gives API gateway-related features, like throttling, which are easy to use and low-code/no-code."

More Microsoft Azure API Management Pros →

Cons
"One feature they have to invest time into is the developer portal they use.""It would be good if the Apigee management allowed us to be able to consolidate many operations into single one for the gateway functionality.""Google isn't enthusiastic about supporting older versions. Google is now trying to move all of its clients to X within the cloud.""The initial setup for the on-prem solution is a little complex.""Integration should be improved.""I am still struggling to understand how we can use Apigee as a hybrid system. The pricing of this solution could also be improved as there are multiple new products coming onto the market at competitive price points.""The analytical aspect of it could be better. I think it is fair if Apigee lets you configure some of the metrics of the key details you want to monitor in terms of analytics.""They have an external developer platform that was a little bit painful."

More Apigee Cons →

"Performance issues from this platform need to be sorted out.""It could be more user friendly for developers. It would be nice if developers could view things more easily.""It should be easier to integrate.""Microsoft Azure API Management needs to improve stability.""There is a limitation of 32 kb of data in the APIs. Having the limitation increase would be a benefit.""The licensing tiers can be misleading.""Some of the DevOps stuff could be easier to work with. The migration paths are a little complicated, and moving code around could be more seamless. There should be less manual migration when several teams work together to publish code to the DevOps.""It can be quite complex, somewhat lacking in flexibility."

More Microsoft Azure API Management Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The cost increases as the usage increases."
  • "In Latin America, Apigee is expensive. It's not for small businesses; it's more for big businesses."
  • "Apigee is subject to licensing fees."
  • "Its price is reasonable for the features they provide and the maturity of the platform."
  • "You do not necessarily pay for the license. The cloud solution is based more on transactions. So, you pay for it either way."
  • "It was fairly expensive. I don't know what the standard pricing is. I want to say that it's something like $80,000 for 800 million requests (approximately) a year."
  • "Apigee has several different licenses you can obtain depending on your needs."
  • "My clients pay for a license."

    • More Apigee Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Since everyone is isocentric here, it is reasonable for me."
  • "We pay for a yearly license."
  • "Licensing fees are paid on an annual basis."
  • "Azure's pricing is very competitive compared to platforms like Apigee and MuleSoft."
  • "Azure is a pay-as-you-go model. You build out your virtual environment and pay a monthly price depending on CPU cores, storage, etc."
  • "There are no additional costs above the main license."
  • "It's pay as you go. The subscription packages have room for different scales. It's calculated by the number of apps or computers you use. You do not have to use the enterprise subscription. These subscriptions have different pricing, so you can find one to meet your needs for scalability."
  • "Because of our partner relationship, our pricing is pretty decent. But in general, if I compare pricing, I think the initial offer that we got from Microsoft until the relationship kicked in was more expensive than AWS. There were some unexpected expenses because we had to pause. This was due to our inexperience and because we were doing this significant public cloud migration for the first time. We were using SAP on a public cloud for the first time."

    • More Microsoft Azure API Management Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    How does Apigee differ from Azure API Management?
    Top Answer: Apigee offers both cloud-based and on-prem options while Microsoft Azure API Management currently only offers a cloud-based solution. Both solutions are easy to use. Apigee allows for the ability… more »
    Which is better - Apigee or Amazon API Gateway?
    Top Answer:Amazon API Gateway is a platform that supports the creation and publication of API for web applications. The platform can support thousands of simultaneous API calls, and it provides monitoring… more »
    What do you like most about Apigee?
    Top Answer:If you have numerous applications and high traffic, Apigee is a strong choice for its excellent features and outstanding performance.
    Read all 50 answers   →
    Which is better - Azure API Management or Amazon API Gateway?
    Top Answer:If you use Azure products, API Management is a great solution. It solves many of the problems of externalizing web services. For example, when you need versioning, establish a developer portal and… more »
    What do you like most about Microsoft Azure API Management?
    Top Answer:The tool's most valuable feature is the integration of CI/CD with the API gateway.
    Read all 43 answers   →
    What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure A...
    Top Answer:The solution is highly expensive. Our customers worry about the costs. The price should be a lot less. We are using the premium license. I rate the price of Microsoft Azure API Management a seven out… more »
    Read all 28 answers   →
    Ranking
    2nd
    out of 62 in API Management
    Views
    36,566
    Comparisons
    26,252
    Reviews
    39
    Average Words per Review
    441
    Rating
    8.1
    1st
    out of 62 in API Management
    Views
    39,344
    Comparisons
    32,368
    Reviews
    39
    Average Words per Review
    439
    Rating
    7.9
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Azure API Management, MS Azure API Management
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    Google
    Microsoft
    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.”

    Offer
    Learn more about Apigee
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    Learn more about Microsoft Azure API Management
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    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
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company28%
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Retailer15%
    Insurance Company10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Insurance Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Comms Service Provider6%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Insurance Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise69%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise74%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise58%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise70%
    Buyer's Guide
    Apigee vs. Microsoft Azure API Management
    September 2023
    Free Report: Apigee vs. Microsoft Azure API Management
    Find out what your peers are saying about Apigee vs. Microsoft Azure API Management and other solutions. Updated: September 2023.
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    744,865 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Apigee is ranked 2nd in API Management with 36 reviews while Microsoft Azure API Management is ranked 1st in API Management with 39 reviews. Apigee is rated 8.2, while Microsoft Azure API Management is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Apigee writes "Good automation and documentation with good performance". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Azure API Management writes "Easy to set up with good access control but support could be better". Apigee is most compared with IBM API Connect, Amazon API Gateway, MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager, WSO2 API Manager and Layer7 API Management, whereas Microsoft Azure API Management is most compared with Amazon API Gateway, MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager, Kong Enterprise, IBM API Connect and WSO2 API Manager. See our Apigee vs. Microsoft Azure API Management report.

    See our list of best API Management vendors.

    We monitor all API Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.