What is most valuable?
Other than the limitations with the cloud version everything else is fantastic. You can set up workflows and write limited pieces of logic.
We tried hosting it on our own machines, which we thought would solve the problem, but Tyk, despite being pretty good for the features it claims to support, is still in its early stages, and is still maturing. It's still pretty new.
What needs improvement?
We ran it for a while, but then we decided to move away from Tyk, because Tyk's cloud version, the SaaS version, has a significant limitation of limited flexibility, so you can't program very much.
If you need anything customized, Tyk's cloud solution isn't for you. On the cloud version allowing customization is something, I'd like to see.
I would like the ability to add custom headers to the request.
I would like to see customizability included. Most API gateways, in my opinion, lack orchestration capabilities. If they can solve that really well, they will be able to quickly rise to the top of the market.
For how long have I used the solution?
We evaluated Tyk for over a month.
We used the latest version.
We started with the cloud-based version and then moved on to the hosted version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of stability, we had no issues. In fact, one of our competitors, who also happens to be good friends, has been using Tyk in production for quite some time. It hasn't caused any issues.
Buyer's Guide
API Management
January 2023
Find out what your peers are saying about Tyk, Google, WSO2 and others in API Management. Updated: January 2023.
672,411 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We did not test it for scalability yet because we were only running in-house test workloads at the time, and we would have once we knew that all other conditions were met, but because other conditions were not met, we did not move forward with the scalability. I felt, and through my, research Tyk is found to be reasonably scalable. I have also heard this from people who use it.
How are customer service and support?
We only asked one question, and it was resolved within a reasonable amount of time.
I believe they can improve their support for multiple programming languages.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had found a solution, and we still have that solution, which required the use of an API gateway. We wanted some programming logic to be programmed at the API gateway level. At the time the college chose API Gateway.
That was something we wanted to do, but unfortunately, we desired greater flexibility in terms of our ability to program and wanted to make the best decision, and we chose Apigee, not Tyk or AWS. Apigee provided the best support for that flexibility.
Apigee requires a massive installation, a very bulky installation, which requires a significant amount of maintenance, overhead, and cost.
The reason we didn't go ahead with the Apigee was that it was becoming very expensive, in terms of license and maintenance costs, as well as setup time.
We tried Tyk, and a couple of our client's competitors are already using Tyk, and they are using it pretty extensively.
When it did not meet with our needs in terms of being able to customize, we looked into AWS API Gateway, which supports that through AWS Lambda, a serverless function, but it has limitations in terms of certain hardbound limitations, such as an API timeout of a maximum of 30 seconds or 10 seconds. I'm not sure what it is. It was also unsuitable for APIs, particularly external APIs that take far too long to respond. As a result, we did not proceed with any API Gateway. Instead, we made use of AWS AppSync. AppSync resolved two of our issues. One is solved by an API gateway, which allows you to connect to any number of data sources over the internet.
It also allows you to have Lambda functions, which you can customize and use to write any custom logic you want in most modern programming languages. Third, because it provides graph scale endpoints, it helped us save a lot of time on our backend development.
How was the initial setup?
We tried it and found it to be quick and easy to set up. The setup time was really, really quick.
The initial setup is very straightforward.
I run a company with its own team of developers. We were also involved in a joint venture with a client.
It does not require a lot of maintenance.
What about the implementation team?
We were the integrators as well as the owners in this joint venture, no third parties were used.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It had a free version, which suited many of our needs, but not all, but we were happy to go ahead with the licensed version as well, which is the paid version.
We are required to pay a licensing fee. There are no additional costs, it was pretty transparent.
To be honest, I don't remember much about the license, but as far as I know, there was nothing alarming.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We compared a few options. We compared Apigee, Tyk, and finally AWS API Gateway. We don't use any of these. We had decided to go ahead with the Tyk, but for some reason, we changed our minds. In addition, we are now utilizing AWS AppSync. It matched our use case better. There are, however, pros and cons of each.
What other advice do I have?
If they are considering an API gateway for a straightforward API gateway case, use case, but if they are considering something more, something that an ESB should support, such as orchestration, transformations, flow management, routing, if those are the capabilities that they are requiring, then it is better to avoid using an API gateway and instead go for a more complex solution, like MuleSoft.
From my experience, I would rate Tyk a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.