WSO2 API Manager Reviews

We use WSO2 Manager for API management.

WSO2 API Manager can be improved a lot relating to usability.  It is a bit heavy. The workflow is more complicated in terms of API creation and publishing. 

I have been working with WSO2 API Manager for four years now.

WSO2 API Manager is fairly stable. I won't say, it is very stable. We have had our issues.

WSO2 API Manager is scalable.

You need to understand the nuances of the support calls.

Neutral

The initial setup of WSO2 API Manager is not very straightforward. It is complicated.

The implementation is done in-house.

I do not feel there is a return on investment.

It is costly, around ten thousand per year, per instance. We normally run two nodes and one cluster per region. This is just for APIM and identity manager put together, so it's like six instances of AP manager and six instances of identity server. That comes to around one hundred and twenty thousand. For an open-source solution, it is a bit costly.

I would rate WSO2 API Manager a six out of ten because of usability and cost.

I work as a software engineer on the WSO2 API management and WSO2 identity and access server, using version 2.6.

At my company, Jio India, I have been one of the main people driving adoption of WSO2. In the beginning, we used WSO2 on virtual machines to handle the API and IAM requirements for more than 40 applications. Now we are currently in the process of migrating to WSO2 version 3 with Kubernetes as our orchestration system.

It has helped us manage and scale our APIs in one solution, which is important to us as a large enterprise with over 40 applications relying on various APIs.

One of the great things about WSO2 API Manager is that it is so easy to adopt. And because it's an open source solution, we're able to extend the implementation any time to suit our applications better.

From a product perspective, the first thing is that although the documentation provided by WSO2 is good, it could be much better. We're in the middle of a complex migration, moving away from VMs to Kubernetes with the latest version of WSO2 and good documentation is essential to us right now.

If you are doing some basic implementation, that's easy enough to do with the current documentation, but suppose you are stuck with an error or you're engineering a complex scenario. In this case, when diving deep into the documentation, it's very helpful to find more information on how things are connected, what each file does, and what the various configuration settings do.

Although they do have paid support which may help in cases where documentation is lacking, we aren't paying for a support license at the moment so we would definitely like to see better documentation for those in our kind of situation. Especially since we're using WSO2 API Manager to such a large extent.

Beyond documentation, they have provided a caching mechanism which I believe could also use some improvement. Once you have set up and implemented WSO2, caching becomes very important and I think they could work on the cache parameters, etc., to make it easier to work with.

Regarding the code itself, there are some bugs which we have encountered among the many different enterprise-level scenarios we have faced. Once again, because we are not paying for the licensed version, it becomes more difficult to request changes and bug fixes to the WSO2 codebase. So, for example, when we find a bug, we would like to be able go to GitHub and get better help on creating a solution that we can quickly push into production.

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for about five years now.

In terms of orchestration, it's very scalable. Especially when using Kubernetes to handle the orchestration. When we are creating our deployment architecture, we can easily define all sorts of parameters. For example, we can change the CPU parameter, memory parameter, etc., as needed.

We don't have a license with WSO2 so I couldn't connect with the WSO2 team for technical support. I was the main engineer who drove adoption of it at my company, and during initial setup, editing of the product, and implementation, I obtained a lot of support from Stack Overflow, LinkedIn WSO2 groups, Slack conversations, and GitHub.

From a deployment perspective, initially, we had started with our deployment on VMs (virtual machines), which we understood would take some time to get right. Thankfully, WSO2 provided many sane defaults in the initial setup, including defaults for authentication and so forth, which saved us some time.

But as we migrated our deployment from virtual machines to orchestration using Kubernetes, it became a bit more complex. It took us a long time to figure out the best way to configure the orchestration, since there are multiple ways of doing it with Kubernetes. Another complicating factor in the orchestration setup is that we have to always keep in mind where our users are located, so that there won't be any negative impact on their end.

Keeping all these points in mind, we finalized deployment by creating our own API manager image which we could deploy in Kubernetes. This image was based on our previous VM setup, which we simply reused. However, it was still a challenging task to get everything correctly configured for the Kubernetes orchestration, especially since we were in the middle of simultaneously migrating 15 different implementations.

Now that we have mostly finalized the deployment architecture for our APIs, it's much easier moving forward. We know exactly how to deploy the base image, and there's not much work to do now except for changing parameters around and so on.

We are implementing WSO2 API Manager without any paid support licenses so we do mostly everything in-house.

We have not opted for the paid version of WSO2 but we have implemented the free and open source WSO2 software to a great extent and it is working as per our expectation.

When we started looking into it, we compared WSO2 products with a few other products including MuleSoft, Tyk, Kong, Nginx, and Express Gateway. Obviously each product has some pros and cons, but out of those products, we liked WSO2 and KONG. Again, both have their limitations, but as an enterprise business we found WSO2 more easy to adopt.

WSO2 API Manager is a good solution for enterprise API management and, even better, it is free to use the software. If you are doing complex implementations, however, it might benefit you to go with a paid license which will help when you discover any bugs or need extra support that the documentation cannot provide.

I would rate WSO2 API Manager an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case is integration of legacy systems and channels, exposing APIs and security. I'm co-founder and CTO of the company. 

The solution is open source and easy to configure. 

I'd like to see some new features and updated functionalities.

I've been using this solution for three years. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable. 

The technical support is very good. 

The initial setup is straightforward. 

I would recommend this solution, open source is king. I rate this product 10 out of 10.

We use WSO2 API Manager for securing API calls for various applications.

WSO2 API Manager is easy to use.

I would improve the product documentation. There are some gaps, and it can be difficult to find the proper documentation for the product if you need to solve something.

There are some new features, but we are not currently using the most recent version. We're looking forward to the new release.

The initial setup could be simplified.

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for one and a half years.

We have a subcontractor who occasionally downloads new versions from the repository and dates them on a half-year basis.

It is not scalable, in a specific way, but scalable in OCP.

There are 20 to 40 applications and thousands of users who are working through the solution.

We are quite satisfied with technical support. 

I would rate technical support a four out of five.

Positive

I'm not currently working with IBM products because my job has changed. I'm now employed by a different company, and I'm now primarily working with WSO2 products.

We mainly use API Management and Identity Server.

The initial setup is medium, not easy, but also not difficult.

It's a complicated product. There are numerous distinct connections.

We have a maximum of ten engineers working on various parts of the solution and looking after deployment and maintenance.

It was not done by me. I lack experience with the current setup.

We use the open-source version of WSO2 API Manager, there is no cost.

I definitely recommend this solution.

Because the complexity of the setup and the documentation could be improved, I would rate WSO2 API Manager an eight out of ten.

I'm pleased with the WSO2 product, but there are some gaps in the documentation. It could be greatly improved in this case so that it is easier to deploy and maintain when there are issues.

WSO2 API Manager is used for digitalization and innovation.

WSO2 API Manager could increase their security compliance.

Here in India, the government is coming with a lot of regulations and required security features which the solutions have to upgrade to meet this requirement. Most of the solutions sell API management as a security solution, but they have to improve the security features.

There are a lot of modules and it can be complex.

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for approximately four years.

WSO2 API Manager is a stable solution.

My customers are not large companies, their volume is less. That is the reason why I recommend WSO2 API Manager because they have a full life cycle of products. For example, they have ESB, API management, and other tools. Additionally, they have webMethods and is quite expensive. 

There is a solution called Gravity which is new that is very good, but they have pure API management which vendors are looking for a full-fledged solution. That is their legacy model, they would need an ESB.

The technical support is good but it depends on the partner relationship.

I would rate the support from the WSO2 API Manager a four out of five.

Most of the solutions similar to WSO2 API Manager have small differences, because of how it fits in their environment. The features that WSO2 API Manager has most of the vendors have too.

I rate WSO2 API Manager a seven out of ten.

WSO2 API Manager is a complete platform for managing APIs.

I think the best part about WSO2 API Manager is that it's highly customizable because it's open-source. The partnership model is quite lucrative for us, it helps us to go and pitch to our customers. You can build a lot of business models yourself that you want to use. You are able to do a lot of the solutions.

The user interface needs to improve, it is a bit outdated.

There is an Affiliate Marketing monetization in Google Apigee that you would like to use in this solution but is not available. We end up having to build an alternative to get the job done. This feature should be added to this solution.

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for approximately four months.

The solution is scalable, my clients have been happy.

Most of my customers are enterprise-sized companies.

The support system is not that great. The number of employees in the organization is perhaps too little that is providing training. This causes some problems.

I am working with Google Apigee and it is quite nice, but it's a bit expensive for the customers. Otherwise, Google Apigee has a lot of different features that the WSO2 API Manager doesn't provide.

The installation is quite easy, the full implementation takes approximately three months.

I think the other competitors that are providing the same solution are quite expensive. WSO2 API Manager is quite cheap.

WSO2 API Manager is very good for small and medium companies, but if you have an enterprise-level company, Google Apigee might be a better choice.

I rate WSO2 API Manager an eight out of ten.

Our normal use case for API Manager is to create pre-configured store users. The administrator who creates those users then sends them their credentials and secure links.  We are running API Manager on a Tomcat server. Currently, I am the main person who works with API Manager, because it requires a proper understanding of the APIs. 

When looking at things from an enterprise point of view, it's often difficult to see the benefit of a tool. Most of the time, we need to install a plug-in without having any lapse in services or restarting the application. The WSO2 platform can do all deployments without any downtime.

API Manager upgraded to 3.2 recently, and it has more flexibility in terms of authentication methods. In the version we're currently using, there is only a token. We couldn't do basic authentication.

In version 2.5, there is room for improvement on the UI. That may have been addressed in the upgrade to 3.2, which uses the latest front-end framework that's commonly used in other solutions like JIRA. I would need to play around with the upgrade, but I believe the UI issue has been addressed. I can only speak about my experience with the 2.5 version because that's the one I've been able to use extensively. I can say that user management is not really flexible. So, if I want to create 1,000 store users, I can't do it as a publisher. You have to register as a store user using the store URL. It would be nice if API Manager had that functionality as an administrator, so you would have a user management interface where you can create store users.  

I've been using API Manager for more than five years. I was using the platform before the recent overhaul. They now have this new interface where they migrated the front end to using view. So I think view framework or react, one of the two, but it's been a while.

API Manager is stable. We haven't had any stability issues at all. It has run on Tomcat for as long as I know, and it's a stable web service so.

In terms of scalability, it has so far been able to handle the traffic on the platform. We haven't had any issues where we've had downtime because too many requests were coming in per second.

The setup was pretty straightforward. I asked my colleague to do the setup. Since I've been working on it for a while, it probably wouldn't be a challenge. We didn't use many resources to do the setup or spend much time setting up the application because they've added more deployment scripts to make the solution easier to deploy.

Maybe I lack the curiosity to push me to check other platforms. Even when I try checking them, I've not actually checked other competitors because the major competitor got acquired by another platform.

I would rate API Manager eight out of 10. The advice I would give to anyone considering API Manager is to take the time to understand how the platform works. It doesn't matter how good a thing is if you don't understand the purpose. For example, you need to understand the use case for service orchestration. And once you know that, you know why it makes sense to bring in WSO2 API Manager. This is a better way to go about things than to force yourself into it, only to find out that it's not working for you at the end of the day. 

We have developed a slew of applications for Bank, that helped transform multiple core banking processes, such as customer onboarding, account servicing, and rapid loan request fulfillment. The solution, which is powered by WSO2’s API management and enterprise integration technologies, seamlessly bridges systems while paving the digital path to a connected financial ecosystem.

• Reduced operating costs by using open-source technology solutions
• Enhanced customer trust built through multi-channel communication
• Shortened delivery time for client services
• Improved compliance and reduced risk exposure

Helped us to quickly publish our Microservice APIs and enforcing different policies against them, it comes up with features like Security, Throttling policy and it provides complete access to customize API's which actually saves development effort and time.

The solution offers a simple and easy configuration. You can get it working up within one or two days' time. It's very fast, simple to use, and you can deploy things quickly. Its very easy to configure and takes less time to create customize policies across the API Gateway.  

The solution is very stable and can scale well.

Providing easy configuration for email and SMS notifications, layout and customization of admin and developer landing pages.

We've been using this solution for last 5 years.

It's stable. There is no issue with it in that sense at all. That said, some of the customers who have faced issues have had problems in the updating part. For example, when they update something, something goes wrong. However, if they are following a proper process, they should be okay. Whenever you have to do an upgrade you should first do it in a staging environment to test it and make sure you won't have issues. If everything works properly there only then should you move into production. If somebody follows a proper IT process, then they will have no issues. We have never faced any issues and it's a perfectly stable platform as far as we are concerned.

WSO2 API Management platform can be deployed in a scalable manner where the system can handle 1000RPS with 10 - 20 KB payloads.
WSO2 API Manager can be deployed in a way where auto scaling is there so whenever there is a traffic spike the deployment can auto scale.
Also, APIs can be deployed across multiple gateways so one APIs traffic spike won't affect the rest of the gateways.

Tech support is very good. The open-source version means you have to get support from the community. However, if you have a subscription, they provide the support portal and everything is solved there. Therefore you get support directly from the project team. The engineers who developed the product directly support you sometimes and you get very good support from them. 

There are no issues with support at all. Even if you need some sort of customized help, the engineers will assist. It's very helpful.

have used 3scale earlier, to lower costs, simplify maintenance, and because WSO2 API Manager is open-source

The initial setup is not complex or overly difficult. In fact, it's pretty straightforward. The solution offers a simple and easy configuration. You can get it up and running within one or two days. The deployment doesn't take very long.

We have implemented both all-in-one deployments and distributed setup. The distributed setup is a little more complex, most of the time takes in network configurations. That said, the basic setup is very simple and fast.

We have a dedicated lab setup for trying new features, and we provide implementation and support solution to our customers.

Complete feature set in the open source version

Flexibility and extensibility

Complete platform with built-in integration and security

Single GA (generally available) edition with all features. Subscription model

Simple pricing model with per core pricing. No licensing fees for development

Each subscription also covers, at no extra fee:

• Bursting of on-premise production systems by up to two times the subscribed cores, lasting for up to 3 cumulative days during the subscription year.

• Up to 3 pre-production environments

• Individual development machines, though please note that issues arising on such systems qualify for query support rather than incident support SLAs

• Analytics Profiles

• Passive instances in an active/passive deployment

• Disaster recovery systems

• Query support hours up to a level proportional to the subscription fee

We evaluated 3scale, Apigee and Tibco

I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten. We've been extremely happy with it so far. It's affordable and pretty easy to use overall.