--- description: Review of WSO2 API Manager Software: system overview, features, price and cost information. Get free demos and compare to similar programs on Software Advice New Zealand. image: https://gdm-localsites-assets-gfprod.imgix.net/images/software_advice/og_logo-55146305bbe7b450bea05c18e9be9c9a.png title: WSO2 API Manager | Reviews, Pricing & Demos - SoftwareAdvice NZ --- Breadcrumb: [Home](/) > [API Platforms](/directory/4343/api-management/software) > [WSO2 API Manager](/software/352017/wso2-api-manager) # WSO2 API Manager Canonical: https://www.softwareadvice.co.nz/software/352017/wso2-api-manager Page: 1 / 2\ Next: [Next page](https://www.softwareadvice.co.nz/software/352017/wso2-api-manager?page=2) > WSO2 API Manager is a 100% open source, full lifecycle API management and integration solution for designing, developing, publishing, managing, monetizing, and analyzing different APIs. Additionally, developers can create APIs by integrating other APIs and services. The solution helps organizations accelerate API development and reuse across legacy, cloud native, and event-driven architectures. WSO2 API Manager runs on-premises, in the cloud, and in hybrid environments, conducting over 60 trillion transactions annually. WSO2 API Manager supports a wide variety of API types such as REST, SOAP, GraphQL, as well as Event Driven APIs such as WebSockets and WebHooks. It can be run on both Cloud Native and legacy infrastructures, used on-premises, in the cloud and in hybrid fashion as well. The design of WSO2 API manager is highly adaptable, enabling efficient and dependable integration with both internal and external systems, as well as with partners or third-party entities. > > Verdict: Rated **4.5/5** by 30 users. Top-rated for **Likelihood to recommend**. ----- ## Quick Stats & Ratings | Metric | Rating | Detail | | **Overall** | **4.5/5** | 30 Reviews | | Ease of Use | 4.0/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Customer Support | 4.3/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Value for Money | 4.6/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Features | 4.4/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Recommendation percentage | 80% | (8/10 Likelihood to recommend) | ## About the vendor - **Company**: WSO2 - **Founded**: 2005 ## Commercial Context - **Pricing model**: Usage Based (Free version available) - **Target Audience**: Self Employed, 2–10, 11–50, 51–200, 201–500, 501–1,000, 1,001–5,000, 5,001–10,000, 10,000+ - **Deployment & Platforms**: Cloud, SaaS, Web-based, Mac (Desktop), Windows (Desktop), Linux (Desktop), Windows (On-Premise), Linux (On-Premise), Chromebook (Desktop) - **Supported Languages**: English - **Available Countries**: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium and 208 more ## Features - API - API Design - API Gateway - API Governance - API Lifecycle Management - Access Controls/Permissions - Dashboard - Developer Portal - Reporting/Analytics - Scalability - Testing Management - Traffic Control - Version Control ## Support Options - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - 24/7 (Live rep) - Chat ## Category - [API Platforms](https://www.softwareadvice.co.nz/directory/4343/api-management/software) ## Related Categories - [API Platforms](https://www.softwareadvice.co.nz/directory/4343/api-management/software) - [Data Integration Tools](https://www.softwareadvice.co.nz/directory/3304/data-integration-tools/software) ## Alternatives 1. 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We can easily provide our APIs to external users as secured public APIs. > > **Cons**: This application still release new versions and once we configured with a server, it much hard to move with a new version with new features. > > I use this application to make public APIs to the external users who wants to use our services. ----- ### "WSO2 API Manager - the front end API Manager for Management, Monitoring and Monetization of API's" — 4.0/5 > **Rob** | *4 September 2019* | Information Technology & Services | Recommendation rating: 9.0/10 > > **Pros**: Where shall I start? It is one of the big 4 of WSO2 and a product suited for the frontend management of APIs. You could say it is like a guard that will let people or not, but then of course with API's (but also Soap Services and Websocket services). It is hard to focus on all features (my YENLO WSO2 API Training is 3 days and really is the tip of the iceberg). It downloads as a monolith and can be used as that but has 5 components : store, publisher, gateway, traffic manager and key manager. It uses a store concept where users (read: developers) can find, try,rate and subscribe to APIs. The definition of the API's is done in the Publisher where technical details as well as search and explanatory details are filled in. When you invoke an API it is done through the gateway. In essence it is a mini ESB / WSO2 EI since the synapse configurations are basically the same as the Enterprise Integrator. Both of them are SYnapse configs in XML, the difference of course is that the API manager is more extensive. What is great is the extensible lifecycle of the API Manager. This allows you to extend the lifecycle that an API goes through like created, published and deprecated. There are so many features that i did not describe. IT would have been a big review if i did. > > **Cons**: Like with the ESB, the Synapse / AXIS2 components are 10+ years old. Those need to be replaced so there will probably be a migration process in the future. It does not mean the product doesn't function but the components are end of lif That is why we see the next version of the API manager (3.0.0) being developed but also the micro gateway now in version 3.0.1 (using ballerina as the language). Any product has its pros and cons, the API Manager is no different. > > I've trained 100+ people in using the API Manager and it is my favorite of the 4 products from WSO2. IT works with all of the other products from WSO2. (IS as external Keymanager, EI as the mediation engine), BPS as the workflow engine) and Stream Processor (as the traffic manager and / or Analytics Server). ----- ### "Capable to perform - but hides its best in code" — 4.0/5 > **Ranjith** | *26 July 2019* | Information Services | Recommendation rating: 8.0/10 > > **Pros**: - Extendable: Given the open source nature, product team gave umpteen hooks for extending the capability of the product. E.g. API Life cycle phases and progression, Custom analytics, Workflow for publishing, and so on. - Customizable: Not simple UI level customization, ability to add custom connectors, custom mediation logic, and so on - Flexible: Product platform as such is deployable in multiple format and can be heterogeneous scaled > > **Cons**: - Learning curve: Team implementing WSO2 has to go through a harsh, steep learning curve. For a starter - there are no starting place. When compared to competitive products - ApiGee has 4 min videos, Mulesoft has online training course, Boomi has detailed tutorials. - Documentation: It needs a complete makeover - it does not have a flow, nor its easy to navigate. Samples provided as mere code - needs an explanation - Community: WSO2 product developers write multiple blogs - that is the only savior. If you are in search of some technical question - google is of little help. You do not have a place to start searching. support.wso2.com needs to have some capability to up itself in google index > > WSO2 is not for companies who want quick results from start. You need your organization - not just developers, even directors to get their hands dirty when need comes. It takes time to mature - then you can expect good results. ----- ### "Excellent product, the mediation components need a little work" — 5.0/5 > **Ben** | *4 July 2019* | Banking | Recommendation rating: 9.0/10 > > **Pros**: Basic APIs are fantastic and able to be created in seconds. With a little bit of work it's possible to develop an entire suite to a pattern that is secure and robust. The scalability also is incredible; there has been a huge amount of though put into the solution as a whole to allow a huge TPS load with multiple tenants, all scriptable/API-driven. While I haven't put it truly through its paces, it's difficult to find a use-case it couldn't manage. Additionally being able to deploy WAR files directly has come in extremely useful. I've used this for stubbed functionality that the prototyping component can't cater for and it works incredibly well. > > **Cons**: Like with any software this complex, it comes with a learning curve; the tough bit for me was the mediator components, which given how critical they are, felt a little hidden away. These items were also skipped over in the mini tutorial you get presented when creating an API for the first time, so take some digging into the documentation to understand their function and how they click. In saying that, they are extremely powerful; once you learn the nuances of how they fit together, it's insane the capability you're able to perform with them. There are a couple of items that do have some gaps however: - The Eclipse interface while powerful, feels clunky and slow. The drag and drop is great however if a little undocumented within the eclipse interface. If this were instead implemented within the product itself as a HTML5 interface "Gliffy style", it would be a fantastic integrated feature. 95% of the other Eclipse components aren't applicable to the API Manager anyway. - An online catalog of mediators that others have built would be handy, the sampled definitely give a good look and feel, however to take community created components and implement them into your own mediators saves the duplication needed. > > Overall my experience has been excellent; the product is fully featured with the capability to handle nearly any outcome. I'm intending on extending it further with a few more interfaces as well to fill out our range. ----- ### "Best open source API Gateway" — 5.0/5 > **RAVI** | *2 July 2019* | Hospital & Health Care | Recommendation rating: 9.0/10 > > **Pros**: It offers several features out of the box for an API gateway. From defining an API to publish and use both for internal and external consumption. It has tight integration with Analytics module to give several key metrics of API usage. > > **Cons**: Setup is bit tricky. Also publishing the API requires volume mounts and in a cloud deployment it may seem easier but gets real annoying if we have to republish an API. When only one instance is running and it goes down, restarting the gateway requires all APIs to be republished. > > Overall its a great product. We have deployed all of APIs behind a VPN and expose them only thru API gateway. Deploying a all-in-one single instance is easier in a container, but gets tricky when deploying in a distributed clustered environment. Easy to customize the UI if someone is looking for white labeling it. ----- Page: 1 / 2\ Next: [Next page](https://www.softwareadvice.co.nz/software/352017/wso2-api-manager?page=2) ## Links - [View on SoftwareAdvice](https://www.softwareadvice.co.nz/software/352017/wso2-api-manager) ## This page is available in the following languages | Locale | URL | | en | | | en-AU | | | en-GB | | | en-IE | | | en-NZ | | ----- ## Structured Data