Apigee vs Layer7 API Management comparison

Google and Broadcom are both solutions in the API Management category. Google is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.1, while Broadcom is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.6. Google holds a 15.0% mindshare in APIM, compared to Broadcom’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Apigee

Read 86 Apigee reviews

23,192 Views
17,821 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Layer7 API Management

Read 111 Layer7 API Management reviews

5,068 Views
3,774 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Apigee

Layer7 API Management

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Layer7 API Management and Apigee are major competitors in the API management space. Layer7 is especially notable for companies prioritizing security and cost-effectiveness, while Apigee stands out with its comprehensive API management features, favored in digital transformation, particularly in cloud-native environments.

Features: Layer7 is known for its strong security measures, including protocol translation and integration with enterprise tools like SiteMinder. It offers REST-to-SOAP conversions and supports flexible integrations. Apigee is praised for its advanced analytics, developer portal, and extensive policy options, catering to complex API management needs with flexible service monetization.

Room for Improvement: Layer7 often faces critiques around its user interface, with calls for a modernized developer portal and better integration capabilities. Apigee users express a need for more flexible integration options and seek improvements in pricing models. Improved documentation would enhance user experiences on both platforms, particularly in Layer7’s policy management and Apigee’s API lifecycle management areas.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Layer7 is tailored for on-premises and hybrid cloud deployments, which require meticulous planning for high availability. Despite supportive customer service, some users feel service responsiveness declined post-Broadcom acquisition. Apigee emphasizes cloud-first strategies with SaaS and hybrid options, offering versatility and efficient support, appealing to diverse enterprise needs.

Pricing and ROI: Layer7 is perceived as cost-effective for companies within CA's ecosystem, providing a good return on investment through robust security. Apigee’s pricing reflects its feature-rich, enterprise-level capabilities, seen as higher cost yet justified by comprehensive analytics and API management functionalities. Both solutions face cost transparency challenges, with Layer7 being more accessible for smaller setups while Apigee aligns with extensive API traffic demands in large enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Apigee vs. Layer7 API Management Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Apigee vs. Layer7 API Management

January 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

Apigee

Ranking in API Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

API Testing Tools (6th)

Layer7 API Management

Ranking in API Management

10th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

111

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Apigee is 15.0%, up from 15.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Layer7 API Management is 3.1%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management

Featured Reviews

ShawkyFoda

Senior Consultant at Goverment

Provides high visibility and control with good traffic monitoring

Analytics is one of the areas needing enhancement, specifically more visibility and control over traffic to improve capacity management and high availability. The replication process between Master and Slave for disaster recovery takes too long. Dependencies on analytics impact the performance of the user interface, which should be separate. The complex setup process on-premises, especially with multi-node installations, could also be improved. Additional control in product declarations, based on operations like POST and GET, is needed.

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Ronald D'Souza

Presales Consultant for CA Southern Africa at Hyperion Holding Pty Ltd

Has great drag-and-drop features and it requires minimal coding

I have mainly implemented using Layer 7 API Management. Some of the major challenges we were able to meet with a quick release to market methodology. Some of the tasks which we achieved for our customers were: 1. Translation service from SOAP to REST and vice versa. 2. API service to DB (Oracle, MySQL, MSSQL, Snowflake, SAP HANA) -- Created Swagger APIs that were able to perform CRUD operation to the backend API mentioned above and provided routes to query and get data. 3. Integration with Payment gateway service providers to perform (transaction on behalf of the customer with third-party payment gateway service providers white labeled with our APIs ) -- Followed TMF standards for payment gateway integration with the Telcom world. 4. Orchestration of the API. Build multiple microservers and provided orchestration based on route, path, and data in the request and perform actions that would be communicated with multiple APIs and provide a single consolidated response. 5. Provided API-driven security (Oauth 2.0, JWT, SAML, Basic, and a variety of means) to access the API giving the developer the freedom to concentrate only on application/service/microservice and let the gateway handle the threat. 6. Seamless Mutual Authentication allowed good segregation between APIs in the DMZ and internal network.

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

"The features I found most valuable are how the APIs are published, the whole process of finalizing the API, and then controlling it."

"I simply like how you can personalize your products and put them into product categories. That's what I like the most."

"The features for API security have been significant with Apigee."

"Apigee Analytics dashboard is useful to monitor transactions, error percentage, transaction latency, etc."

"It has a very efficient logging system which is easy to maintain."

"Apigee is relatively easy to use for developers."

"A special feature is configuring target servers, proxy config, and Cert related security, which regularizes incoming traffic from cloud users or external applications to internal applications in a secured manner."

"The ease of creating policies has been the most useful of the solution's features. It's a quick ramp-up time. It's easy for our support staff to implement the policies in the API management layer."

More Apigee pros

"There are a couple aspects of performance. One is just speed and uptime, and it's stellar in that regard. The other is, how much effort is it to put it in place in the first place, and then how much effort is it to keep it operational. That's where its real strength is. I'm able to do things quickly and easily that I couldn't do before."

"The most valuable feature of Layer7 API Management is that their policy is really easy to develop and it is flexible."

"It is helpful to have a central API that is hosted and managed."

"It has improved API governance and gives analytics to API performance."

"What I found most valuable in Layer7 API Management is that you can launch the API from the gateway quickly and securely, making it less complicated to deploy APIs. I also like that Layer7 API Management has a good portal and dashboards and that the dashboards show you statistics regarding how many people used the API, etc."

"It is fairly stable for the Gateway side."

"The level of technical support is good."

"The Gateway can front our APIs very easily."

More Layer7 API Management pros

Cons

"Apigee lacks market presence."

"More documentation on the Open Banking Standard will help."

"There is room for improvement in v-logging for each transaction. Additionally, Apigee only allows validation of transactions up to a four-hour period, which requires manual hovering over the date and time."

"Sometimes there are glitches, which means there's still room for improvement in the platform."

"The setup and installation process could be improved with a container-based system."

"The user interface could be better. It could be easier to navigate and more user-friendly."

"I have heard there maybe be some security issues that need to be addressed. If this is the situation I would encourage taking a look at the security matters."

"Since it is based on various open sourced projects, we might have to depend on the fixes provided by those components rather than Apigee directly fixing the issues."

More Apigee cons

"They need a workflow for the API Developer Portal, where the process only allows requests to go to the correct person."

"Some problems with response time."

"The setup was not as straightforward as it should have been. Support should be improved."

"On the monitoring side, we need a better way to monitor it. CA has not given a clear understanding of what external tools we can use to do this."

"Layer7 API Management could be improved in its logging and alert mechanisms."

"we cannot add gateways on the fly because there are a lot of moving parts; endpoint connectivity is one of them. If we add more nodes then the rate-limiting feature is affected. This kind of gateway always has the scalability issue. But, I think CA is coming up with its Microgateway, which is in Beta. If they stabilize their Microgateway platform, we could do very well in terms of scalability."

"The portal is not the most intuitive and the way things are displayed makes it difficult to find the information we need."

"We are looking for improvements related to integration. We want to see them add integration tools to the CA bundle. That would be helpful."

More Layer7 API Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My clients pay for a license."

"Since it was acquired by Google, we can get a license based on our requirements and the cost level will depend on cloud access and support."

"Apigee is expensive and not cost-effective. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate it an eight for the high cost. The changes individuals need to make on their side are costly."

"You do not necessarily pay for the license. The cloud solution is based more on transactions. So, you pay for it either way."

"We have a contract for three years. I don't know the cost."

"The tool is extremely expensive."

"The solution’s pricing could be more competitive."

"If the budget is not a concern then I will choose to go with Apigee over WSA-2, but if it is then I would prefer the latter solution."

More Apigee pricing and cost advice

"There are various licensing models for Layer7 API Management. We have to buy additional licenses to get new versions."

"If the CA pricing for API management would be a little lower, they would be able to cover a broader market."

"Do not buy piecemeal."

"If you do a TCO of more than five years, then you will see a big jump in costs for some vendors."

"At the time we bought the product it was a perpetual users license and there has been no need for additional licensing fees."

"Licenses are required to operate the product, but I don't know much about the validity periods attached to it."

"Our customers found the product’s cost a little higher. They are looking for open-source solutions."

"Be aware of additional licenses for your warm standby. Ensure you get plenty of non-production licenses."

More Layer7 API Management pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does Apigee differ from Azure API Management?

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...

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Which is better - Apigee or Amazon API Gateway?

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, ma...

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What do you like most about Apigee?

We can customize the dashboard.

See all answers

What do you like most about Layer7 API Management?

The solution's technical support is good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Layer7 API Management?

The pricing is expensive compared to other products.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Layer7 API Management?

Layer7 API Management could be improved in its logging and alert mechanisms. Furthermore, although cloud deployment has been introduced, I am not familiar with all recent updates. In previous versi...

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Comparisons

Microsoft Azure API Management vs Apigee

Compared 33% of the time

IBM API Connect vs Apigee

Compared 9% of the time

WSO2 API Manager vs Apigee

Compared 8% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs Apigee

Compared 6% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs Apigee

Compared 6% of the time

More Apigee Competitors

MuleSoft API Manager vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 16% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 15% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 6% of the time

TIBCO Cloud API Management vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 5% of the time

More Layer7 API Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Apigee

January 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Layer7 API Management

January 2025

Download Layer7 API Management product report

Also Known As

No data available

CA API Management, CA Live API Creator, Espresso Logic, CA API Gateway

Learn More

Google

Broadcom

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.”

Layer7 API Management is a comprehensive solution that enables organizations to securely expose, manage, and monetize their APIs.

It provides features such as API gateway, developer portal, analytics, and security to ensure seamless integration and control over API traffic.

With Layer7 API Management, businesses can streamline their API operations and drive innovation.

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

1. IBM 2. Microsoft 3. Oracle 4. Salesforce 5. SAP 6. Cisco 7. Dell 8. HP 9. Adobe 10. VMware 11. Accenture 12. Capgemini 13. Deloitte 14. PwC 15. Ernst & Young 16. Infosys 17. TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) 18. Wipro 19. Cognizant 20. HCL Technologies 21. Tech Mahindra 22. Fujitsu 23. Hitachi 24. NEC 25. NTT Data 26. Ericsson 27. Nokia 28. Siemens 29. AT&T 30. Verizon 31. Vodafone 32. Orange

Buyer's Guide

Apigee vs. Layer7 API Management

January 2025

Free Report: Apigee vs. Layer7 API Management

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