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 #11 with an average rating of 7.6. Google holds a 14.5% mindshare in APIM, compared to Broadcom’s 3.0% 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

22,229 Views
17,032 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Layer7 API Management

Read 111 Layer7 API Management reviews

4,887 Views
3,641 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Apigee

Layer7 API Management

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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

11th

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 February 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Apigee is 14.5%, down from 14.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Layer7 API Management is 3.0%, 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

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

"Its flexibility allows seamless management of different products, showcasing scalability to handle extensive solutions."

"The following features are most valuable: API Management, Analytics, Quota, and the Developer Portal."

"If you have numerous applications and high traffic, Apigee is a strong choice for its excellent features and outstanding performance."

"They capture the details of all the incoming and outgoing traffic of your APIs. Based on 300+ default dimensions you can generate beautiful and insightful reports on usage and consumption of APIs."

"The opportunity for customization is really vast and it is a really good feature built into the product."

"A very functional solution."

"The capabilities are very powerful."

More Apigee pros

"The product documentation helps the client and/or user to evolve quickly while using the tool."

"The security checking authentication is our primary use case for this solution."

"Almost all security features are available out-of-the-box and can be deployed rapidly."

"They have got a very compelling platform that enables organizations to easily develop and roll out mobile applications."

"You can create little, custom Java assertions that you can insert to do your business logic, which might not be covered by the commercial product out-of-the-box."

"One of the features that the tool provides is the ability to simply onboard new APIs to an existing security platform. We build all the policies for security upfront, and then we can add those policies pretty simply and straightforwardly to any new API that gets developed in the enterprise."

"We can get more visibility into our data."

"The benefits are rapid development and deployment of APIs, which means that your information, your ability to handle information, to receive it and to send it, to visualize it, to report on it, to get intelligence out of it, happens fast and happens with accuracy."

More Layer7 API Management pros

Cons

"Areas like traffic handling of incoming requests, security features between third-parties and Apigee, and between Apigee and internal network servers, resources, or JSON areas, etc."

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

"Apigee is demanding on the infrastructure so the setup cost is very high for an on-premises deployment."

"Better functionality for validating inputs and outputs would be helpful."

"Drag and drop of features would be more beneficial, rather than manually working on the configuration and updates."

"There is room for improvement in v-logging for each transaction."

"Analytics is one of the areas needing enhancement, specifically more visibility and control over traffic to improve capacity management and high availability."

"What my clients don't like is that the on-premises solution is not being treated and maintained as well as the cloud solution."

More Apigee cons

"The API Development tool can be made more user-friendly by providing folder properties."

"Some users say that the API lacks some features and is lagging behind the competition although that has not been my personal experience."

"It is not possible for clients to migrate to a newer version."

"One day, where we can have a microservices gateway and we will not need the classic gateway at all, that is what we want to see."

"The product needs to keep up with newer trends even though customers might not be requesting it yet."

"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."

"Provide complete documentation with examples of usage on its build in assertion/function."

"The initial setup was very complex."

More Layer7 API Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Apigee has several different licenses you can obtain depending on your needs."

"The solution is a bit expensive. It's not for organizations in the early stages of their lifecycle but is more suited for mid- to enterprise-level platforms. Pricing varies by deployment model, with SaaS being the cheapest, costing around $100,000 per year for a subscription. For hybrid and on-prem deployments, the price increases. The on-prem model includes a license and additional installation and configuration professional service costs, which can be at least $40,000 to $60,000 for the initial setup. While it's not cheap, it offers long-term value and can be worthwhile."

"It is not suited for small companies. It's expensive."

"It is more expensive when you compare to open-source products or other vendors."

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

"The price of Apigee could be less expensive. The solution can be purchased monthly or annually."

"It is a bit on the expensive side. Its licensing cost is a bit high, and that's where we've seen people going back on their decisions."

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

More Apigee pricing and cost advice

"I think it's competitive. It's not that expensive when you compare CA with the Oracle product."

"Pricing for Layer7 API Management is excellent, so it's an eight out of ten. The product is less expensive than other solutions. Layer7 API Management charges you based on the number of transactions, so the enterprise-level pricing my company got was excellent."

"It was very high at that time. We are a Broadcom CA partner, and we got it only for testing purposes. We didn't pay anything for it."

"Layer7 API Management is cheaper than Apigee."

"The product is moderately priced."

"CA API Management has a licensing path. If you want more features, it requires more licenses and more installation time."

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

"I feel that it is costly for medium-sized companies."

More Layer7 API Management pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

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.

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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...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure API Management vs Apigee

Compared 31% 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

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 15% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 8% 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

February 2025

Download Apigee product report

Buyer's Guide

Layer7 API Management

February 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

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.”

Google

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.

Broadcom

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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