Layer7 API Management vs WSO2 API Manager comparison

Broadcom and WSO2 are both solutions in the API Management category. Broadcom is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.6, while WSO2 is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.7. Broadcom holds a 3.0% mindshare in APIM, compared to WSO2’s 4.8% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Broadcom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of WSO2 users who would recommend it.

Layer7 API Management

Read 112 Layer7 API Management reviews

4,452 Views
3,228 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

WSO2 API Manager

Read 40 WSO2 API Manager reviews

6,382 Views
4,570 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Layer7 API Management

WSO2 API Manager

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Layer7 API Management and WSO2 API Manager compete in the API management category. Layer7 seems to have the upper hand due to its strong focus on security and enterprise-level features.

Features: Layer7 API Management is known for its robust security features, including OAuth and access control, its load-balancing capabilities, and its ability to transform legacy systems into APIs. WSO2 API Manager, an open-source platform, offers customization and flexibility, efficient API lifecycle management, and notable integration capabilities for cloud environments.

Room for Improvement: Layer7 API Management could enhance its developer portal, support for SOAP services, and built-in policy functions. WSO2 API Manager users suggest improvements in the user interface, documentation, and customization capabilities, as well as better monitoring ease.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Layer7 provides flexible deployment across on-premises, hybrid, and public cloud environments, though technical support feedback is mixed. WSO2 supports various deployment options with strong open-source backing, but commercial support can sometimes lack detail and responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: Layer7 is considered expensive with enterprise-level features but offers a strong ROI through flexible licensing. WSO2 API Manager is cost-effective due to its open-source base, although its enterprise version may become costly. Despite higher initial costs, Layer7's comprehensive services offer strong ROI, whereas WSO2 can require more investment in custom development.

To learn more, read our detailed Layer7 API Management vs. WSO2 API Manager Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Layer7 API Management vs. WSO2 API Manager

March 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

Layer7 API Management

Ranking in API Management

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

112

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

WSO2 API Manager

Ranking in API Management

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Layer7 API Management is 3.0%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WSO2 API Manager is 4.8%, up from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management

Featured Reviews

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.

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VishalSingh14

IT Engineer at Reliance Industries Ltd

Easy to deploy APIs and easy to manage CORS configuration

I have used WSO2 Store and WSO2 API Manager at the architecture level. I worked on two versions, namely WSO2 API Manager 2.6.0 and 5.7.0. I have also worked with WSO2 Identity Server versions 5.7 and 5.11. There are certain things that Apigee handles better than WSO2 API Manager. The user interface of WSO2 API Manager is much easier than that of Apigee. The scope of flexibility was much greater in Apigee. In WSO2 API Manager, we had little flexibility and were restricted to a specific software or tool. On the other hand, we had the scope of customization in Apigee.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Has great drag-and-drop features and requires minimal coding."

"Containerization and the monetization module are quite unique for an API tool... In addition, the development time and rollout time are pretty quick."

"Easy to use, nice UI, and good search functionality."

"When I have used technical support they helped me a lot. Sometimes they took a long time to respond because we had very complex issues that we asked them for help with, but I think it is a very good service."

"The most important features of Layer7 API Management are the basic security functionality and validation checks."

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

"It's pretty easy to use, and once we have templating set up we can add new APIs, at least through the gateway, and apply the security to them; it takes a minute."

"The actual management of APIs is fundamental to us, as we're a heavy API user/provider. So, obviously, a centralised management platform is important."

More Layer7 API Management pros

"This is a flexible and versatile API management solution that has the power to integrate with more than just API."

"WSO2 API Manager is open-source, which offers a range of features not found in other open-source API tools."

"WSO2 API Manager is easy to use."

"WSO2 API Manager is a stable solution."

"We could easily deploy APIs on WSO2 API Manager, and CORS configuration was easy to manage."

"WSO2 API Manager provides strong internal API security, including token-based authentication and HTTPS support for various formats like REST. However, the newer API security features that are emerging are not available yet. They might be in development, but for now, internal API security is well-covered."

"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 company needs better."

"The solution is open-source."

More WSO2 API Manager pros

Cons

"Broadcom's technical support team needs improvement."

"As well as the SOA Gateway - that is, the API Gateway; we call it the SOA Gateway - we also are now deploying the developer portal component of the SOA Gateway. That has limitations."

"The delivery is bulky in terms of implementation. Its price could also be better. It is a very good product as compared to CA API, Google API, and WSO2 API, but its price is high. From the cloud-native perspective, some new features need to be added. It could also be made simpler to implement."

"More developer focused tools. They have a nice debugger inside of the program, but when you are developing code with their policies, it is tough to visualize that sometimes as a developer."

"I would like for the new release to allow us to speed up code generation. The integration with CICD could also be more seamless."

"It would be nice if we could create APIs directly from Swagger files. We're doing that ourselves with a middle layer. But if you could integrate with open API Swagger specs, and then just create a Swagger and upload it to the gateway and it would create all my API template policy, and would apply the OAuth restrictions, the types of security restrictions I have on there, that would be pretty cool."

"There could be more integration options included in the product."

"There is still room for improvement for the CA API Developer Portal. It is still not on par with what the competencies are."

More Layer7 API Management cons

"The pricing models offered by WSO2 API Manager could be more flexible and should offer different options so that more people can access them."

"We had some problems with the reverse proxy not being able to invoke fully qualified domain names, so we have to build some custom scripts to solve this issue."

"The product hasn’t been updated for some time."

"They are developing another platform called Choreo that allows you to create API itself using the WSO2 programming language Ballerina. It would be great if they added a direct connection between Choreo and API Manager, that would be great. I think they are working on that, but I'm not sure."

"Dashboards for application monitoring of the APIs would be beneficial, allowing us to check for faulty APIs."

"API Manager is not easy to scale because some of its components lack scalability. It's a difficult point. Especially because companies are so cloud-based these days, microservice scalability is a major thing."

"WSO2 API Manager could improve the API approval system."

"The price and the complexities attached to the solution are two areas of concern where improvements are required."

More WSO2 API Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"It is a pricey product, although not extremely overpriced compared to competitors in the market."

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

"Purchase 4.0 now and wait until they flush out the 4.1 problems."

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

"The price of Layer7 API Management is too high and should be reduced. However, it is a good solution in the market."

"I do not have experience with the pricing or licensing of the product."

"The product is moderately priced."

More Layer7 API Management pricing and cost advice

"The challenge is the increasing pricing, which has led some customers to consider alternatives, like using Spring Boot solutions instead. The rising costs, especially as cores and usage increase, have been a concern, prompting some to migrate to other products."

"It is costly, around ten thousand per year, per instance"

"I am using the free version."

"There is a subscription-based pricing structure and also the open-sourced version available."

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

"The solution costs less than 20,000 euros a year. I'm not sure of the exact number."

"We use the open-source version — the free version."

"WSO2 API Manager is a low-cost solution. It is one of the most affordable solutions."

More WSO2 API Manager pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

18%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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?

Pricing is more than average. While I am used to Layer7 API Management ( /products/layer7-api-management-reviews ), seeing other products makes the tool's pricing seem high.

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What needs improvement with Layer7 API Management?

Broadcom's push for upgrades from version nine to ten, ten to 10.3, and onwards to twelve needs improvement in migration processes, especially with service dependencies. The migration path sometime...

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What do you like most about WSO2 API Manager?

It is possible to scale up and scale down with the solution...I can say that I have not seen any issues related to scalability.

See all answers

What needs improvement with WSO2 API Manager?

One area for improvement is monitoring. Dashboards for application monitoring of the APIs would be beneficial, allowing us to check for faulty APIs.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WSO2 API Manager?

We use WSO2 API Manager for our microservices and our APIs, both internally and externally.

See all answers

Comparisons

Apigee vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 31% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 14% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 12% of the time

Tyk vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 1% of the time

More Layer7 API Management Competitors

Apigee vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 23% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 17% of the time

Apache APISIX vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 15% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 13% of the time

Axway AMPLIFY API Management vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 1% of the time

More WSO2 API Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Layer7 API Management

March 2025

Download Layer7 API Management product report

Buyer's Guide

WSO2 API Manager

March 2025

Download WSO2 API Manager product report

Also Known As

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

No data available

Overview

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

WSO2 API Manager is a comprehensive platform that allows organizations to design, publish, and manage APIs.

It provides a centralized interface for API governance, security, and analytics.

With features like API monetization and developer portal, it enables businesses to drive innovation and create new revenue streams.

WSO2

Sample Customers

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

1. eBay 2. StubHub 3. Cisco 4. Verizon 5. T-Mobile 6. Vodafone 7. Orange 8. BT Group 9. Telstra 10. Deutsche Telekom 11. Swisscom 12. AT&T 13. Sprint 14. Telefonica 15. O2 16. British Airways 17. Lufthansa 18. Emirates 19. Qatar Airways 20. Etihad Airways 21. Air France 22. KLM 23. American Express 24. Visa 25. Mastercard 26. PayPal 27. Western Union 28. Citibank 29. HSBC 30. Barclays 31. Santander 32. Goldman Sachs

Buyer's Guide

Layer7 API Management vs. WSO2 API Manager

March 2025

Free Report: Layer7 API Management vs. WSO2 API Manager

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