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 4.6% 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 111 Layer7 API Management reviews

4,687 Views
3,479 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

WSO2 API Manager

Read 40 WSO2 API Manager reviews

6,643 Views
4,719 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: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Layer7 API Management vs. WSO2 API Manager

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

Layer7 API Management

Ranking in API Management

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

111

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 March 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Layer7 API Management is 3.0%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WSO2 API Manager is 4.6%, up from 4.0% 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

"This improved our organization, because it gives the management data to discuss for the next course of action and it suggests what to work on, as the next thing."

"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."

"Layer7 API Management's availability on an on-premises deployment model, actually decreases the production time if its users have any issues at the server level."

"The latest version that just came out at the first of October really was a powerful move in the right direction. I was very, very pleased with that because it allows now beginning to use information of things. We've got this IOT infrastructure that we can plug into, and for my use cases there are a lot of outdoor sensors that provide valuable information to my customers."

"We loved the portal part the most, which had monetization and showed how people were using the stuff. It is a good product as a whole and has a lot of microservices and granular features."

"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."

"Every API that we get from external or from internal goes through this layer first, and it should not be a bottleneck. That was the problem we had before. Now it's no longer a bottleneck. It's more like a throughput, this process is less than 10 milliseconds for any particular API."

"Mobile app capabilities is good for building mobile apps to consume developed APIs. Also, the API Portal capabilities are very nice, up to and including the ability to do monetization. Security features are exhaustive, with several adapters to all leading identity suites."

More Layer7 API Management pros

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

"The solution is open source and easy to configure."

"The solution is open-source."

"WSO2 API Manager is easy to use."

"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."

"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."

"We use the vanilla version of the WSO2 API Manager and integrate additional features ourselves. The basic features of the API Manager, such as blacklisting and whitelisting, are very helpful. We also created dashboards."

"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."

More WSO2 API Manager pros

Cons

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

"The security protocols in CA's product, for financial services, weren't as good as those in API Connect."

"Needs to work better with DB2 UDB."

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

"The interface is Java which is difficult to make look very nice."

"The entire lifecycle management approach needs improvement: from the API management, development, deployment, some of the settings around the quotas, and some security policy applications, etc. for the APIs. We found the Apigee platform a lot more robust in that area."

"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."

"As the number of instances increases, its complexity of installation increases if you do not use the OVA."

More Layer7 API Management cons

"Based on our recent large scaling project, the latency needs to be improved."

"From what I have experienced from the versions I have tried, they could improve on the multi-tenant environments to allow some kind of SSO single sign-on between tenant."

"WSO2 API Manager can be improved a lot relating to usability"

"I would like it to be a more stable solution. Maybe in the last version that is approved. For me it would be good if they had a community established version."

"For fresh graduates and engineers, the setup process can be very difficult."

"I would like it to be a more convenient development platform with the ability to write orchestrations and so on. Our problem with this product is that in my country, we are the only enterprise that has been using this product. We're missing a lot of knowledge from colleagues to consult with, and we also aren't able to recruit people with relevant skills. It is a big problem. The small team that is maintaining this product is the only team that can actually relate to any technical issue. The support that we're getting from the company is not great. There is also a cultural gap there because they're from Sri Lanka, and it is not easy. They're putting in a lot of effort, but they are not meeting our expectations."

"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."

"They don't have different URLs for administrators."

More WSO2 API Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution is a bit more expensive than competitors."

"It's my manager who takes care of the pricing. But I keep on hearing that it's a little pricey, it's on the higher side. That is what he says."

"The product is moderately priced."

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

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

"It depends on your use case of course, how much you want to go with that, because it can get pricey and depends on the size of your company."

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

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

More Layer7 API Management pricing and cost advice

"For our projects, we found the pricing to be a little high."

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

"It's not expensive, but it could be cheaper."

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

"My previous company paid about 1.2 million dollars, and my current company pays about 300k. Both companies are at the enterprise level."

"It is an open-source product."

"WSO2 API Manager is an open-source solution."

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

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

13%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

17%

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.

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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...

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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 32% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 15% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 15% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 12% of the time

3scale API Management vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 2% of the time

More Layer7 API Management Competitors

Apigee vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 24% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 16% 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

SwaggerHub vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 1% of the time

More WSO2 API Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Layer7 API Management

February 2025

Download Layer7 API Management product report

Buyer's Guide

WSO2 API Manager

February 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

January 2025

Free Report: Layer7 API Management vs. WSO2 API Manager

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