Microsoft Azure API Management vs WSO2 API Manager comparison

Microsoft and WSO2 are both solutions in the API Management category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.9, while WSO2 is ranked #8 with an average rating of 7.9. Microsoft holds a 20.5% mindshare in APIM, compared to WSO2’s 4.9% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of WSO2 users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Azure API Management

Read 80 Microsoft Azure API Management reviews

28,366 Views
23,718 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

WSO2 API Manager

Read 40 WSO2 API Manager reviews

7,137 Views
5,095 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure API Management

WSO2 API Manager

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Microsoft Azure API Management and WSO2 API Manager are competitive offerings in the API management space. Microsoft Azure API Management holds an advantage within the Azure ecosystem because of its seamless integration with Azure services, while WSO2 API Manager stands out with its open-source flexibility.

Features: Microsoft Azure API Management is valued for its integration with existing Azure services, Azure Active Directory integration, and ease of use for those already within the Microsoft environment. WSO2 API Manager offers open-source customization, comprehensive API lifecycle management, and strong security features, appealing to those needing flexibility across different environments.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Azure API Management could improve by enhancing support for versioning, better scalability, and introducing a more competitive pricing model. WSO2 API Manager would benefit from a more user-friendly interface, better documentation, and improved hybrid cloud integration options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure API Management benefits from alignment with Azure cloud infrastructure, making deployment easier for Azure users, although customer service response can be slow. WSO2 API Manager offers broad deployment options including public, private, and on-premises setups, with customer service having room for growth in responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure API Management is considered expensive but offers performance and feature tiers suitable for enterprises integrated with Azure. WSO2 API Manager's open-source nature provides cost-effectiveness and flexibility, offering a viable alternative to proprietary solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure API Management vs. WSO2 API Manager Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure 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

Microsoft Azure API Management

Ranking in API Management

1st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

WSO2 API Manager

Ranking in API Management

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure API Management is 20.5%, up from 20.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WSO2 API Manager is 4.9%, up from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management

Featured Reviews

Rajiv Bala Balasubramanian

Specialist PCC at Danfoss

Efficiently manages and monetizes API

It is a scalable solution. You can add more computing power to your APM gateway. It also gives you the ability to have VNet integrations with your on-prem. It is one of the leading products in the API management space. It is not just software for users but software to handle requests. For example, for a B2C e-commerce store, all requests that users make from within the store pass through this API gateway. So it is defined by the number of requests to the API gateway, not by the number of actual users who use it. If you look at the number of requests, it would be a lot from all the different systems we have within Pampers.

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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

"Azure API is scalable."

"The solution's configuration capabilities are the most effective features for enhancing API security."

"The most valuable features of the solution are its importing and publishing."

"It is easy to use."

"The UI management is very easy to use."

"What I like most about Microsoft Azure API Management is that it's flexible and user-friendly. The solution also has rich documentation and guides available, so users can configure and use it."

"The initial setup is not that complex, but there are certain challenges."

"The user management is pretty seamless."

More Microsoft Azure API Management pros

"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."

"API management lifecycle is the most valuable."

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

"WSO2 API Manager provides OAuth2 token capabilities that our customers use to interact, onboard new customers, and provide approvals whenever a customer is onboarded."

"WSO2 API Manager's most valuable features are the simple interface that is easy to use and the APIs lifecycle."

"Yes WSO2 API Manager is scalable"

"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."

"WSO2 API Manager has a user-friendly model."

More WSO2 API Manager pros

Cons

"Microsoft Azure API Management could be improved by enhancing the visual editor of the development portal."

"Microsoft Azure API Management could be improved by enhancing the preview feature, specifically the workspaces."

"It can be quite complex, somewhat lacking in flexibility."

"Documentations for implementing certain product features are very difficult to find"

"Specific to API development, I think Microsoft is still far behind AWS. AWS has grown by leaps and bounds, and Microsoft is a close second. But in terms of features and other stuff they provide, Microsoft's compatibility with publicly available APIs is a little limited. So, that is a little bit of a constraint. But what they provide is good, it's just that they need to build more on their API suite. I think Google is doing a really good job at that."

"The external policies are impossible to look at and configure."

"Security could be improved."

"The product needs to introduce a developer portal."

More Microsoft Azure API Management cons

"The initial setup can be 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."

"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."

"The tool's commercial aspect could be improved. Pricing varies with partners, so selecting the appropriate pricing can be challenging."

"The stability is pretty good, but it could be improved."

"The solution’s interface should be more user-friendly."

"Basically, mTLS is a certificate-based communication protocol that WSO2 API Manager doesn't support."

"From a product perspective, the first thing is that although the documentation provided by WSO2 is good, it could be much better. We're in the middle of a complex migration, moving away from VMs to Kubernetes with the latest version of WSO2 and good documentation is essential to us right now."

More WSO2 API Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Azure API Management is the most expensive solution on the market."

"Azure is a pay-as-you-go model. You build out your virtual environment and pay a monthly price depending on CPU cores, storage, etc."

"This is an expensive solution."

"The developer and standard pricing tiers of Azure API Management are very competitive compared to other products."

"We pay for a yearly license."

"It's an expensive solution"

"Since this is a cloud-based solution you have to abide by those financial limits, this creates some different challenges compared to other solutions."

"Microsoft is competitively priced."

More Microsoft Azure API Management pricing and cost advice

"We have not opted for the paid version of WSO2 but we have implemented the free and open source WSO2 software to a great extent and it is working as per our expectation."

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

"As far as I'm aware, the costs are not minimal but satisfactory."

"WSO2 API Manager is a costly solution, and its pricing is not competitive enough compared to other products."

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

"WSO2 API Manager is quite an expensive tool. I rate the product's pricing a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is low and ten is high."

"It is an open-source product."

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

More WSO2 API Manager pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Government

Manufacturing 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 - Azure API Management or Amazon API Gateway?

If you use Azure products, API Management is a great solution. It solves many of the problems of externalizing web services. For example, when you need versioning, establish a developer portal and ...

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What do you like most about Microsoft Azure API Management?

Microsoft Azure API Management is a good, comprehensive solution for enterprise implementation.

See all answers

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.

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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

Amazon API Gateway vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 44% of the time

Apigee vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 24% of the time

IBM API Connect vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 5% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 5% of the time

IBM DataPower Gateway vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Azure API Management Competitors

Apigee vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 24% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 15% 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

3scale API Management vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 5% of the time

More WSO2 API Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure API Management

January 2025

Download Microsoft Azure API Management product report

Buyer's Guide

WSO2 API Manager

December 2024

Download WSO2 API Manager product report

Also Known As

Azure API Management, MS Azure API Management

No data available

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Microsoft

WSO2

Overview

Microsoft Azure API Management is essential for managing APIs, facilitating integration, and ensuring secure internal and external communication.

Organizations leverage Microsoft Azure API Management for seamless integration and effective API management. It supports microservices, legacy modernization, and platform orchestration in sectors like healthcare, telecom, and finance. Features such as developer portals and centralized libraries simplify usage. While it showcases strengths in hybrid cloud support and scalability, improvements are suggested in versioning and multi-tenancy.

What key features does it offer?

Integration with Microsoft services ensures robust access control and user-friendly deployment.
Developer portal and documentation improve usability and learning.
Hybrid cloud support offers seamless on-premise connectivity.
Scalability and security features are well-regarded.
Centralized API library simplifies management.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Facilitates API lifecycle management enhancing user experience.
Simplifies authentication and subscription models.
Enhances data exchange and real-time monitoring.
Streamlines API mapping and orchestration across platforms.
Promotes flexibility and transparency in system integration.

Microsoft Azure API Management aids modernization across healthcare, telecom, and financial services by enabling legacy system updates and facilitating smooth platform orchestration.

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.

Sample Customers

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH, Opensistemas

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

Microsoft Azure API Management vs. WSO2 API Manager

January 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Azure API Management vs. WSO2 API Manager

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