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3scale API Management vs Apiary comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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

3scale API Management
Ranking in API Management
23rd
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Apiary
Ranking in API Management
36th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of 3scale API Management is 2.0%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Apiary is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
3scale API Management2.0%
Apiary0.7%
Other97.3%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2747757 - PeerSpot reviewer
Program Manager at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Facilitates API exposure securely and highlights developer portal flexibility needs
Not much stands out for me regarding the advantages of this product. We usually don't tinker with it. Developing developer portals could be more standards-based. I think currently it's Ruby-based. Having more options on designing that would be beneficial. Additional flexibility would have been great; we would have used it more if it aligned with our platform. I don't use the analytics part. We don't use monetization features, which help to create a revenue generation model.
PW
Enterprise Integration Architect at Capgemini
The ability to configure rules to check for consistency has helped
Apiary provides a free tier of the platform which allows a small group of developers to collaborate easily on the design of open source APIs. In addition to this, it provides mock endpoints allowing people to experiment with the API without depending or having to stand up a real backend. With our clients, using Apiary allows us to very quickly pull together an API definition (particularly when using API Blueprint). The whole API design process for the simpler use cases can be done in a relatively short workshop which makes it a lot easier to agree, publish, version-manage an API definition with suitable documentation. This can then be evolved and enhanced (particularly in the documentation aspects). With the ability to support Swagger (Open API v2 and introducing/ed support for v3) and API Blueprint makes it a very versatile tool.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"3scale API Management's best feature is API management."
"To me, the most valuable feature of 3scale API Management is that it lets you add a backend to the product. I also like that you can integrate it well with OpenShift clusters, making 3scale API Management a useful solution."
"The gateway is the most valuable feature because it makes it possible for us to gather all traffic into one proxy, which is a good thing."
"The most valuable features are the gateway and security features."
"3scale API Management's best feature is API management."
"One of the most valuable aspects of this solution for us is its ease of deployment."
"I like the API automation."
"3scale API Management is a containerized product, so all its parts are deployed into containers, and standard deployment is very simple because it goes on the OpenShift."
"Vey high - very easy API design with no setup effort"
"The feature I find most valuable is that it offers authentication and allows us to develop communication points."
"Quick and easy way to share a new API design with teams."
"I find the generation of mock services very useful, especially when demonstrating for new consumers."
"In two years, there was one time the service was down for an hour or so."
"I do like the overall performance of the solution."
"Git integration"
"This solution has allowed us to standardize API definitions and bring consistency into our shared components, reducing the effort and cost of using functionality across domains within the organization, with Apiary being crucial to our good API strategy."
 

Cons

"As much as we tried to implement 3scale API Management the incompatibility of the version did not allow us to proceed."
"I believe the CMS part of it has room for improvement though. That is where you write a couple of things if you want to publish your API; it's based on liquid scripting, which doesn't seem like the obvious one to script with."
"In my previous company, I used Kong, and in my current company, I'm using 3scale API Management, but I prefer Kong."
"The user experience could be better. The developer portal is too complex and hard to configure."
"What was suggested by Red Hat was a crucial part of the configuration, but when we started to ask about the supportability of this configuration, Red Hat said only some parts of the configuration would be supported."
"It would be helpful to improve the customization features so that the customer can do it based on their own needs."
"3scale API Management only supports restful APIs and doesn't support SOAP."
"The product is not that flexible for developers. It's less flexible and rigid. It's not easy to make changes or customize it."
"Swagger (OpenAPI Specification) and Blueprint Support"
"I would like an integrated option to download a Swagger version of the definition."
"The Oracle release cycle is very bad because the patches only update once a year."
"I would like an integrated option to download a Swagger version of the definition."
"Validation messages could be a bit clearer."
"I don't think this solution is very stable so we try to manage stability from our side."
"Better Swagger support."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost was around $45,000 per year."
"3scale API Management has reasonable pricing, judging from its competitor, Kong. My organization pays yearly for the 3scale API Management license, though I'm unable to give the exact figure because every single day there are new clusters deployed. I'm in charge of three to four clusters in my team, but give or take, it costs a few thousand lakhs."
"I don't think that 3scale is very expensive."
"The pricing is affordable, it's cheap."
"It is easy to get started with personal (free) accounts, but a subscription is required for additional features."
"There is a free subscription option to start and try the service."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Government
12%
Insurance Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for 3scale API Management?
I rate the product’s pricing as two out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.
What needs improvement with 3scale API Management?
Not much stands out for me regarding the advantages of this product. We usually don't tinker with it. Developing developer portals could be more standards-based. I think currently it's Ruby-based. ...
What is your primary use case for 3scale API Management?
Our company exposes different APIs, and we use it to monitor traffic, limit traffic, and similar functions. I don't have much involvement with the solution, though I did conduct some research. We s...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Victor Ops, Coca Cola, The Telegraph, Skava, Orange, Typeform
Microsoft, salesforce.com, Bloomberg, GoodData, Viacom, Akamai Technologies, DigitalGlobe
Find out what your peers are saying about 3scale API Management vs. Apiary and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.