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Apiary vs Microsoft Azure API Management 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

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
Microsoft Azure API Management
Ranking in API Management
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Apiary is 0.9%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure API Management is 11.9%, down from 16.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure API Management11.9%
Apiary0.9%
Other87.2%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

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.
AD
Technical Solution Architect at liwa
Has supported smooth channel partner integration and data analysis for several years
We use the existing services hosted in Microsoft Azure API Management without making any changes. For transformation capabilities, we utilize ADF, Data Factory instead of Microsoft Azure API Management. Regarding security features in Microsoft Azure API Management, we utilize token bearer authentication. As retailers with integration to our channel partners, we haven't experienced any security issues with Microsoft Azure API Management since it isn't exposed to external parties. We use a basic Azure function hosted in Microsoft Azure API Management rather than the integrated developer portal. Tracking analytics and performance analytics in Microsoft Azure API Management is straightforward. We use basic features for performance analytics and log analytics due to additional subscription charges. We enabled log analytics for Microsoft Azure API Management in the past month to investigate issues such as unreachable endpoints or request timeouts.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Quick and easy way to share a new API design with teams."
"In two years, there was one time the service was down for an hour or so."
"Vey high - very easy API design with no setup effort"
"I do like the overall performance of the solution."
"The feature I find most valuable is that it offers authentication and allows us to develop communication points."
"I find the generation of mock services very useful, especially when demonstrating for new consumers."
"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."
"Other than that, it's easy to use and start up."
"The tool is very easy to use and manage APIs."
"Security is the top feature of Azure API Management."
"Without a doubt, it has a very robust, strong marketplace where we can directly integrate with existing APIs and begin working on those."
"Azure APIM's best features are its straightforward access management (it's a single point of access for all monitoring and logging and for policy implementation) and its integration with the Azure Cloud infrastructure."
"I like that security features can be integrated with API Management. I also like that you can perform rate-limiting and throttling functions."
"I like the stability and the ease of use."
"The mediation and translation from SOAP to REST technology makes it possible to open up legacy systems that couldn't be opened before."
 

Cons

"Better Swagger support."
"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."
"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."
"Swagger (OpenAPI Specification) and Blueprint Support"
"Support for GraphQL could be better."
"They're trying to implement versioning and trying to be able to manage different versions of your API all at the same time, but they're not doing that just quite right yet."
"This solution is only available as a cloud-based deployment and it would be very helpful to have an on-premises version."
"The developer console for external users could be improved, especially in the testing site."
"This is not a scalable solution."
"The moment you need to reach out for serious technical support in terms of incidents, or on-site support, or whatever, it becomes a little more challenging."
"The only complication I encountered was configuring the authentication in the API Management."
"The technical support has not been the greatest. Microsoft has been outsourcing its support services and we have quite a few challenges in terms of technical support."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The solution is highly expensive. Our customers worry about the costs. The price should be a lot less."
"The product pricing is reasonable."
"It is an expensive solution, but any API solution will be expensive."
"The developer and standard pricing tiers of Azure API Management are very competitive compared to other products."
"It's free for less than ten users. If you want to go beyond that, it's around $3.50 per user per month. If you want a DevOps integration, it's about $7.50 per user per month. Costs depend on the size, complexity, usage, and what facility you want to integrate. So, we use Microsoft Azure and have the entire DevOps and Visual Studio on the cloud. We get all three flavors for $7.50 per user per month."
"I would describe the tool's price as being in the mid-range category."
"There are additional costs to the standard licensing fees."
"Because of our partner relationship, our pricing is pretty decent. But in general, if I compare pricing, I think the initial offer that we got from Microsoft until the relationship kicked in was more expensive than AWS. There were some unexpected expenses because we had to pause. This was due to our inexperience and because we were doing this significant public cloud migration for the first time. We were using SAP on a public cloud for the first time."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise54
 

Questions from the Community

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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...
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure API Management?
The pricing is medium, which I find to be reasonable for the value we receive.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Azure API Management, MS Azure API Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft, salesforce.com, Bloomberg, GoodData, Viacom, Akamai Technologies, DigitalGlobe
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH, Opensistemas
Find out what your peers are saying about Apiary vs. Microsoft Azure API Management and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.