WSO2 API Manager Reviews

It's an API gateway. So, it just sits between the API layer and the orchestration layer. Basically, we use it to orchestrate service calls.

It has a lot of flexibility. The flexibility is definitely a highlight. 

We have flexible mapping capabilities, allowing us to provide common mappings or create custom ones as needed. 

It also has an excellent dashboard for real-time monitoring of tests and a pluggable development studio where we can code custom logic directly into the execution flow. This goes beyond standard mapping, enabling us to write our own custom logic directly.

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

I have been using it for one year. 

It seems good based on the client's claims and what we've seen in our benchmarking.

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. But the latency can be improved with better scalability, so that would be ideal.

From the client's perspective, around 20 to 30 interfaces are involved in their batch processing. From the administrative side, around 40 to 50 users use it.

We've had certain issues where we posted queries and got responses. Thankfully, none were blockers so far. So we haven't needed to formally contact support.

So we don't have to conduct support. We had good interactions.

Positive

We used some lightweight solutions that we replaced with WSO2 API Manager.

We were looking for a solution that could handle a complex gateway with multiple components, balancing, routing, and business process automation. 

Our previous solution offered basic load balancing and monitoring, but for our business needs, we needed more. WSO2 API Manager offered the features we checked and felt it was a step up to an enterprise-level product with better technical support.

The complexity of the setup is kind of medium; it's not super easy, but not super difficult either. You can manage it if you learn the roadmap properly.

We've been using it on-premises. Right now, we're planning to move it to the cloud.

Deployment depends on various factors, but typically, it can be done relatively quickly.

It's costly.

It's a stable product with good features that are well-bundled. The documentation is helpful, and there are many community resources available if you need custom integrations. 

Most importantly, it has many plugins for integrating with various databases, which are standard integrations in the market today. You don't need to code them yourself; you can just use the plugins for integration and easy access. 

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

My company uses WSO2 API Manager as a gateway to support our services and monitor their use.

Based on the information I have, the solution's most valuable feature is its capability of implementing custom solutions.

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

One of the problems with the solution that we face in our company stems from the fact that we have not been able to do any direct upgrades because of the custom feature that is included in the solution, and we specifically face such problems during migration projects. I would say not that we are not updated in our company when it comes to the solution. In general, my company is not able to do an automatic update because of some custom features in the product. The aforementioned area can be considered for improvement.

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for three or four years. My company is a customer of the solution. I don't know exactly the version that we have of the solution in our company.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I would say that with the solution, my company deals with around 100 use cases.

The solution is used daily in my company. I work in a retail bank and know that the bank's customers constantly access the solution. My organization's IT or administration people use the solution weekly or monthly. I don't think I have seen any updates often.

It is not easy to reach the solution's technical support team. My company has an external partner who helps us with the support part of the tool. Though my company's external partner is entitled to get support from the solution's support team, it is not easy for them to reach out to WSO2 API Manager's technical team. I rate the technical support a four out of ten.

Neutral

The initial setup of the product is a little bit difficult.

I rate the initial setup a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is really difficult, and ten is easy.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The product's deployment phase may extend to weeks or months, but in general, it can be completed in a couple of months from the beginning until the final deployment to production.

One or two people from my company were required to take care of the product's deployment phase.

The deployment phase of the solution was done in-house, that is, in our company, but with the support from some collaborators we have with an external partner.

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.

No more than one person is required to manage the product's maintenance phase.

Owing to the fact that I don't have enough expertise when it comes to the solution, I don't know if I would be able to recommend it to others. In my company, there is a team involved in the process of evaluating the solution from whom I try to get some information related to the product.

I rate the overall product a six or seven out of ten.

I use the solution in my company as an enterprise application that will be placed in more than 175 places across the world, which would be in different countries. As an API management tool, it will be placed across different regions on Azure Cloud and WSO2's cloud.

I work for the front-end applications in my company, for which we consume APIs with the help of WSO2 since it is also used in our multiple different back-end systems, causing the tool to get integrated and work as a middle layer in our organization.

WSO2 team recommends mTLS as security. Recently, my company faced some issues when implementing mTLS between the DB and front-end applications. My company needs Technical help from WSO2's team to deal with the aforementioned area. WSO2 team should provide better guidance in documentations to implement this.

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for a year.

It is possible to scale up and scale down with the solution. As my company is involved in the setup of the product in different regions, I can say that I have not seen any issues related to scalability.

I have contacted the product's support team, and my company gets support on time since we have enterprise-level support from WSO2 since we are involved in a big project. My company raises our concerns about the product with the support team through an available ticketing system. My company can also call the product support team directly.

I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

I have previous experience with Azure API Management and Apigee API Management.

It is wrong for me to compare WSO2 API Manager with the tools like Apigee API Management or Azure API Management that I have used in the past since they may have matured a lot during the time frame when I have not used them over a period of a year. I cannot compare the product I used in the present with the product that I used two years ago. On a quarterly or six-month basis, many tools get upgraded.

There is a separate team in our company to take care of the tool's setup phase. I work as an architect and have experience with the setup phase of Apigee. I mostly focus on the front-end applications in our company.

My company has to operate in different regions, which are spread out in 175 places across the globe. My company soon plans to set up the product on the cloud platform for different regions, primarily with the services from Azure Cloud for regions like the USA, India, the Gulf, and China. For every region, my company needs to deploy the product separately. The DevOps team has set up the product in various regions for my company.

The solution is deployed on the cloud.

My company chose WSO2 API Manager based on the decision made by the client who wanted it in their environment.

My company is okay with the analytics and usage of the product. The analytics part is mostly managed by the client who uses the product or the API team in my company, so I am unsure about the analytics part.

My company has used the product's customized integration capabilities for MongoDB and some other commercial tools.

Speaking about the most beneficial features for API lifecycle management, I would say that my company has a DevOps tool in place for deploying all the APIs. My company also received feedback from WSO2's team during the development phase. On the API lifecycle management side, I do not see much, but I know that it consists of areas like API versioning and API deployment. I don't see anything special when it comes to the API lifecycle management area of the product since it is similar to what AWS offers. All the processes related to the product are taken care of by my company.

I have worked with many API management tools in the past, and I don't see any case scenarios that were different from what I have seen while using other products.

My company has faced so many technical challenges in many areas. Our company's team members face issues with the product since we have not yet properly implemented it. I have worked with the API management tool from Google in the past and have seen that Google provides better documentation, which is much better and cleaner than what WSO2 API Manager provides.

I rate the overall product a seven out of ten.

We use the solution mainly to protect the frontend and backend proxy APIs. We also use the solution for federating with the identity server. We publish our backend API into WSO2 API Manager and use the proxy API outside. We use the solution for authorization, authentication, and accounting purposes.

WSO2 API Manager is quite easy. With WSO2 API Manager, we can use different DBs. It is easy to accommodate the solution along with any kind of identity server. WSO2 API Manager has a user-friendly model.

WSO2 API Manager should improve its marketplace subscription model and documentation in order to reach a higher level in the market.

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for the last two to four years.

I rate WSO2 API Manager an eight out of ten for stability.

I rate WSO2 API Manager an eight out of ten for scalability.

The solution's support model is not very clear enough right now.

Neutral

I previously used the Akamai tool.

The solution's initial setup is very easy. I rate WSO2 API Manager an eight out of ten for the ease of its initial setup.

The solution's deployment takes two to three hours. One person is sufficient to deploy WSO2 API Manager.

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

I would recommend WSO2 API Manager to other users.

Overall, I rate WSO2 API Manager an eight out of ten.

We are using the solution for authentication purposes.

The tool is easy to manage.

The product is easy to use. It is pretty simple to configure the solution. It's pretty easy to set it up and use it.

The technical support must be improved.

I have been using the solution for two to three years.

I rate the tool’s stability an eight out of ten. We didn’t face any issues with the solution.

I rate the tool’s scalability a nine out of ten. Around 50 to 100 people are using the solution in our organization.

The on-site document is okay.

Previously, we used IBM. We switched to WSO2 because it is easy to get and costs less than IBM.

The tool is pretty easy to install. We need 30 minutes to install it.

We need two systems engineers to maintain the tool.

I would recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

We use the product mainly as a gateway. We use the Publisher feature, the Publisher module or mode, and the Store. We publish APIs after we configure them, and we expose them on the internet.

It's perfect for our use case. It has the capabilities we require.

Technical support is fine.

So far the solution has been stable.

We use it on a daily basis. It handles millions of transactions of API calls per month in our reality, in the Lombardy region in Italy. It does its job as intended and handles everything pretty well.

I cannot recall coming across any missing features. 

The initial setup and configuration can be difficult if a person is not well-versed in the product.

The configuration could be improved. It should be more flexible and more elastic.

I've used the solution since 2016.

The solution has been stable and reliable enough. the performance is good. We haven't had issues. There aren't bugs or glitches. We haven't faced the solution crashing. It doesn't freeze.

The scalability is fine for our purposes. We haven't had a problem with it. 

It's all a suite of products that work in unison as a whole. We have six people using the solution. 

Technical support has been fine. We are satisfied with their level of service.

This is the only product that I've ever used of this type. I have not used something previously.

The initial setup can be difficult. It's not straightforward per se unless you can familiar with and comfortable with the solution. If you are not, the setup and configuration may be difficult. 

The deployment was done in-house and was handled by our team. We didn't have any outside assistance. 

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

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. We've been pretty happy with the solution. Having nothing else to compare it to, I'm not sure if I would recommend it over other offerings, however, we have been pleased with its capabilities. 

WSO2 is accessible. Even a beginner can have an idea of what's going on.  It has a drag-and-drop graphical interface, so it's a low-code platform that enables you to effortlessly get things done.

The user interface is easy to navigate, and the documentation is extensive. It's open-source, so everything is available, and we can create what we need. That's not necessarily a feature, but it's an advantage. 

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.

I used API Manager a few months ago. I briefly touched on those areas during my internship, but I haven't gone that deeply into the product. I don't have implementation knowledge, but I have a rough idea about what's going on.

I rate API Manager 10 out of 10 for stability. 

I rate API Manager 10 out of 10 for scalability. It's suitable for small companies or large enterprises. 

I haven't contacted WSO2, but I know that they provide good support. 

The cost is reasonable even for Sri Lankan companies.

I rate WSO2 API Manager 10 out of 10. Don't hesitate to use it. Most people can start with WSO2 API Manager because it's easy to find what you need in the documentation. I recommend newbies start with WSO2 API Manager.

I have used features like routing and authentication, as well as the most well-known features of WSO2.

WSO2 API Manager has some support problems and can be a little complex.  So our developer teams decided to use 3scale or Kong instead. We found WSO2 API Manager to be a bit complex.

So, in terms of complexity, WSO2 API Manager has some challenges. Also, there is a bit of an issue with the pricing and license of WSO2. It's a little high.

I used WSO2 API Manager for two projects. However, I can't say I have used it all the time. I have about 50% experience and knowledge about it.

We are not satisfied with the customer service and support. In a few instances, their response time has been a bit slow.

Neutral

It is difficult to implement WSO2. The implementation can vary depending on various factors, such as the features required and the availability of human resources, including developers. It could take anywhere from two to three months or even just one week, depending on the specific requirements.

Our team worked together with our developers to carry out the implementation.

For our projects, we found it to be a little high. However, it may not be the case for another company or project. Because the costs depend on the specific features you would require and other factors.

It's a good product. I prefer it. However, I would only recommend using WSO2 API Manager if the user has a specific requirement for one of its features. If they don't have a specific reason for using it, I can't provide a recommendation because it depends on factors such as the project, the local team, and the desired features. The API management system is complex by default. Therefore, the selection primarily depends on the project and the programming platform used by the developers.

Overall, I would rate WSO2 API Manager a seven out of ten because there is still room for improvement.