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Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Mar 23, 2022
Simple interface, simple implementation, but rate-limit could improve
Pros and Cons
  • "WSO2 API Manager's most valuable features are the simple interface that is easy to use and the APIs lifecycle."
  • "WSO2 API Manager could improve the API approval system."

What is our primary use case?

We use WSO2 API Manager to manage APIs.

What is most valuable?

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

What needs improvement?

WSO2 API Manager could improve the API approval system.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for approximately one year.

Buyer's Guide
WSO2 API Manager
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about WSO2 API Manager. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the WSO2 API Manager is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have used the open-source version, but I'm we have now switched to the enterprise version, I am not of the differences. The rate-limiting in the open-source seems not to work. When I add buy limits, it does not work correctly. I do not think this issue is in the enterprise version.

This solution is suitable for medium to large businesses.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support from the WSO2 API Manager is very good. When there is an issue they fix the ticket very quickly.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have not used other API management systems.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of WSO2 API Manager is simple.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

WSO2 API Manager is a low-cost solution. It is one of the most affordable solutions. 

What other advice do I have?

I find the solution to be good overall. The solution is receiving a lot of attention and is attracting investors.

I rate WSO2 API Manager a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Product Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Nov 10, 2021
Highly customizable, beneficial models, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "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."
  • "The user interface needs to improve, it is a bit outdated."

What is our primary use case?

WSO2 API Manager is a complete platform for managing APIs.

What is most valuable?

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.

What needs improvement?

The user interface needs to improve, it is a bit outdated.

There is an Affiliate Marketing monetization in Google Apigee that you would like to use in this solution but is not available. We end up having to build an alternative to get the job done. This feature should be added to this solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for approximately four months.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable, my clients have been happy.

Most of my customers are enterprise-sized companies.

How are customer service and support?

The support system is not that great. The number of employees in the organization is perhaps too little that is providing training. This causes some problems.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I am working with Google Apigee and it is quite nice, but it's a bit expensive for the customers. Otherwise, Google Apigee has a lot of different features that the WSO2 API Manager doesn't provide.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is quite easy, the full implementation takes approximately three months.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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

What other advice do I have?

WSO2 API Manager is very good for small and medium companies, but if you have an enterprise-level company, Google Apigee might be a better choice.

I rate WSO2 API Manager an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
WSO2 API Manager
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about WSO2 API Manager. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Modupe Aladeojebi - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technology Officer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Oct 3, 2021
Easy setup and stable
Pros and Cons
  • "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 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."

What is our primary use case?

Our normal use case for API Manager is to create pre-configured store users. The administrator who creates those users then sends them their credentials and secure links.  We are running API Manager on a Tomcat server. Currently, I am the main person who works with API Manager, because it requires a proper understanding of the APIs. 

How has it helped my organization?

When looking at things from an enterprise point of view, it's often difficult to see the benefit of a tool. 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.

What is most valuable?

API Manager upgraded to 3.2 recently, and it has more flexibility in terms of authentication methods. In the version we're currently using, there is only a token. We couldn't do basic authentication.

What needs improvement?

In version 2.5, there is room for improvement on the UI. That may have been addressed in the upgrade to 3.2, which uses the latest front-end framework that's commonly used in other solutions like JIRA. I would need to play around with the upgrade, but I believe the UI issue has been addressed. I can only speak about my experience with the 2.5 version because that's the one I've been able to use extensively. 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. It would be nice if API Manager had that functionality as an administrator, so you would have a user management interface where you can create store users.  

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using API Manager for more than five years. I was using the platform before the recent overhaul. They now have this new interface where they migrated the front end to using view. So I think view framework or react, one of the two, but it's been a while.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

API Manager is stable. We haven't had any stability issues at all. It has run on Tomcat for as long as I know, and it's a stable web service so.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of scalability, it has so far been able to handle the traffic on the platform. We haven't had any issues where we've had downtime because too many requests were coming in per second.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was pretty straightforward. I asked my colleague to do the setup. Since I've been working on it for a while, it probably wouldn't be a challenge. We didn't use many resources to do the setup or spend much time setting up the application because they've added more deployment scripts to make the solution easier to deploy.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Maybe I lack the curiosity to push me to check other platforms. Even when I try checking them, I've not actually checked other competitors because the major competitor got acquired by another platform.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate API Manager eight out of 10. The advice I would give to anyone considering API Manager is to take the time to understand how the platform works. It doesn't matter how good a thing is if you don't understand the purpose. For example, you need to understand the use case for service orchestration. And once you know that, you know why it makes sense to bring in WSO2 API Manager. This is a better way to go about things than to force yourself into it, only to find out that it's not working for you at the end of the day. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1207650 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Technology Specialist at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Feb 11, 2021
A complete solution for designing and publishing with useful open-source features
Pros and Cons
  • "Its open-source features are very good, especially for your production work."
  • "They don't have different URLs for administrators."

What is our primary use case?

We're currently evaluating WSO2 API Manager and Kong for development environments and not production environments. We're currently using Apigee and AWS API Database for the production environments. 

What is most valuable?

Its open-source features are very good, especially for your production work. If your workload's still running in an on-premises environment, WSO2 is a good product.

I like a few WSO2 plugins we're using for routing, message request transformation, or response transformation. I also like the security encryption feature.

Another thing I like about WSO2 is the nice training and tutorials they have on their website. They have my type of training on their website for API gateway and open banking. They're all self-based training, and you can go to those training pages or videos and learn in your free time.

What needs improvement?

They don't have different URLs for administrators. They should have one in place like Kong. For example, Kong has Konga as an administrative URL, where everything is available in one place for submissions and subscribers. But with WSO2, they have exposed it on a different port, and if I want to publish, I have to open a different URL with a different port for publishers and subscribers. It'll help if they can combine it on one port. WSO2 API Manager could also be somewhat cheaper.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for more than one or two months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It looks like a stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

WSO2 API Manager is a scalable solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

WSO2 is the first open-source solution we're trying out. But we're still using Apigee from Google and AWS API Database from Amazon.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward, and not much effort is required for installation. It's simple.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it by ourselves. It took about two people to set up and deploy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend it as I think it is good.  

On a scale from one to ten, I would give WSO2 API Manager an eight.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Software Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Jan 5, 2021
Easy to adopt and lets us extend functionality at any time
Pros and Cons
  • "One of the great things about WSO2 API Manager is that it is so easy to adopt. And because it's an open source solution, we're able to extend the implementation any time to suit our company needs better."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

I work as a software engineer on the WSO2 API management and WSO2 identity and access server, using version 2.6.

At my company, Jio India, I have been one of the main people driving adoption of WSO2. In the beginning, we used WSO2 on virtual machines to handle the API and IAM requirements for more than 40 applications. Now we are currently in the process of migrating to WSO2 version 3 with Kubernetes as our orchestration system.

How has it helped my organization?

It has helped us manage and scale our APIs in one solution, which is important to us as a large enterprise with over 40 applications relying on various APIs.

What is most valuable?

One of the great things about WSO2 API Manager is that it is so easy to adopt. And because it's an open source solution, we're able to extend the implementation any time to suit our applications better.

What needs improvement?

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.

If you are doing some basic implementation, that's easy enough to do with the current documentation, but suppose you are stuck with an error or you're engineering a complex scenario. In this case, when diving deep into the documentation, it's very helpful to find more information on how things are connected, what each file does, and what the various configuration settings do.

Although they do have paid support which may help in cases where documentation is lacking, we aren't paying for a support license at the moment so we would definitely like to see better documentation for those in our kind of situation. Especially since we're using WSO2 API Manager to such a large extent.

Beyond documentation, they have provided a caching mechanism which I believe could also use some improvement. Once you have set up and implemented WSO2, caching becomes very important and I think they could work on the cache parameters, etc., to make it easier to work with.

Regarding the code itself, there are some bugs which we have encountered among the many different enterprise-level scenarios we have faced. Once again, because we are not paying for the licensed version, it becomes more difficult to request changes and bug fixes to the WSO2 codebase. So, for example, when we find a bug, we would like to be able go to GitHub and get better help on creating a solution that we can quickly push into production.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for about five years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Apart from some bugs which can be expected in a complex enterprise environment like ours, it is a stable product. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of orchestration, it's very scalable. Especially when using Kubernetes to handle the orchestration. When we are creating our deployment architecture, we can easily define all sorts of parameters. For example, we can change the CPU parameter, memory parameter, etc., as needed.

How are customer service and technical support?

We don't have a license with WSO2 so I couldn't connect with the WSO2 team for technical support. I was the main engineer who drove adoption of it at my company, and during initial setup, editing of the product, and implementation, I obtained a lot of support from Stack Overflow, LinkedIn WSO2 groups, Slack conversations, and GitHub.

How was the initial setup?

From a deployment perspective, initially, we had started with our deployment on VMs (virtual machines), which we understood would take some time to get right. Thankfully, WSO2 provided many sane defaults in the initial setup, including defaults for authentication and so forth, which saved us some time.

But as we migrated our deployment from virtual machines to orchestration using Kubernetes, it became a bit more complex. It took us a long time to figure out the best way to configure the orchestration, since there are multiple ways of doing it with Kubernetes. Another complicating factor in the orchestration setup is that we have to always keep in mind where our users are located, so that there won't be any negative impact on their end.

Keeping all these points in mind, we finalized deployment by creating our own API manager image which we could deploy in Kubernetes. This image was based on our previous VM setup, which we simply reused. However, it was still a challenging task to get everything correctly configured for the Kubernetes orchestration, especially since we were in the middle of simultaneously migrating 15 different implementations.

Now that we have mostly finalized the deployment architecture for our APIs, it's much easier moving forward. We know exactly how to deploy the base image, and there's not much work to do now except for changing parameters around and so on.

What about the implementation team?

We are implementing WSO2 API Manager without any paid support licenses so we do mostly everything in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

When we started looking into it, we compared WSO2 products with a few other products including MuleSoft, Tyk, Kong, Nginx, and Express Gateway. Obviously each product has some pros and cons, but out of those products, we liked WSO2 and KONG. Again, both have their limitations, but as an enterprise business we found WSO2 more easy to adopt.

What other advice do I have?

WSO2 API Manager is a good solution for enterprise API management and, even better, it is free to use the software. If you are doing complex implementations, however, it might benefit you to go with a paid license which will help when you discover any bugs or need extra support that the documentation cannot provide.

I would rate WSO2 API Manager an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
IT Solutions Architect at a government with 201-500 employees
Real User
Dec 30, 2020
Provides all the required tools for a management solution.
Pros and Cons
  • "There are a lot of tools to help the manager. WSO2 is very easy to install. It has all the principal functionalities that you think about when you want to put up the management solution. It's a very friendly tool."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

The principal things we use WSO2 API Manager for are to convert SOAP to Rest services, add security, and to provide more function for the administrators and to the developers. These are the main items.

We now work with two versions which are in a test environment. We are using version 3.0 and version 3.2. It's very possible that the version that we will use in production will be 3.2.

We can use WSO2 API Manager at IaaS and PaaS enviroments.

What is most valuable?

 WSO2 is very easy to install. It has all the main functionalities that we looking for when we want to put up the management solution like a friendly UI tool, soap to rest API publication options, plugin extensions, add oatuh 2.0 to the operations,  install on premise, hablde multiple versions of the same api, import and export swagger. 

What needs improvement?

In terms of what can be improved, we are doing a proof of concept and we found some problems with the migration process from the last version to the 3.2. We have problems with the migration of the tenants.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for about one and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of stability, we are testing it in the test environment now so I don't have information about this. Maybe in the future we will know better.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of scalability, it has several main components and it is easy to make different strategies with each one. For example, we can deploy one component in high availability and you can use a different strategy with others components of the tool.

We now have around 10 people using it because we are working in the test environment. In the future, we expect different organizations use it too.

For now, we want to put a community version in production, test it, and then analize if it is an option to switch to commercial. 

How are customer service and technical support?

In terms of the technical support, we don't use it. But I would evaluate documentation manuals as very good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We made POCs with ApiConnect, and 3scale.

For example, 3scale has a very good user interface but it's doesnt has the functionalities that we need. ApiConnect is similar to the WSO2 but it's more expensive. WSO2 API Manager is easier to start with.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very easy.

I did not do the deployment myself but I think that it took around one or two hours. No more than this. This is because we need a different database. We needed to change something in the default, but otherwise it was very easy.

What about the implementation team?

We contracted an external worker that did these things on the monitor.

 We are happy with the tool. Now, we need to do more test. We started one and a half years ago, or more and now, we can solve the evolution of the two different versions.

What other advice do I have?

Improve the possibility to migrate to different versions would be very good. It would also be good for integration withdifferents identity server to have more possibilities with other tools. 

On a scale of one to ten I would rate WSO2 API Manager an 8 because I think that the evolution of the product has a lot of differences between near versions. I would like it to be a more stable solution. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Software Architecture Leader at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Nov 25, 2020
Great API management, but there are better solutions available
Pros and Cons
  • "The main feature — the publication of the API, the management section — is great in general."
  • "I think they could greatly improve the general UX with their solutions."

What is our primary use case?

We use it along with IdentityServer, as our main API management tool for API exposure to the internet. It's not for internal usage, it's for external use.

We have two main roles regarding WSO2 API Manager. There are the admins, who publish guides and user updates, etc — we employ around four people who perform this role. In terms of users, we have around five to six million users going through it on a monthly basis.

What is most valuable?

The main feature — the publication of the API, the management section — is great in general.

What needs improvement?

I think it would be very unfair for me to answer this question because we are running a very outdated system (they might have improved it a lot with their newer versions), but I'm going to try it anyway. I think they could greatly improve the general UX with their solutions because when you manage different components that are meant to work together, it's very difficult. You have to deal with two completely unrelated interfaces.

Perhaps they should include a tool to assist with migrating to Azure.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using WSO2 API Manager for the past four to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability-wise, it's actually pretty nice — it's good. I wouldn't say it's very good or excellent, but it's good. It fits the bill.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability-wise, I'd give it a three-star rating out of five — good, but not very good or perfect.

The provisioning has to be done manually. In terms of system-wise configurations, these settings involve a lot of big Java components, so it's not natural. It's not very easy to handle. Again, this is an older version. Perhaps they have already worked on this.

How are customer service and technical support?

We don't have a contract for dedicated support. We have to deal with internet forums, etc. Officially speaking, there's no support outside of community forums.

The documentation and community support are pretty helpful. There are a lot of questions answered about WSO2 on several forums and message boards, etc. Although it's not dedicated, it's quite relevant.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We're actually in the process of switching to Microsoft Azure API management.

For us, the main benefit of Azure is that it's a managed solution. We have a very restricted theme and not having to deal with the actual configuration of the platform or the underlying operating system and other intrinsic administration tasks is a big win for us. The feature that we use the most and that is most licensed is perhaps the online portal. The certified online portal is the biggest win for us because we can deal with the associated integrations within this new portal, which we can't in the current stack, the on-premises stack.

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't a part of the original project, but I know that the initial setup wasn't easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We use the open-source version — the free version.

What other advice do I have?

I wouldn't actually recommend this to anyone. I think that there are paid solutions, such as Azure API Management, which will relieve you from the administrative burden. Personally, I wouldn't recommend this solution at all.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give WSO2 a rating of seven. It's a good tool, but dealing with the on-premises infrastructure is a big headache.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1450452 - PeerSpot reviewer
Integration Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Nov 22, 2020
A simple solution with good API management lifecycle, but needs better support and the ability to write orchestrations
Pros and Cons
  • "API management lifecycle is the most valuable."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

It is basically used for the integration of applications inside the organization and also for business partners outside the organization.

What is most valuable?

API management lifecycle is the most valuable.

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for three years. I have used it in production for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. We have a few dozen users.

How are customer service and technical support?

The support that we're getting from the company is not great.

How was the initial setup?

It was pretty straightforward. The deployment took a couple of weeks.

What about the implementation team?

We had a reseller who is not an integrator. So, we basically did everything in-house.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We only did it in a very superficial way. We didn't really evaluate.

What other advice do I have?

I would say if you're looking for a simple and straightforward solution, it is probably a good idea, but if you're looking for a more advanced option, then you should go for some other solution.

I would rate WSO2 API Manager a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free WSO2 API Manager Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2026
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free WSO2 API Manager Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.