Overview

API Gateways

API gateways are servers positioned between clients and backend services that receive API requests, enforce throttling and security policies, pass requests to backend services, and return responses. They provide features such as authentication, authorization, caching, analytics collection, transformation, and rate limiting, playing a crucial role in microservices architectures and cloud-native environments. Various solutions exist ranging from open-source to enterprise products including Kong, NGINX, Apigee, AWS API Gateway, and Azure API Management.

API management middleware microservices cloud-native security gateway
code slug name description deployment license vendor
01 kong Kong Gateway Open-source high-performance API gateway featuring a rich plugin ecosystem. ["Cloud","Hybrid","On-premises","Kubernetes"] Open Source / Enterprise Kong Inc.
02 nginx NGINX Plus Commercial API gateway solution delivering high performance and low latency. ["Edge","Self-hosted","Hybrid","On-premises"] Commercial F5 Networks
03 apigee Apigee X Enterprise-grade fully managed API management platform provided by Google Cloud. ["Cloud","Hybrid"] Enterprise / Pay-as-you-go Google Cloud
04 aws-api-gateway AWS API Gateway Fully managed serverless API gateway service provided by AWS. ["AWS Cloud"] Pay-as-you-go Amazon Web Services
05 azure-api-management Azure API Management Fully managed API management service provided by Microsoft Azure. ["Azure Cloud","Hybrid"] Pay-as-you-go Microsoft
06 tyk Tyk Hybrid and multi-cloud API gateway with open-source core. ["Cloud","Hybrid","On-premises"] Open Source / Commercial Tyk Technologies
07 gravitee Gravitee API gateway with native support for event-driven APIs and streaming protocols. ["Cloud","Hybrid","On-premises"] Open Source / Enterprise Gravitee
08 wso2 WSO2 API Manager Enterprise API management solution with open-source lineage. ["Cloud","Hybrid","On-premises"] Open Source / Enterprise WSO2
09 mulesoft-anypoint MuleSoft Anypoint Enterprise platform deeply fusing integration and API lifecycle. ["Cloud","Hybrid","On-premises"] Enterprise Salesforce
10 ibm-api-connect IBM API Connect API management solution providing comprehensive governance for large-scale enterprises. ["Cloud","Hybrid","On-premises"] Enterprise IBM

Middleware solutions that act as API frontends, providing security, authentication, rate limiting, and monitoring.