I first implemented WSO2 API Manager with Wipro, which then implemented it for some banks, Telcos, and now two major government customers in India, along with one fintech. They primarily use it for the API gateway to create an API marketplace for exposing APIs. Before this, none of our customers had a full-fledged API gateway, so creating APIs was time-consuming. With WSO2 API Manager, they now have an API marketplace where new users can easily access and use APIs. As for API monetization, although one customer has considered it, no one has implemented it yet. The APIs are mainly used internally within the organization across different channels like web, mobile, and third-party connections.
WSO2 API Management
WSO2External reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
The Only Best and Free API Manager
It provides real-time insights.
It Choreo's serverless architecture allows applications to scale automatically based on demand.
It's streaming integration helps build real-time, event-driven architectures.
It supports modern protocols like gRPC, graphQL, and WebSocket.
It can sometimes have challenges with performance optimization and scalability, especially in high-demand environments.
I am excited to work with them
Easy to deploy, use and manageability
I use daily for my freelancing activities. Customer Support responds quite well in case of stuck or any problems faced by the user.
Secondly, while creating new API designs, one can thoroughly test API in the platform itself as it shows detailed parameters.
WSO2 - one of the best APIM platforms in market
- Feature rich
- Excels in Integrations
- Documentation would have been much easier
API Management by WSO2 API Manager - An honest Review
WSO2 API Manager 3.2, Superior Performance
A complete platform for building, integrating, and exposing your digital services as managed APIs in the cloud, on-premise, and hybrid architectures to drive your digital transformation strategy.
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
WSO2 API Manager provides strong internal API security, including token-based authentication and HTTPS support for various formats like REST. However, the newer API security features that are emerging are not available yet. They might be in development, but for now, internal API security is well-covered.
What needs improvement?
WSO2 API Manager could improve by adding external API security features, which is one area where there is room for enhancement. Internally, API security is strong, and all other necessary features are already available. It has a solid marketplace, supports both Docker and standalone setups, and offers great enterprise integration. The developer portal has greatly improved the user experience, making it simple and user-friendly wherever we’ve implemented it. Overall, it’s not as complicated as other API gateways.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using WSO2 API Manager for the past six years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
WSO2 API Manager has good integration capabilities and is easy to integrate within existing infrastructure. It also integrates well with third-party solutions, as there are many connectors available.
How was the initial setup?
Deploying WSO2 API Manager is easy and not complicated. With someone experienced, the full implementation, including a database setup, can be completed within a week.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The challenge is the increasing pricing, which has led some customers to consider alternatives, like using Spring Boot solutions instead. The rising costs, especially as cores and usage increase, have been a concern, prompting some to migrate to other products.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I’d give the product a ten out of ten. For future improvements, I’d like to see external API security features added, as security is becoming a big issue. It would be great if WSO2 API Manager could provide an API security dashboard, showing details like API discovery and highlighting any unsecured APIs, public tokens, or other vulnerabilities. This would help in identifying and securing any exposed APIs.
Ease of Access
WSO2’s ability to scale and support microservices architecture is a huge benefit. It allows businesses to adapt to growing user demands without performance bottlenecks, ensuring smooth and reliable API operations.
Easy to deploy APIs and easy to manage CORS configuration
What is our primary use case?
WSO2 API Manager is a cumulative security-based software, and I had a good experience with it.
What is most valuable?
We could easily deploy APIs on WSO2 API Manager, and CORS configuration was easy to manage. The solution's analytics capabilities were good. It had a robust mechanism and was easy to use. It was also easier to change anything from the back end.
What needs improvement?
In WSO2 API Manager, we had little flexibility and were restricted to a specific software or tool. The entire API publication or API creation was done using a particular pipeline we had developed. It was automated in our organization, but it would be really great to have a pipeline rather than doing manual entries.
I'm aware that WSO2 has some Groovy scripts that can be run to create the APIs. However, we can improve it and make it more user-friendly or easy to use.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using WSO2 API Manager for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were certain glitches in the solution. Although the solution did not provide 100% stability, it was around 85% to 90% stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I haven't worked much on the solution's scalability, but it was good to manage. We hired 10,000 to 12,000 APIs and managed them in real time. We were not dissatisfied with that aspect.
How are customer service and support?
We had great technical support from WSO2, and it was really satisfactory.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used WSO2 Store and WSO2 API Manager at the architecture level. I worked on two versions, namely WSO2 API Manager 2.6.0 and 5.7.0. I have also worked with WSO2 Identity Server versions 5.7 and 5.11.
There are certain things that Apigee handles better than WSO2 API Manager. The user interface of WSO2 API Manager is much easier than that of Apigee. The scope of flexibility was much greater in Apigee. In WSO2 API Manager, we had little flexibility and were restricted to a specific software or tool. On the other hand, we had the scope of customization in Apigee.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup is easy when you go through the user manual. Although we faced some challenges and made numerous rollbacks, the installation process was normal overall. It took around four and a half hours to deploy the solution. One to two people with good insights are enough to deploy the tool.
What was our ROI?
We had a good technical support team that helped us whenever we were stuck. We had real-time support for migration and real-time fraud issues. We used to get the support even late at night. The best return on investment we got was the human support rather than the technical support.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't have much information on the pricing because it was handled by our finance team. As far as I'm aware, the costs are not minimal but satisfactory.
What other advice do I have?
The WSO2 team from Sri Lanka helped us with everything. We used to reach out to them via the WSO2 dashboard for maintenance. We used to raise tickets and have maintenance expertise and guidance on this dashboard.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Provides OAuth2 token capabilities, but interface should be more user-friendly
What is most valuable?
WSO2 API Manager provides OAuth2 token capabilities that our customers use to interact, onboard new customers, and provide approvals whenever a customer is onboarded.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s interface should be more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with WSO2 API Manager for seven to nine years.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
WSO2 API Manager is an open-source solution.
What other advice do I have?
Recommending WSO2 API Manager to customers depends on their use cases. It's the customer's choice rather than our choice. WSO2 API Manager provides good support for API lifecycle management. We are satisfied with the solution and implemented it with one of the government organizations in India to deploy and manage their APIs. The solution's developer portal feature has improved the developer experience.
We charge our customers based on their IDs, secrets, the services they use, and how frequently they use them. We use WSO2 API Manager only for API management. We recommend the solution to customers based on their budget and whether they want an open-source solution or an open-source tool with technical support and minimal licensing cost.
The solution provides good documentation.
Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.