Azure API Management vs Postman

Likelihood to Recommend

APIM is useful for the standard scenarios:

1) Securing your back-end APIs - If you have a legacy back-end web service that has a basic authentication scheme, you can add some additional security by placing APIM in front, and requiring subscription keys. Leverage your existing firewall to ensure only your APIM instance can communicate with your back-end API, and you've basically added a layer of protection.

2) Lift and shift - there are always going to be clients that don't want to update their clients to use a newer API; in some cases you can make a newer API look like an older one by implementing some complex policies in APIM. You can also do the opposite, making older APIs look new, such as making an XML back-end accept both JSON and XML.

3) Centralizing your APIs - if you've acquired another company and want to make their API set look as if it's a part of the larger whole, APIM is an easy way to provide a consistent front-end interface for developers.

Read full review

Gordon Lo

Digital Solutions Architect

DynacareHospital & Health Care, 1001-5000 employees

View all 3 answers on this topic

Postman is extremely useful when developing any web-based service, such as RESTful APIs. Particularly when you need to repeat requests, either while iterating overdevelopment, or when doing automated testing. Postman doesn't have any browser rendering, so it is not suitable for testing or mocking front-end UIs. However it is a great tool for bypassing these UIs to test the backing service.

Read full review

Anthony Aziz

Senior Software Engineer

Full Circle TMSComputer Software, 1-10 employees

View all 27 answers on this topic

Feature Rating Comparison

Azure API Management

Postman

API access control

Rate limits and usage policies

API usage data

API user onboarding

API versioning

Usage billing and payments

API monitoring and logging

Pros

Easy commissioning of APIs.
Great policies to control access.
Easy mock services for testing.

Read full review

Verified User

Employee in Corporate

Chemicals Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 3 answers on this topic

Issue GET and POST calls to external APIs to verify headers and responses.
Verify developed internal APIs.
Build a library collection of useful API calls to be used as needed.
The history of previous calls is easily searched to pull up calls to be modified and repeated.

Read full review

Gary Davis

Director

Alliance EntertainmentWholesale, 201-500 employees

View all 27 answers on this topic

Cons

Lack of robustness is a bit of an issue. Several other providers offer more options and capabilities, but then, they are lacking in interface ease.
As with anything Azure, pricing is really hard to stay on top of. I always find that you really don’t know what you’re paying for until you get the bill. Having an excellent Azure Administrator can help resolve that.
Integrating with app services outside of Azure can be a challenge, or at least much more challenging than just using Azure App Services.

Read full review

Verified User

Manager in Finance and Accounting

Consumer Goods Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 3 answers on this topic

Enterprise version is easy to setup and use but the number of requests is limited. I feel it would be great if there were more requests.
Pricing for enterprise should be less.
I don't have any more complaints as it is very good tool.

Read full review

Sumanthkumar Nagamalli

Technical consultant

Perficient IncComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees

View all 27 answers on this topic

Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Postman 8.6

Based on 3 answers

I think from a non-technical perspective there are a few things that could be more clearly labeled to better understand what is being asked for or where to add certain parts of the request.

Read full review

Verified User

Professional in Product Management

Computer Software Company, 1001-5000 employees

View all 3 answers on this topic

Support Rating

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Postman 7.3

Based on 24 answers

There is a lot of in-depth documentation for Postman available online, including detailed guides with screenshots and videos. They provide example APIs for new users to explore while learning how to use the tool. Generally, bugs in the client are quickly addressed through frequent free updates. Community and professional support options are available - most of the time, the free/community level support is adequate

Read full review

Verified User

Professional in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 501-1000 employees

View all 24 answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

Azure APIM vs Amazon API Gateway:

1) Azure APIM was a complete package that included a developer portal.

2) We are very Microsoft centric - so the Microsoft product suite aligned very well with our business needs.

3) It was faster and easier to stand up Azure APIM for testing than it was for the Amazon API Gateway.

Read full review

Gordon Lo

Digital Solutions Architect

DynacareHospital & Health Care, 1001-5000 employees

View all 3 answers on this topic

Postman is unique in its own way, and there are products here and there that have the features that Postman has, but none of them compare to the total number of features that Postman has, it is a tool that can be highlighted in a resume by itself.

Read full review

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Financial Services Company, 1-10 employees

View all 27 answers on this topic

Return on Investment

We have one-stop access to all services.
We can stop DDoS, Man in the middle attack, etc.

Read full review

Verified User

Employee in Corporate

Chemicals Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 3 answers on this topic

Postman is free (although there's a paid tier that offers more features) so using it for testing APIs comes with little to no risk (besides learning curve).
The learning curve is a little steep for non-developer users, but developers should find it easy to pick up and use right out of the box, so to speak.

Read full review

Juan Palma

Software Development Manager

Ventus WirelessTelecommunications, 51-200 employees

View all 27 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Azure API Management Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Postman Editions & Modules

Edition

Free	$0.00
Team	$15.00 ($12.00)²
Business	$30.00 ($24.00)²
Enterprise	Contact Sales

per user per month (billed annually)

Additional Pricing Details

—

Rating Summary

Azure API Management

Postman

Azure API Management

Postman

Azure API Management

Postman