Azure API Management vs Stoplight

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.

API mocking, testing, and sharing are all built in functions for StopLight that work quite well. They even have functionality for generating OAI and RAML code as well, which is a huge plus. AS for as areas where StopLight is not appropriate, if you're doing anything other than API testing, StopLight may not be appropriate for use.

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

• OpenAPI support
• Markdown supports
• Git integration

• 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.

• Simplicity of set up. Although it's not difficult, there are tools out there that are easier to set up for testing endpoints.
• Again, it's perfectly functional, but some competitors I think have a more user friendly UI to them.

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.

I'd like to also throw Runscope and Fiddler into the mix. Between StopLight and all these competitors, we've chosen StopLight primarily for the support, ease of use, and reliability. Most tools out there today are top-notch, so it really comes down to personal preference and different use-cases. Having used other API testing frameworks, StopLight definitely stacks up against the competition.

• We can always think of positive ROI impact on business
• It helps to easily facilitate the design, deployment, and maintenance of our APIs

• Increased efficiency
• Improved comminication between backeend and frontend