Postman vs. WSO2 API Platform

Postman is good for organising your API credentials, vendor settings, environments etc. It's also a good way of getting stared with APIs as you get to use a GUI which can help you understand what we mean by a 'body' or 'bearer token'. I think people generally gravitate towards GUI tools for getting started in a new technology area.

Incentivized

WSO2 is a unique product that provides pre-integrated components like Gateway, Integrator, identity management, etc. Hence it is best suited when the requirement is not just only publish the APIs but also to secure and transform the APIs. WSO2 can be an overhead if only Gateway is required, as there are other very lightweight gateways available in the market.

Incentivized

• It has opened a door for me to explore more out of it, as it is associated with so many APIs that I never felt any difficulty in finding the right API template, which are well organized and easily available.
• It is very secure to use and provides great services which are user-friendly.
• Due to this software I have got rid of the excessive emails and the slack channels, Now I am using my own private API and even it give me an option to produce my personal Postman’s API Builder from its Private API Network and this features has shared my excessive workload.

Incentivized

• API Security
• API Transformation
• API Monetization

Incentivized

• Wherever you need to automate tests that involve database verification or rely on data from databases, Postman is less suitable.
• Postman's disc usage is extremely high, and it occasionally causes the computer to fade.
• It doesn't have the ability to generate random data. To achieve randomness in my tests, I've been working around scripts.

• Installation of this product is a hell. You need to be an expert to get this running together with WSO2 Analytics. It uses a really confusing method of "port + 1" to connect extra products. I guess this was meant to provide a handy way to add new WSO2 products. In reality you'll need to scroll through numerous config files to set this straight. If you use this out of the box, everything will work all right. But the moment you add SSL certificates, DNS names and you'll need special ports to configure your firewall, this product becomes unmaintainable.
• The "Store" provides a nice way to group API's. However, the "Publisher" does not... if you have more than 30 API's searching for API's becomes really annoying.
• The number of configs in this product is huge. As a developer myself, I've never seen (and definitely never created) a product that needed that much config files. Installation and maintenance of products should be stupidly simple, since no developer nor infrastructure person wants to learn something that "just" needs to be a tool.. opposed to being a whole new area of expertise. After using WSO2 API Manager for a while, we wanted to change the admin password... this should be simple enough, like just change the password in "Carbon." But nope. The whole WSO2 environment crashed. We just gave up. Too dangerous.
• Why so many different "products"? Publisher, Store, Carbon, and numerous hidden interfaces. Analytics, ESB whatever... No wonder there are so many config files and port issues. Make it simple!!!

Incentivized

1. Friendly user friendly - when I started using Postman, I was a beginner to the API world, and it gave me a friendly view to begin its usage 2. Postman offers many features, including API testing, monitoring, documentation, and mock servers 3. Environment variables simplify testing across multiple environments (dev, prod) without repetitive configuration.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

Previous to using Postman, I would either use browser tools directly, or write an in-house tool to send requests. Postman eliminates that need while providing a much better experience and more features. At the base level, Postman is as simple as typing in the address as you would in a browser. Authentication can be provided simply as well.

Incentivized

Nevatech Sentinet: The easiest API Manager available. No knowledge of how the product works internally needed! It works with C# (not java... with all it's config files... really? Java developers?). Great way to categorize API's into groups (domains). All of which is drama in WSO2. But Sentinel is really expensive... Mulesoft: Nice and clean. Again, no expert knowledge needed of how the product works internally. Like using word... or any other application, except WSO2. Have java developers never heard of exposing configurations through a user inyterface?? Mulesoft, however is really expensive. Azure: Not cheap!! And a chaotic interface too. But it pays! If you have a Microsoft account already, this is your next step. We chose WSO2 4 years ago because it was free... but we're moving to azure now. And we're very happy with that decision.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Positive impact on continuity and API standardization.

Incentivized