difference between Apigee and Swagger
Apigee and Swagger (now known as the OpenAPI Specification) are related to APIs but serve very different purposes in the API development and management lifecycle. Understanding their distinct roles is key to leveraging each tool effectively in your API strategies.
Apigee
What It Is: Apigee is a comprehensive API management platform provided by Google Cloud. It offers a suite of tools for the secure delivery, management, and analysis of APIs. Apigee is designed for organizations looking to facilitate and secure communication between their services and applications, both internally and externally. It provides features like API gateway functionality, security, rate limiting, quotas, analytics, and developer portal capabilities.
Purpose:
- To act as a control layer that secures, manages, and scales API calls.
- Helps enterprises to monitor API usage, respond to security threats, and ensure compliance with governance policies.
- Facilitates developer engagement through a customizable developer portal.
Swagger (OpenAPI Specification)
What It Is: Swagger, or the OpenAPI Specification, is a framework for describing your API using a standard, language-agnostic interface. This open-source project allows both humans and computers to understand the capabilities of a service without access to source code, documentation, or network traffic inspection. When you define APIs using the OpenAPI Specification, it simplifies API development, testing, and management.
Purpose:
- To provide a standard, language-agnostic interface to REST APIs.
- Enables developers to design, build, document, and consume RESTful web services.
- Offers tools like Swagger Editor (for designing APIs), Swagger UI (for documentation and visualization), and Swagger Codegen (for SDK generation in various languages).
Key Differences
- Functionality: Apigee is an API management platform that provides a range of services including security, traffic management, and analytics. Swagger focuses on API design and documentation, providing a specification and a set of tools for building APIs that adhere to that specification.
- Purpose: Apigee is used for managing and securing APIs once they are deployed. Swagger is used primarily in the API design phase, though its tools and specifications can support API lifecycle management in terms of documentation and client SDK generation.
- Scope: Apigee addresses the broader aspects of API lifecycle management, including runtime management, security, and analytics. Swagger (OpenAPI) provides a specification for defining APIs, which can be used to generate documentation, client libraries, and even server stubs, facilitating API development and integration.