API Management · head to head
Apigee vs Akana
Apigee
API Management
API management platform for designing, securing, and scaling APIs
- From
- $500/monthly
- Rated
- -
Akana
API Management
Enterprise API lifecycle management platform
- From
- $2500/monthly
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Apigee the free evaluation is a sandbox limited to 60 days; Akana owned by Perforce and sold within their portfolio rather than independently, and akana.com redirects to perforce.com
- They diverge on capability: Apigee covers API Gateway, Akana covers API Lifecycle Management.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Apigee and Akana actually diverge.
Identical on both: pricing model (subscription), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (API Management).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Apigee
- API Gateway
- API Analytics
- Developer Portal
- Google Cloud services
- Azure
- AWS
- Okta
- On-premises support
Only in Akana
- API Lifecycle Management
- API Security
- Governance Controls
- OAuth
- SAML
- LDAP
- Active Directory
- On-premise support
Both cover
- Cloud support
- Hybrid support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Apigee
- Publishing, securing and versioning APIs for an enterprise API programnot Akana
- Monetizing APIs and running a developer portalnot Akana
- Analyzing API traffic and defending APIs against bots and abusenot Akana
Akana
- API lifecycle management across REST, SOAP and GraphQLnot Apigee
- Applying OAuth, JWT and SAML policies at the gatewaynot Apigee
- Running the same platform on-premises, in Kubernetes or across cloudsnot Apigee
- Developer portal and API monetisationnot Apigee
- Monitoring API traffic and enforcing quotasnot Apigee
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Apigee
- The free evaluation is a sandbox limited to 60 days
- Pay-as-you-go has no SLA available at all
- Pay-as-you-go bills environments separately from API calls, with a Base environment costing $365 per month per region
- The Base environment is capped at 50 QPS with an SLA of up to 99%
- Standard API Proxy calls are billed at $20 per 1M calls up to 50M, and Extensible API Proxy calls at $100 per 1M calls up to 50M
- API Analytics is a paid add-on at $20 per 1M API calls and cannot be bought on a Base environment
- Advanced API Security is a paid add-on at $350 per 1M API calls and cannot be bought on a Base environment
- Monetization is unavailable on pay-as-you-go and requires a subscription tier
- Additional API proxy deployments beyond those included cost $0.04 per hour per region on a Comprehensive environment
- Subscription tiers Standard, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus are quote only with no published price
- Google Cloud networking charges for IP addresses, data transfer out and forwarding rules are billed on top of Apigee usage
Akana
- Owned by Perforce and sold within their portfolio rather than independently, and akana.com redirects to perforce.com
- Pricing is not published; only a 30 day trial is offered
Pricing, plan by plan
Apigee
$500/monthly- Starter$500/monthly
- API gateway
- Analytics
- Developer portal
- Professional$2500/monthly
- Advanced security
- Traffic management
- Monetization
- Enterprise$undefined/monthly
- Custom deployment
- SLA
- Dedicated support
Akana
$2500/monthly- Professional$2500/monthly
- API Gateway
- Developer Portal
- Basic analytics
- Enterprise$5000/monthly
- Advanced governance
- Multi-cloud support
- Premium support
- Custom$undefined/monthly
- Custom solutions
- Dedicated support
- SLA guarantee
Which should you pick?
Choose Apigee if
- You need api gateway.
- You work on Cloud, Hybrid, On-premises.
- You also want api analytics.
Choose Akana if
- You need api lifecycle management.
- You work on Cloud, On-premise, Hybrid.
- You also want api security.
Questions people ask
- Is Apigee or Akana better?
- Neither clearly leads. Apigee starts at $500/monthly and Akana at $2500/monthly, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Apigee or Akana?
- Apigee starts at $500/monthly and Akana at $2500/monthly.
- Does Apigee or Akana run on more platforms?
- Apigee runs on Cloud, Hybrid, On-premises. Akana runs on Cloud, On-premise, Hybrid.
- What is Apigee best used for?
- Apigee is most often used for publishing, securing and versioning apis for an enterprise api program, monetizing apis and running a developer portal, analyzing api traffic and defending apis against bots and abuse. Of those, publishing, securing and versioning apis for an enterprise api program and monetizing apis and running a developer portal are not what Akana is typically brought in for.
- What can Apigee do that Akana cannot?
- Apigee covers API Gateway, API Analytics, Developer Portal, Google Cloud services. Akana covers API Lifecycle Management, API Security, Governance Controls, OAuth. Both handle Cloud support, Hybrid support.