Software · head to head
Swagger vs Directus
S
Swagger
Software
API design and documentation platform for building, testing, and managing APIs
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Directus
Software
Open-source data platform providing REST and GraphQL APIs
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Swagger swaggerHub, the commercial layer over the free open source Swagger tools, is sold in Free, Team and Enterprise tiers with the Enterprise tier requiring a sales contact and no public price, per the vendor pricing page; Directus free permissive use of the self hosted product is limited to organisations under $5M annual revenue with fewer than 50 employees, so crossing either threshold turns a free dependency into a paid licence
- They diverge on capability: Swagger covers API Specification, Directus covers REST API.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Swagger and Directus actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown).
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 Swagger
- API Specification
- Interactive Documentation
- Code Generation
- GitHub
- GitLab
- Azure DevOps
- Jira
- Web support
Only in Directus
- REST API
- GraphQL API
- Database management
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- SQLite
- Webhooks
- Node.js support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Swagger
- API Developmentnot Directus
- API Gatewaynot Directus
- API Testingnot Directus
- API Documentationnot Directus
- Microservicesnot Directus
Directus
- Wrapping an existing SQL database in a REST and GraphQL API with an admin interfacenot Swagger
- Running a self hosted headless CMS over a schema you already ownnot Swagger
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Swagger
- SwaggerHub, the commercial layer over the free open source Swagger tools, is sold in Free, Team and Enterprise tiers with the Enterprise tier requiring a sales contact and no public price, per the vendor pricing page
Directus
- Free permissive use of the self hosted product is limited to organisations under $5M annual revenue with fewer than 50 employees, so crossing either threshold turns a free dependency into a paid licence
- The free Core tier is a hard limit of 3 seats, 25 collections and 5 flows
- The Team plan is $499 a month billed annually, or $599 monthly, with extra seats at $50 each
- Team caps collections at 50, expandable to 100, and flows at 20
Pricing, plan by plan
Swagger
Free- FreeFree
- OpenAPI specification
- Swagger UI
- API documentation
- Professional$20/monthly
- Advanced features
- Team collaboration
- API testing
- Enterprise$undefined/monthly
- Custom deployment
- Advanced security
- Dedicated support
Directus
Free- CommunityFree
- Self-hosted Directus
- Community support
- Cloud$25/monthly
- Managed cloud
- Automatic updates
- Backups
Which should you pick?
Choose Swagger if
- You need api specification.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, CLI, Desktop.
- You also want interactive documentation.
Choose Directus if
- You need rest api.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Node.js, Cloud, Self-hosted, Docker.
- You also want graphql api.
Questions people ask
- Is Swagger or Directus better?
- Neither clearly leads. Swagger starts at Free and Directus at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Swagger or Directus?
- Swagger starts at Free and Directus at Free.
- Does Swagger or Directus run on more platforms?
- Swagger runs on Web, CLI, Desktop. Directus runs on Node.js, Cloud, Self-hosted, Docker.
- Can I use Swagger for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Swagger best used for?
- Swagger is most often used for api development, api gateway, api testing, api documentation. Of those, api development and api gateway are not what Directus is typically brought in for.
- What can Swagger do that Directus cannot?
- Swagger covers API Specification, Interactive Documentation, Code Generation, GitHub. Directus covers REST API, GraphQL API, Database management, PostgreSQL.