Software · head to head
Swagger vs Gravitee
S
Swagger
Software
API design and documentation platform for building, testing, and managing APIs
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -

Gravitee
Software
Open source API management platform for event-native 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; Gravitee the entry paid API management tier is $2,500 a month and includes a single production gateway
- They diverge on capability: Swagger covers API Specification, Gravitee covers API Gateway.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Swagger and Gravitee actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (freemium), 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 Gravitee
- API Gateway
- Developer Portal
- Analytics Dashboard
- Kubernetes
- Docker
- Kafka
- LDAP
- Cloud support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Swagger
- API Developmentnot Gravitee
- API Gatewaynot Gravitee
- API Testingnot Gravitee
- API Documentationnot Gravitee
- Microservicesnot Gravitee
Gravitee
- API gateway and lifecycle managementnot Swagger
- Exposing Kafka event streams as managed APIsnot Swagger
- Protocol mediation between event brokers and clientsnot Swagger
- Self-hosting an open source API gatewaynot Swagger
- Access control and authentication in front of internal APIsnot 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
Gravitee
- The entry paid API management tier is $2,500 a month and includes a single production gateway
- Event management is priced separately, starting at $1,250 a month for the Comet tier
- Tiers are gated on gateway and broker counts, so scaling horizontally means moving tier rather than paying incrementally
- Data logging masking and other enterprise features are withheld from the lowest paid tier
- 24/7 support requires the top Universe tier
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
Gravitee
Free- CommunityFree
- API Gateway
- Basic analytics
- Community support
- Enterprise$1500/monthly
- Advanced features
- SLA support
- SSO integration
- Custom$undefined/monthly
- Custom deployment
- Dedicated support
- Premium SLA
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 Gravitee if
- You need api gateway.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Cloud, On-premise, Kubernetes.
- You also want developer portal.
Questions people ask
- Is Swagger or Gravitee better?
- Neither clearly leads. Swagger starts at Free and Gravitee at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Swagger or Gravitee?
- Swagger starts at Free and Gravitee at Free.
- Does Swagger or Gravitee run on more platforms?
- Swagger runs on Web, CLI, Desktop. Gravitee runs on Cloud, On-premise, Kubernetes.
- 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 Gravitee is typically brought in for.
- What can Swagger do that Gravitee cannot?
- Swagger covers API Specification, Interactive Documentation, Code Generation, GitHub. Gravitee covers API Gateway, Developer Portal, Analytics Dashboard, Kubernetes.
