I'm facing some serious challenges with our API management expenses. We're currently spending a lot on licenses for Apigee, AWS data transfers, and the team that manages everything. We have about 200 APIs catering to both internal teams and external partners, with an estimated 500 million calls per month - it's not tiny but not massive either.
The main cost drivers are definitely the Apigee license, data transfers between regions, the expense of DDoS protection from a vendor, and three team members putting in about 30% of their time just to keep it all running smoothly.
I considered switching to AWS API Gateway, but the per-request pricing would actually be higher at our volume. Azure API Management has similar challenges.
I'm curious if anyone out there has managed to cut these costs significantly without compromising on reliability or features. Are there more cost-effective vendors for large scales or better strategies for handling cross-region traffic? I want to ensure we're not skimping on something crucial, but this feels like too much for what we're getting. I'd appreciate any insights on what others are doing!
3 Answers
It really depends on how you're using those APIs. If you need a management layer for things like authentication and rate limiting, sticking with APIM might be the way to go. For us, we route most of our APIs through Azure App Gateway to our app services. We only spend about 600 AUD a month on the App Gateway, and we handle around 90 million calls a month, so it might be worth reviewing how you're structuring your services.
I can't claim to be an API expert, but for one of our apps, we transitioned from REST to GraphQL, which helped us reduce costs a bit. Granted, our situation was smaller than yours, but it’s something to consider. If you're interested in a managed service for GraphQL, AWS AppSync is pretty solid!
Have you looked into alternatives like Apache APISIX or Kong API Gateway? While they might not have all the features of fully managed services, they could be sufficient depending on your needs. Just keep in mind, you'll need to manage these solutions properly, which could still require a bit of maintenance time and hosting costs. If your primary goal is a solid API Gateway without all the bells and whistles, these open-source options might work well for you.
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