APITools, the cloud-based API integration services is raising the bar for the space by introducing an open source, on-premise version of their API monitoring service. APITools only launched this year, and because of consumer demands, they moved up the timeframe for open sourcing the platform, which was already on the roadmap.
I’d say after API design, API integration services and tooling, for testing, monitoring, and transforming API calls is one of the fastest growing segments of the API space. We are seeing solid solutions from SmartBear, Runscope, TheRightAPI, Nomos Software, and from API pioneer John Musser, with API Science, but APITools is definitely raising the stakes with open sourcing theirs offering.
The world of API integration service and tooling is rapidly expanding, and only time will tell whether developers prefer running in the cloud, or on-premise, and what features they are looking for, something I've been documenting as I study what each of the companies offer.
I suspect, that along with other API design, deployment, and management tools we'll need a mix of freemium, open tiers, on-premise, and enterprise API integration services and tooling, to meet the demands of this fast growing segment that overlaps with both providing and consuming APIs.
Disclosure: APITools is a 3Scale service, and 3Scale is an API Evangelist partner.
