15 Best API Security Tools in the Market in 2024
July 15, 2024
As the importance of APIs continues to grow and API traffic accelerates, ensuring their secure functionality is no longer an option—it is a necessity.
Just think about recent hacks like the ones at T-Mobile and Finsify’s Money Lover app – which left millions of users exposed and vulnerable.
As cyber threats evolve faster than ever, the quest for the perfect API security solution becomes a mission. With so many options, how do you know which fits your needs?
This guide will walk you through the top API Security vendors, breaking down their features, benefits, and limitations.
An Introduction to API Security Solutions
API security tools are software solutions that protect APIs from potential threats and vulnerabilities. These tools typically involve a range of features and mechanisms, including authentication, authorization, encryption, input validation, rate limiting, monitoring, logging, and threat detection.
By implementing these security measures, API security tools aim to safeguard APIs against unauthorized access, data breaches, injection attacks, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and other malicious activities, ensuring the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of API resources.
Generally, API security tools can be classified into three primary categories: WAAP, API Gateways, and Standalone agent-based API security tools.
1. WAAP (Web Application and API Protection)
WAAP is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect web applications and APIs from various threats, including DDOS attacks and OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities.
These tools typically offer features such as web application firewall (WAF), API security, bot protection, and DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) mitigation.
WAAP solutions provide complete protection for applications and APIs by inspecting incoming traffic, filtering out malicious requests, and enforcing security policies to prevent attacks.
2. API Gateways
API Gateways act as intermediaries between clients (such as web or mobile applications) and backend services (such as APIs or microservices).
These tools manage and secure API traffic by enforcing policies, performing authentication and authorization, and providing traffic management capabilities.
API Gateways offer features such as API key management, OAuth/OIDC (OpenID Connect) support, rate limiting, caching, and logging.
They simplify API management tasks such as versioning, routing, transformation, and orchestration, while also ensuring security and governance.
API gateways are commonly engineered to handle API publication and performance optimization, but security is not a fundamental competency.
Check out the pros and cons of API Gateway.
3. Stand Alone Agent-Based API Security Platforms
A dedicated API security platform is a specialized solution to protect APIs from various threats and vulnerabilities. These platforms/appliances typically offer complete security features and capabilities tailored specifically for API protection.
They are often used with other security measures such as WAFs and API Gateways to provide layered defenses against sophisticated attacks.
Many API-only security tools analyze data after it has passed through the network. WAAP solutions, on the other hand, deliver real-time traffic analysis and blocking through a unified inline solution.
This means that threats are detected and mitigated instantly without the need to send data to separate tools for analysis. With WAAP, there’s no delay in protecting web applications and APIs, ensuring efficient and effective security measures.
Features to Look for in API Security Solutions
Beyond the usual considerations like cost and ease of integration, several other critical factors should be taken into account when selecting API security tools.
Behavioral-based Analysis
Consider API security tools with behavioral analysis as a key feature. Unlike signature-based methods focusing on known threats, behavioral analysis identifies anomalies in API traffic patterns, signaling potential risks.
Analyzing all API activity and correlating user behavior enables rapid detection and response to attacks, enhancing overall security effectiveness.
API Rate Limiting
While seeing high demand for your API is encouraging, allowing unrestricted access can lead to misuse and potential security vulnerabilities, such as DoS attacks.
API rate limiting is vital for optimizing the performance, scalability and security of your API product, thereby maximizing its value & longevity.
AppTrana WAAP’s adaptive rate-limiting capabilities recommend rate limits by evaluating user behavior across URI, IP, session/host, and geography. This enables customized limits for endpoints like ‘/login’ versus ‘/dashboard’ and adjusts based on IP and geography.
Tiered rate limiting, from alerts to blocks, ensures a comprehensive defense against DDoS and bot attacks.
API Discovery
Hidden or Shadows APIs are ticking time bombs waiting to be exploited by malicious actors. Therefore, your primary focus should be on establishing a thorough inventory of all utilized APIs.
An API security tool with strong discovery capabilities ensures that no API goes unnoticed. It scans networks, cloud environments, and application ecosystems to identify all APIs, including shadow and Zombie APIs.
Explore why API discovery holds significance here.
API Security Testing
An effective API security platform streamlines the testing process, leveraging automation wherever possible to enhance efficiency and accuracy. It conducts API-focused testing, to find known vulnerabilities, including those outlined in the OWASP API Top 10.
Assess how well the tool can recognize common API weaknesses like injection attacks, authentication failures, and data exposure risks.
API Threat Coverage
Overlooking threat coverage leaves potential gaps in your defenses, enabling attackers to exploit vulnerabilities, resulting in data breaches and other security incidents.
While many security tools concentrate on known vulnerabilities, they often miss .
To guarantee sufficient coverage, choose an API security vendor offering comprehensive protection against various threats, including abuse of privileges by legitimate users.
False Positive Monitoring
Even with a top-notch security solution boasting advanced features, its effectiveness is reduced if it’s prone to inaccuracies.
You’ll just end up with lots of false positives that your team must deal with. Eventually, something might slip through and cause trouble.
False positive monitoring becomes crucial in this scenario, highlighting the importance of choosing a vendor committed to this aspect.
On AppTrana WAAP, our security team does extensive false positive testing and works with you to remove all false positives before pushing the security policies live.
API Traffic Monitoring
Monitoring traffic in real time is vital for identifying irregularities in your API activity.
Machine learning-enabled real-time monitoring is particularly effective at detecting anomalies in API traffic. Examples include sudden surges in traffic on specific API endpoints whether from multiple IPs, geographies, an account takeover attempt, and so on.
Furthermore, you can configure the system to automatically block the IP address associated with the suspicious activity to prevent any potential threats. This proactive approach helps safeguard your API infrastructure from malicious actors and unauthorized access attempts.
Positive Security Policy Automation
Most API attacks on vulnerabilities could be thwarted if developers adhere to secure coding practices and thoroughly validate every input in an API. However, since this isn’t always the case, implementing positive security models on WAAP serves as a viable backup plan.
Many application teams lack dedicated WAAP security experts to handle these configurations. Therefore, it’s advisable to seek an API protection solution that assists your teams in automating positive security policies.
Bot Attack Protection
When fighting botnet attacks, the goal is to make it hard and costly for attackers while fixing vulnerabilities. Attackers try to hide their patterns. Real-time profiling watches user behavior to spot suspicious actions quickly.
Techniques like IP fingerprinting help understand user intent. In addition, having experts monitor global bot activity for better defense is ideal.
15 Top API Security Tools in the Market
- AppTrana WAAP
- Cloudflare API Shield
- Akamai API Security
- Barracuda API Security
- Imperva API Security
- F5 WAAP solution
- Fastly API Security
- ThreatX RAAP
- Wallarm API Security
- Azure API Management
- Apigee API Gateway
- Amazon API Gateway
- Salt Security
- 42Chrunch
- Traceable API security
A Quick Snapshot Comparison of 15 Best API Security Tools
| Name of API Security Vendors | Features | Gartner Peer Insights Ratings | Suitable For |
| AppTrana WAAP |
|
4.9 | Teams who lack in-house security experts for maintaining and updating API security policies.
AppTrana’s approach to API security combines dynamic scanning and manual penetration testing to find vulnerabilities before hackers do. It focuses on the weakest links in applications and APIs to keep them secure. In the $399 plan, the managed services team acts as an extension of your SOC team and customizes rules that seamlessly integrate with your business requirements, guaranteeing zero false positives. |
| Cloudflare API Shield |
|
4.4 | It is ideal for businesses seeking comprehensive API protection, management, and optimization, and who desire seamless integration with Cloudflare’s ecosystem.
API Security is very good for large enterprise sites opting for enterprise plan. Certain API capabilities are not included in the standard product, requiring users to opt for the full API Shield product. |
| Akamai API Security |
|
4.8 | Companies with substantial security software budgets often opt for premium solutions like Akamai.
Akamai’s API Security caters to diverse industries, ensuring thorough API behavior monitoring across platforms and gateways. While managed services come at a higher cost and lack unmetered DDoS protection, Akamai’s standalone API Security solution seamlessly integrates with any API gateway or cloud setup. |
| Barracuda API Security |
|
4.4 | Suitable for those prioritizing robust API Discovery.
This solution is ideal for teams employing a hybrid WAAP strategy that incorporates both on-premise and cloud models. Offers schema-based and ML-backed API discovery, plus unlimited API rate limiting rules (Tarpit). However, these extras are only available in the premium plan, which might be too pricey for some requirements. |
| Imperva API Security |
|
4.6 | It is ideal for businesses looking to enhance their API security posture by leveraging cloud-based solutions, as well as on-premises deployments.
The solution offers deployment options in the Cloud, either through the Imperva Cloud WAF Platform or other Cloud WAFs, as well as on-premises or across hybrid environments. Additionally, it boasts expanded integration with other API gateways including Kong, Mulesoft, Azure APIM Gateway, and Apigee. |
| F5 WAAP solution |
|
4.5 | Ideal for modern organizations seeking comprehensive app and API security across distributed environments.
Particularly suited for teams employing a hybrid WAAP strategy, integrating both on-premise and cloud models. F5 offers robust reporting and analytics capabilities, eliminating the need for supplementary BI tools. Managed services come at a premium cost. |
| Fastly API Security |
|
4.9 | Suited for teams needing flexible WAAP deployment, Fastly offers various options like on-premises and cloud.
However, its managed services are only available in the “ultimate” plan. Fastly WAAP is well-known in e-commerce, retail, and media sectors. API and ATO protection rules are included only in professional and premier packages |
| ThreatX RAAP |
|
4.8 | Teams seeking comprehensive, hassle-free API security.
With automated threat detection and blocking capabilities, it’s ideal for organizations looking to safeguard their APIs and applications without the burden of managing additional tools. By integrating runtime detection, dynamic scanning, and protection features, ThreatX’s RAAP solution is tailor-made for DevSecOps teams, enabling them to identify and address vulnerabilities early in the software lifecycle. |
| Wallarm API Security |
|
4.4 | For organizations in need of top-notch real-time monitoring and customized alerts, Wallarm offers effective solutions.This comprehensive approach is particularly suitable for businesses seeking to protect their entire API and web application portfolio across multi-cloud and cloud-native environments.
Like AppTrana, Wallarm also provides an API Security testing platform, and this helps in risk-based API Protection. Setting up Wallarm can be tricky and keeping it running smoothly requires continuous attention from security experts who are well-versed in the product. Notably, if you are looking for a managed offering, Wallarm might not be a fit. |
| Azure API Management |
|
4.3 | Teams already utilizing Azure and looking for basic API protection.
To attain advanced protection, purchasing rule sets from alternative WAAP providers is necessary, along with payment based on rule set usage and bandwidth consumption. However, the current API protection capabilities are basic, lacking support for GraphQL, SOAP, gRPC, and WebSocket. |
| Apigee API Gateway |
|
4.5 | Google Cloud’s Apigee offers a comprehensive solution with built-in security features, making it ideal for businesses running APIs on the Google Cloud platform.
However, as an API gateway solution, Apigee primarily focuses on API management and baseline protection. For organizations seeking an additional layer of security including managed services, you’ll need to opt for WAAP like AppTrana which bundles managed services. |
| Amazon API Gateway |
|
4.5 | Ideal for users seeking seamless integration with AWS services.
Amazon API Gateway offers security, reliability and flexibility backed by AWS. Well-suited for those requiring easy integration with tools like Lambda, SNS, SQS, and other AWS security features. While it may offer some basic security features like authentication and authorization, WAAP protection capabilities are still needed to defend against attacks including bot and DDoS attacks. |
| Salt Security |
|
4.6 | Teams prioritizing real-time insights for API discovery, attack prevention, and hardening.
Salt security ensures API security through cloud-scale big data and AI/ML technologies. It merges real-time API behavior analytics and proactive vulnerability analysis to detect and prioritize API attacks by risk. While it lacks its own mitigation controls, it seamlessly integrates with existing infrastructure such as WAFs or API gateways for threat blocking. Notably, it doesn’t provide managed service for API security. Additionally, to shield against DDoS and bot attacks combining with the WAAP platform is key.
|
| 42Chrunch |
|
4.5 | Teams wanting to integrate security smoothly into their API development process from the beginning.
With features like auditing, live endpoint scanning, and micro-API firewall protection, 42Crunch makes it easy for teams to ensure comprehensive security for their APIs. However, for advanced DDoS and bot attack mitigation, you may need WAAP solutions. |
| Traceable API security |
|
4.7 | Teams seek an agentless API security solution and prioritize seamless integration of security testing within CI/CD pipelines.
For those requiring versatile deployment options, Traceable offers several methods including agentless out-of-band through traffic mirroring and agentless edge via plugins on infrastructure like API gateways. However, it’s worth noting that Traceable may fall short in identifying unknown threats, particularly regarding advanced DDoS and sophisticated bots. Finally, it doesn’t have a managed service offering, which is vital for rapid response to security incidents. |
Detailed Review of 15 Best API Security Tools
1. AppTrana Managed API Protection
AppTrana leads the way with its innovative approach to risk-based, fully managed API security solutions.
From discovery to monitoring, AppTrana offers tailored security for APIs with unparalleled precision.
Its bundled API protection ensures seamless integration and management, all included in the WAAP pricing.
With both positive and negative security models, safeguard your APIs against OWASP API Top 10, DDoS, and Bot attacks, all while ensuring zero false positives.
What are the standout features?
Automated API Discovery
Securing all your APIs begins with full visibility into their whereabouts, functions, and performance. This visibility is vital for identifying shadow or rogue APIs before they’re exploited.
AppTrana’s API Discovery feature provides essential visibility into your API landscape, automatically identifying and tracking shadow, rogue, and zombie API endpoints.
Further, it simplifies API documentation by automatically generating OpenAPI specification files (Swagger 3.0), pre-filled with details, and allowing for real-time adjustments to API definitions based on changing business requirements. Additionally, unnecessary APIs can be deprecated easily.
Positive Security Automation
The positive security model works by allowing only what’s approved and blocking anything else.
Within AppTrana WAAP, security teams can effortlessly conduct API scans to identify vulnerabilities and automatically generate positive security policies tailored to each API endpoint.
With positive security automation, efficiently spot and tackle potential API threats, ensuring protection against account takeovers, DDoS attacks, and bots—all with just a click.
API-Focused DDoS & Bot Attacks Mitigation
To further strengthen API security, AppTrana offers unmetered, behavior-based DDoS protection for APIs, enabling customers to customize policies and rate limits for each API endpoint based on machine learning on user behavior.
Additionally, API-specific bot modules classify access attempts as either legitimate or suspicious. Suspicious bots are then blocked according to customer risk preferences.
API Vulnerability Scanning
Protecting APIs begins with identifying their vulnerabilities. In AppTrana WAAP, you receive a bundled package featuring API scanning and penetration testing on API endpoints.
Check out the API pen-testing checklist covering all potential use cases to examine when conducting penetration testing.
IncidentIQ Copilot
With its generative AI capabilities, AppTrana empowers SOC teams to swiftly analyze incidents and implement mitigation measures, all in mere minutes.
From identifying consistent IP addresses linked to suspicious activity to detecting emerging threats targeting specific application groups, IncidentIQ Copilot equips security teams with the insights needed to stay ahead of attackers.
SwyftComply
Security compliance is not just a checkbox exercise but essential for most companies, particularly in highly regulated industries such as healthcare and finance.
To meet the security audit requirements of SOC 2, PCI, and other standards, your audit report must have zero open vulnerabilities.
With SwyftComply, autonomously patching all critical, high, and medium vulnerabilities within 72 hours. This enables you to meet SOC 2, PCI, HIPAA, and more, delivering a clean, zero-vulnerability report.
What is best?
- SwyftComply is a unique feature that no other API security solution offers
- Protect APIs from DDoS & BOT attacks using behavioral-based protection.
- Ensure positive security for APIs through automated policy creation based on Swagger files.
- Gain visibility into API traffic patterns and identify shadow APIs.
- Get real-time insights into blocked vulnerabilities and required fixes.
What could have been better?
Lack of support for legacy API standards like SOAP.
Who is it for?
AppTrana is unique in its ability to serve both enterprises and SMBs effectively. It offers specialized API security features such as DDoS and bot protection using a positive and negative security model, alongside dynamic API scanning.
Additionally, it’s an excellent choice for managed service providers(MSPs) aiming to provide managed WAF and API security solutions to their customers.
2. Cloudflare API Shield
With its comprehensive suite of protective measures bundled under the name API Shield, Cloudflare empowers businesses to protect their APIs with confidence.
Cloudflare’s API Shield combines Discovery, Schema Validation, Abuse Detection, and mTLS to fortify your API gateway, providing comprehensive protection against various security risks.
What are the standout features?
API Discovery
Many organizations grapple with the challenge of accurately cataloging their APIs, leaving potential vulnerabilities undiscovered.
Cloudflare’s API Discovery tool employs advanced techniques, including machine learning algorithms, to comprehensively identify and monitor all public-facing APIs.
By accurately scanning HTTP requests, it unveils hidden API traffic, enabling organizations to manage their endpoints effectively and monitor API health with precision.
Positive API Security Model
Cloudflare API Security adopts a proactive approach to security by enforcing compliance with OpenAPI schemas. By only accepting traffic that conforms to predefined schemas, it effectively blocks abnormal requests and HTTP anomalies, reducing the attack surface and enhancing overall security posture.
DDoS Mitigation
In addition to API-specific security measures, Cloudflare’s world-class DDoS mitigation capabilities provide an additional layer of defense against volumetric attacks.
With unlimited and unmetered DDoS protection included within the API Gateway product, users can benefit from robust protection against DDoS threats.
Cloudflare’s track record of mitigating some of the largest-scale DDoS attacks underscores the resilience of its infrastructure and the effectiveness of its protection mechanisms.
Check out the other top DDoS protection software in the market.
What is best?
- Uncover shadow APIs
- Monitor and assess API performance
- Authenticate API endpoints with mTLS
- Validate schemas to permit requests adhering to the API’s schema
- Apply rate limiting and DDoS protection to avoid API overload
- Safeguard against API software zero-day attacks
What could have been Better?
API Shield is limited to enterprise customers, excluding those on free, pro, or business tiers. Users without API shield face challenges in managing both API and non-API traffic.
Reviews on Gartner and G2 suggest that there is room for improvement in the support provided.
Who is it for?
Cloudflare’s solution is suitable for those seeking an alternative to existing gateways that are expensive, impact performance, and pose data and privacy risks.
Cloudflare’s services cater primarily to individuals, startups, and small businesses with affordable options, while costs rise for larger enterprises as features expand.
3. Akamai API Security
Akamai’s cutting-edge API security solution is renowned for its visibility into your digital ecosystem.
Akamai’s API Security complements its existing App & API Protector seamlessly. Together, they provide global protection, boasting enterprise-wide visibility and sophisticated behavioral analysis.
What are the standout features?
Automatic Inspection of API Requests
A standout feature of Akamai API Security is its automatic inspection of all API requests, with no registration required. By instantly analyzing incoming API traffic, Akamai API Security identifies potential threats and mitigates them in real time, minimizing the risk of successful attacks.
Comprehensive Visibility and Behavioral Analysis
Akamai API Security offers outstanding visibility into API activity across your entire digital estate. By using behavioral analysis techniques, the solution can identify complex threats and anomalies, allowing for proactive threat detection and mitigation.
By analyzing historical data stored in a dedicated data lake, organizations gain valuable insights into past API interactions. Thereby they can make security decisions based on data analysis.
Seamless Integration and Platform-Agnostic Deployment
Deploying Akamai API Security is both simple and versatile. As a cloud-SaaS solution, it is platform-agnostic. It can integrate with any WAAP solution, API gateway, or cloud implementation.
This flexibility allows organizations to leverage the benefits of Akamai API Security regardless of their existing infrastructure, ensuring comprehensive protection across diverse environments.
Managed Service
Akamai API Security includes a standout feature: the Shadow Hunt managed service for threat hunting. This service leverages ML algorithms to identify potential security threats and anomalies, providing human analysts with actionable insights for further investigation.
By combining automated detection with human expertise, Shadow Hunt enables organizations to stay ahead of emerging threats and proactively defend against attacks.
What is best?
- Malicious traffic blocking by reputation score
- Real-time API request inspection
- Capture and promptly deliver security events to your SIEM application
- Threat detection using behavioral analytics
What could have been better?
As an enterprise-level solution, Akamai API Security may involve significant upfront costs, particularly for organizations with limited resources or smaller budgets.
While the investment may be justified by the solution’s performance and capabilities, it’s essential to evaluate the total cost of ownership and consider alternative options if necessary.
Like most WAAPs, Akamai API Security may occasionally generate false positives.
Who is it for?
It’s particularly suited for organizations prioritizing API discovery, monitoring, compliance, and risk management. Gain insights into various compliance standards and their application security requirements.
Akamai excels in media, gaming, and streaming industries among its diverse clientele.
4. Barracuda API Security
Barracuda Application Protection offers robust security measures tailored specifically for Web Applications and API defenses. Their API security module provides comprehensive protection against attacks targeting APIs directly.
Barracuda’s solution covers a wide range of security aspects, from addressing OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities to shielding against zero-day attacks. It also includes measures for bot protection, DDoS prevention, and access control, ensuring complete defense.
What are the standout features?
ML-Powered API Discovery
The platform employs machine learning algorithms to detect shadow APIs, a common cause of data breaches. By analyzing live traffic, it identifies unprotected API endpoints and automatically activates security measures, effectively minimizing the risk of breaches.
Schema-based JSON and GraphQL API Security
Barracuda delivers schema-based security for both JSON & GraphQL APIs. It allows for the seamless integration of authentication and authorization mechanisms, such as OpenID Connect, SAML, and JSON Web Tokens, to ensure that only authorized users can access APIs.
Traffic Visibility
Detailed logging of API requests, including headers and other relevant details, enables easy troubleshooting and provides insights into traffic patterns. Integration with reporting and syslog modules further enhances visibility, facilitating prompt detection of unusual behavior.
Advanced Bot Protection
Barracuda’s API security solution includes advanced bot protection features. It can regulate the rate of API calls, redirect suspicious clients to a tarpit to slow down their communication, and enforce traditional rate control mechanisms.
Additionally, the system leverages machine learning models to detect and block unauthorized bots, safeguarding against disruptions caused by bot-driven traffic.
What is best?
- Protect JSON and GraphQL APIs
- Automated API Discovery
- DDoS Account take-over protection
- Advanced Bot Protection
- Deep visibility and automated response capabilities
What could have been better?
- API discovery and unlimited API rate limiting are exclusive to the premium plan
- Support service has room for improvement
Who is it for?
Suitable for those prioritizing robust API Discovery.
5. Imperva API Security
Imperva API Security, included in the Imperva Cloud Application Security suite, delivers robust API protection.
This integration provides unified access to its application security products like WAF, DDoS Protection, and Advanced Bot Protection (ABP).
With machine learning and automation, Imperva API Security continuously detects and classifies changes, enabling security teams to keep pace with DevOps.
What are the standout features?
Deep Endpoint Discovery
Imperva API Security ensures comprehensive API discovery and classification of sensitive data. This feature helps organizations to mitigate data leakage and API abuse.
This deep discovery capability addresses challenges such as incomplete API definitions/documentation, changes in production APIs, shadow APIs, and API abuse.
Imperva API Security provides continuous protection through indepth discovery and classification of sensitive data.
Flexible Deployment Options
Imperva API Security stands out for its ability to secure APIs against known and unknown attacks through various deployment options. It allows organizations to protect APIs in any environment, including Imperva cloud, other cloud platforms, or on-premises setups.
Integration with Advanced Bot Protection (ABP)
Imperva API Security and Advanced Bot Protection (ABP) work effectively to provide visibility, detection, and mitigation against automated threats, particularly bad bots. Together, they bring visibility to sensitive APIs, detect automated attacks, and enable the implementation of ABP policies purpose-built for APIs.
What is best?
- Safeguard APIs against known and unknown threats through unified security capabilities.
- Gain insight into API traffic patterns and identify potential security risks in real-time.
- Seamlessly integrate with existing API management platforms and open-source tools for streamlined security management.
- Detect and mitigate automated threats, including bot attacks, to protect APIs from abuse and unauthorized access.
What could have been better?
Users find setting up and configuring the solution challenging. If you go with Imperva WAF integration, note that advanced features are add-ons, potentially raising the overall cost when compared to initial estimates.
Who is it for?
It is especially suitable for enterprises looking to streamline API management and security operations, ensuring seamless integration with their existing infrastructure and technology stack.
It integrates seamlessly with popular API gateways like Kong, Mulesoft, Azure APIM Gateway, and Apigee.
6. F5 WAAP solution
F5 offers a comprehensive solution for securely managing APIs across any data center or cloud environment. With a simple, efficient, and scalable architecture, organizations can automate API deployments and management while ensuring protection against API-specific threats.
F5 is uniquely positioned to deliver API management, high-performance API gateways, and advanced security controls within a single solution, reducing tool sprawl and architectural complexity.
What are the standout features?
Positive Security Model and API Discovery
F5 WAAP solutions allow organizations to enforce proper API behavior by utilizing imported OpenAPI specifications based on valid API definitions. This ensures compliance with documented API characteristics and protects against common and advanced API-specific vulnerabilities.
Moreover, F5’s dynamic API endpoint discovery and schema learning capabilities enable you to continuously monitor and manage all web apps and API endpoints present in your environments.
API Authentication State Discovery
It helps identify any gaps in API authentication, ensuring that only authenticated and authorized users can access your APIs.
This feature autonomously detects and documents the authentication state of the APIs. It learns and documents authentication types based on OpenAPI specifications or their location within each API call.
By associating this data with application endpoints, it enables the analysis and execution of authentication policies.
DDoS Protection
Just like any network or computing resource, APIs are susceptible to DDoS attacks. When users flood an API endpoint with too many concurrent requests, it can overwhelm the system, causing slowdowns or unresponsiveness.
With layer 7 DDoS capabilities and rate-limiting functionality, F5’s Distributed Cloud WAAP ensures the availability of web apps and APIs by effectively mitigating DDoS attacks at the application layer.
Follow these DDoS protection best practices to avoid being a victim of such attacks.
What is best?
- API endpoint identification, mapping, and protection
- Visualize API usage
- ML-based traffic monitoring
- Broad platform and cloud provider support
- Save time on API configuration and deployment
What could have been better?
- Cloud WAAP is newer compared to competitors in the market.
- Support is only available through premium subscriptions.
- Compatibility with multiple cloud environments requires enhancement, alongside stability and scalability improvements. Additionally, the solution lacks zero-day protection as it relies on signatures.
Who is it for?
Ideal for businesses dealing with hybrid multi-cloud complexities. As multi-cloud security gains importance, F5 offers effective solutions against modern threats in distributed setups.
7. Fastly API Security
Fastly’s API security, integrated into their Next-Generation Web Application Firewall (NGWAF), offers comprehensive protection, streamlined visibility, and empowered application development.
What are the standout features?
Comprehensive API Protection
NGWAF ensures automated traffic management, blocking, rate-limiting, and rule application to mitigate OWASP Top 10 risks and targeted API attacks. Fastly’s vigilant monitoring halts unauthorized requests, safeguarding SOAP, REST, gRPC, WebSockets, and GraphQL APIs from abuse.
API Visibility and Decisioning
The NGWAF provides comprehensive visibility into all API requests and decision logic, minimizing the requirement for multiple solutions to ensure protection. This integration enables the NGWAF to deliver insightful analytics, offering complete application and API security insights.
Seamless Integration
NGWAF offers seamless integration with SIEM platforms like Elastic and Datadog, empowering users with valuable insights to bolster their security posture and optimize resource allocation.
What is best?
- Detect and block attacks across SOAP, REST, gRPC, and GraphQL APIs
- Deepen your insight into security incidents
- NGWAF offers extensive insight and decision-making capabilities
What could have been better?
Managed services are limited to the ultimate plan. Organizations opting for starter or advantage plans may lack comprehensive managed support, impacting their ability to efficiently mitigate threats and optimize security operations.
Who is it for?
Fastly API security is widely recognized in financial services, e-commerce, retail, and media and entertainment sectors.
8. ThreatX RAAP
Like AppTrana WAAP, ThreatX RAAP (Run time API and Application Protection) stands out by offering managed API and application protection that goes beyond mere threat identification, providing real-time blocking of malicious activities.
Like AppTrana, ThreatX also uses a risk-based blocking approach. While AppTrana uses the inbuilt DAST scanner to find threats, ThreatX uses a centralized risk engine to ensure accurate and effective mitigation of threats across APIs and applications.
What are the standout features?
API Schema Compliance
ThreatX introduces API schema compliance capabilities, enabling centralized management of OpenAPI 3.0 schemas for the API endpoints it protects. This feature facilitates the comparison of API traffic against specifications, helping organizations identify and mitigate compliance gaps effectively.
Flexible Deployment
The platform extends its protection from the edge to the runtime environment, covering both cloud and on-premises deployments. Additionally, ThreatX offers a Protection-as-a-Service team, playing as an extended security teams, to bolster defense strategies.
API Catalog & Analytics
Offering a comprehensive view of malicious activity across APIs, the API catalog empowers security teams to swiftly identify threats and investigate the attacks. Advanced analytics and traffic insights help uncover suspicious activities and variations in traffic patterns.
What is best?
- Automatic API discovery and schema generation
- Automatically validate riskiest vulnerabilities
- Proactive zero-day remediation
- 24/7 Support backed by experts
What could have been better?
Complex rule configurations may require assistance for implementation. Additionally, the current UI and reporting capabilities could be more customizable and improved as per reviews on Gartner.
The use of machine learning, while innovative, can lead to issues like false positives and negatives.
Who is it for?
Ideal for organizations seeking automated API security from development to runtime. It’s perfect for those who prefer standalone security or want to combine it with ThreatX API & Application Protection – Edge solution.
9. Wallarm API Security
Wallarm provides comprehensive API security solutions that ensure strong protection for APIs, microservices, and serverless workloads within cloud-native settings.
The solution integrates API Security, Next-Gen WAF, and Attack discovery and risk management capabilities. This unified approach ensures comprehensive protection for your entire API and web application portfolio across multi-cloud and cloud-native environments.
What are the standout features?
API Security Testing
Wallarm’s API Security Testing module offers automated testing for APIs and web assets, prioritizing remediation and expanding coverage to previously untested APIs.
It supports various API types, identifies common vulnerabilities, and allows for flexible testing methods. The platform maintains session context, detects anomalies, and provides API integration for seamless testing.
Also, it automates testing using OpenAPI Specs, enhancing efficiency and accuracy.
API Data Leak Protection
Detecting and promptly alerting on leaked API secrets is crucial for closing security gaps. These leaks encompass not only API keys but also extend to various credentials, file locations, private API schemas, and user data. The exposure of such sensitive information to attackers poses a substantial risk of compromise.
Customers leveraging Wallarm’s web application and API protection capabilities gain the ability to automatically block leaked secrets in production traffic.
What is best?
- End-to-End API Security
- API Discovery and Risk Assessment
- API Leak Detection
- Reduced False Positive
What could have been better?
The cloud-native WAAP doesn’t include all the important Advanced API security features by default. Users must sign up for the WAAP + advanced API security plan to access those features.
Additionally, managed service is not bundled in either of these plans.
Who is it for?
Designed for industries facing regulatory requirements and needing to safeguard sensitive data, including those in healthcare, fintech, retail, and technology.
For organizations looking for complete web application and API security, Wallarm is a good option to evaluate along with other WAAP providers in the market.
10. Azure API Management
Azure API Management (APIM) enables organizations to create, publish, secure, and analyze APIs. It serves as Azure’s API gateway and facilitates communication between clients and backend services, enforcing policies like rate-limiting and security.
APIM offers comprehensive security features designed to protect microservices, along with monitoring and analytics tools to optimize API performance.
What are standout features?
Comprehensive Monitoring and Logging
Implementing a robust monitoring and logging strategy is crucial for detecting and responding to potential security incidents. APIM integrates seamlessly with Azure Monitor, Azure Log Analytics, and Azure Sentinel to collect and analyze logs, set up alerts, and investigate suspicious activities.
By leveraging these tools, you can ensure continuous visibility into your API operations and swiftly address security threats. Azure Security Center further enhances this capability by continuously assessing your API management infrastructure’s security posture, identifying vulnerabilities, and providing actionable insights to mitigate risks.
Rate Limiting and Throttling
To prevent abuse and ensure fair usage of APIs, Azure APIM offers customizable rate limiting and throttling policies:
- Fixed Window Rate Limiting: Sets a maximum number of requests within a predefined time window (e.g., 100 requests per minute).
- Sliding Window Rate Limiting: Tracks requests over a rolling time window, throttling or rejecting requests that exceed the limit.
These mechanisms uphold system stability and protect APIs against misuse & potential DoS attacks.
Defender for APIs
Defender for APIs, part of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, offers full lifecycle protection, detection, and response for APIs managed in Azure API Management. It enhances visibility into critical APIs, helping security experts understand their security posture, prioritize fixes and detect runtime threats.
Key features include identifying external or unused APIs, classifying APIs with sensitive data, applying security recommendations, detecting anomalous traffic patterns, and integrating with SIEM systems.
This ensures APIs are continuously monitored and protected against potential threats.
What is best?
- API Life Cycle Management
- Threat Monitoring and Detection
- Vulnerability Assessment with Azure Security Center
- Authentication and authorization policies
What could have been better?
- Pay-as-you-go model with varying costs based on usage and features; higher-performance plans cost more.
- DDoS protection will incur additional costs.
- The API protection features are quite basic, lacking support for GraphQL, SOAP, and gRPC.
- Managed services come at a high cost and are mainly limited to DDoS protection.
- Incorporating non-Azure services might involve additional work, potentially extending the implementation schedule.
Who is it for?
Azure-native customers seeking fundamental protection against common attacks find value in API gateway security. This is especially appropriate for SMBs aiming to fulfill compliance requirements with a simple checkmark on their checklist.
Azure API management offers only basic security, which is insufficient against advanced threats; robust, multi-faceted security is needed.
11. Apigee API Gateway
Apigee, a Google Cloud subsidiary, is a leading API management platform enabling businesses to seamlessly design, deploy, and scale APIs.
With a focus on security, Apigee offers a robust set of tools and services to create, manage, analyze, and secure APIs, making it a preferred choice for businesses seeking streamlined API management.
What are standout features?
API Proxies
Apigee’s API proxies provide a protective barrier, shielding public-facing APIs from direct exposure to backend services. This abstraction layer not only enhances security but also ensures uninterrupted service delivery during backend optimizations or changes.
Abuse Detection
Powered by advanced AI algorithms, Apigee’s abuse detection capabilities enable real-time monitoring and identification of suspicious activities such as API scraping or anomalies. This proactive approach to security allows organizations to swiftly respond to potential threats and mitigate risks before they escalate.
Security Reports
Apigee offers comprehensive security reports that provide in-depth insights into various aspects of API security.
From analyzing the origin of malicious requests to identifying patterns of abuse, these reports empower users with actionable intelligence to strengthen their security posture.
Risk Assessment
Through continuous evaluation of API configurations, Apigee conducts risk assessments to gauge the security level of each API.
By assigning scores and providing recommendations for improvement, Apigee helps organizations proactively address security vulnerabilities and ensure compliance with industry standards.
What is best?
- Seamless OAuth Integration
- Easy Configuration for Security
- Out-of-the-Box Protection
- Flexible multi-tenancy
- Convenient Authentication Options
What could have been better?
Pricing may fluctuate based on platform scale and usage, potentially impacting budget planning.
Integration with non-Google Cloud services may require additional effort, affecting implementation timelines.
Advanced API Security is an add-on to Apigee, adding to the overall cost for organizations requiring enhanced security features.
Who is it for?
Apigee’s high initial costs aimed its technology at big players like large enterprises, service providers, and government agencies.
If you are already on Google Cloud and are looking for a no-frills basic solution, then Apigee could be a fit.
That said, while Apigee excels in API management, it may not meet the demands of modern API security challenges by default and could also get expensive as usage increases. Therefore, it’s advisable to complement it with WAAP for comprehensive security.
12. Amazon API Gateway
Amazon API Gateway, an AWS service, offers a robust suite of features designed to simplify the creation, deployment, and management of REST, HTTP, and WebSocket APIs at any scale.
By providing a centralized platform for API creation, publishing, maintenance, monitoring, and security, Amazon API Gateway streamlines the entire lifecycle of API management.
In the face of surging API traffic, Amazon API Gateway equips users with rate-limiting capabilities to prevent their APIs from being overwhelmed by excessive requests.
What are the standout features?
Authentication And Authorization
Amazon API Gateway uses AWS IAM policies and Amazon Cognito user pools for authentication, along with Lambda functions for custom authorization.
This allows precise control over who can access APIs, down to specific paths and methods, preventing unauthorized access and malicious behavior.
Explore API security best practices beyond rate limiting and authentication.
Secure API Integrations
Amazon API Gateway not only secures APIs but also extends protection to backend resource integrations. It ensures secure interactions with AWS services and HTTP endpoints when invoking applications, functions, or services in response to API requests.
AWS Shield and Advance for DDoS
Recognizing the growing threat of DDoS attacks, Amazon API Gateway integrates seamlessly with AWS Shield, offering robust protection against network and transport layer attacks.
While AWS Shield Standard defends against common DDoS attacks, you can opt for AWS Shield Advanced to bolster your defenses further, gaining access to enhanced mitigation capabilities and expert support from the AWS DDoS response team.
What is best?
- Elastic, self-service, and pay-by-use API coverup in the cloud
- Seamlessly integrate with IAM, AWS Lambda, and other AWS services
- Benefit from API logging, caching, throttling, bursting, and monitoring
- Simplify API lifecycle management
- Easily model and transform payloads to suit your needs
What could have been better?
- Costs can vary depending on the volume of API traffic and its usage patterns
- Predominantly tailored for AWS services, potentially constraining adaptability in multi-cloud setups
- It doesn’t offer the managed service option
- While it smoothly integrates with numerous AWS services, incorporating non-AWS services may extend implementation timelines due to the additional effort required.
Who is it for?
It’s particularly valuable for organizations running services on AWS, looking to streamline API management and enhance security measures.
It caters to businesses aiming to ensure seamless connectivity and scalability while leveraging the benefits of AWS infrastructure and services.
While it offers basic security features, its main emphasis is on easing API management rather than providing comprehensive API security solutions.
13. Salt Security
Salt Security offers a unique API Protection Platform powered by cloud-scale big data and advanced ML/AI. It analyzes millions of API actions instantly, giving you constant protection.
Salt Security covers all types of APIs, whether they are own or third-party, internal or external, known or “shadow” and “zombie” APIs. It ensures thorough protection across various API formats, including REST, GraphQL, SOAP, and others.
What are standout features?
API Inventory Management
APIs undergo frequent changes, posing challenges in maintaining an accurate inventory. However, the Salt security platform offers a solution by continuously analyzing all APIs and generating a comprehensive inventory that remains updated despite developers’ modifications.
The platform automatically identifies and categorizes APIs, including new, outdated, & unknown APIs, while also identifying exposure of sensitive data. It provides real-time detection of both known and unknown API vulnerabilities and attacks, enabling proactive threat mitigation.
AI-powered Threat Detection
Harnessing the power of AI, big data, and behavioral analytics, Salt Security’s platform delivers threat detection without the need for manual configuration.
Further, its OAuth threat detections and posture rules address the growing challenge of OAuth exploitation. This feature enables organizations to detect and prevent malicious exploitation of OAuth flows, effectively protecting sensitive data and user accounts.
Simple Integration
Salt Security’s seamless integration ensures quick deployment within your IT environment, working effortlessly with your existing tools and workflows.
Your security and DevOps teams can respond to threats confidently with detailed alerts sent to your SIEM, stop attackers using API gateways or WAFs, and address vulnerabilities efficiently with actionable insights integrated into tools like Slack, Jira and PagerDuty.
What is best?
- Comprehensive runtime protection across the API lifecycle.
- Automated discovery of new, outdated, and unidentified APIs, including sensitive data exposure detection.
- ML-based approach eliminates the requirement for signatures or configuration
- Out-of-band deployment ensures zero latency
What could have been better?
While Salt Security offers strong out-of-band monitoring capabilities, its inline blocking options may be limited. Organizations seeking extensive inline blocking features may need to consider deploying a WAAP along with Salt Security.
Who is it for?
Suitable for companies where APIs are critical; examples include SaaS, FinTech, and so on. Also, given that this is mostly software, make sure that you have in-house team to manage the solution especially for false positives.
An apt choice for entities aiming to evaluate risk, adhere to compliance standards, and address API vulnerabilities.
14. 42Chrunch
42Crunch is a robust API security platform designed to bolster API security posture, automate testing within CI/CD pipelines, and enforce security policies.
As a no-code SaaS platform, 42Crunch eliminates dependencies on specific programming languages and ensures compatibility across operating systems. Additionally, it seamlessly integrates with various platforms, enabling effortless automation of security testing in CI/CD workflows.
What are standout features?
API Security Audit
Its API Security Audit feature analyzes OpenAPI (Swagger) definitions to verify compliance with industry standards and identify potential security vulnerabilities.
By examining the API architecture, it detects common security issues such as injection attacks, authentication weaknesses, and insecure deserialization.
This proactive approach enables you to address security risks early in the development cycle, strengthening your overall security posture.
Deployment and Integration
The platform facilitates consistent API security enforcement across distributed development and security ecosystems. Whether deployed in SaaS or on-premises, 42Crunch offers seamless integration with core design and runtime platforms, such as API gateways or CI/CD pipelines, for comprehensive security coverage.
API Governance
With 42Crunch’s API Governance framework, say goodbye to manual API management headaches!
The platform automates API discovery and cataloging, leaving no API unnoticed. It ensures standardized API contract management, promoting consistency and adherence to industry standards.
Moreover, its integrated security policies safeguard APIs at every stage, mitigating risks and ensuring compliance.
What is best?
- Detect & block shadow /zombie APIs as well as API-specific attacks
- Calculate API security score against 300+ checks
- Standardized, secured API contracts
- Centrally managed security compliance rules
- Connect to the SIEM for combined threat intelligence
What could have been better?
One limitation is the cost, as users pay for a full suite of features regardless of their usage. Advanced users may find limited customization options available.
Who is it for?
The 42Crunch API Security platform is tailored for teams in various industries, including Automotive, Energy & Utilities, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Telecoms. It’s ideal for organizations needing rapid deployment either on SaaS or on-premises.
For complete security, organizations may also need to fuse and use WAF, DDoS and bot mitigation tools, and other perimeter security solutions.
15. Traceable API Security
Traceable AI provides continuous security for your APIs, ensuring they stay always protected.
With deep visibility, real-time protection, and threat analytics, Traceable AI keeps a vigilant eye on your APIs. Traceable AI provides advanced security for cloud-native and API-based applications through distributed tracing and context-based behavioral analytics.
What are the standout features?
Streamlined OpenAPI File-Based Protection
Handling OpenAPI files was a hassle, taking time away from developing new features. Forgetting to update them left APIs vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Traceable automates the process, spotting and updating all changes without manual effort.
Security Data Lake
Having past data on API attacks is crucial for security teams to enhance their defense strategies. Traceable’s security data lake provides powerful capabilities similar to EDR tools used by enterprises for years.
Users can hunt for threats, analyze past incidents, and monitor sensitive data movement in their API-driven applications.
API Security Testing
Traceable’s API Security Testing (AST) uses its API Catalog to give context for thorough tests. This helps prioritize fixing vulnerabilities and building strong systems.
With AST, you can check your APIs for weaknesses before going live. It gives developers and security engineers the right info to tackle issues and prioritize threats based on API specs.
What is best?
- Supports REST, SOAP & GraphQL APIs
- Discovers & catalogs all your APIs
- Configure policies for exclusion, detection as well as blocking
- Identifies vulnerabilities (API specific/Legacy/Business Logic) in APIs
- Offers deep forensic analysis
What could have been better?
It may lack the ability to provide comprehensive protection beyond APIs, potentially leaving other attack surfaces such as web applications and infrastructure vulnerable to exploitation.
Who is it for?
It’s ideal for those focusing on API development, who want to streamline security integration into their development process.
Additionally, it’s well-suited for security teams seeking enhanced visibility and control over security policies throughout the API lifecycle.
Given the complexities of handling multiple standalone solutions, it’s worth considering WAAP providers such as AppTrana WAAP, Cloudflare, and Imperva for a more streamlined approach to safeguarding your business-critical assets.
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