Amazon API Gateway vs Apigee

Updated November 2026 · AppBreakup editorial

Amazon API Gateway

AWS's managed service for publishing REST, HTTP and WebSocket APIs in front of AWS backends.

Paid

Visit Amazon API Gateway Amazon API Gateway profile

Apigee

Google Cloud's API management platform for proxying, securing and analysing large API programs.

Paid

Visit Apigee Apigee profile

The short answer

Amazon API Gateway suits teams building serverless or AWS-hosted backends who want pay-per-call APIs with no fixed fees. Apigee suits large enterprises, especially on Google Cloud, that need full API lifecycle management with developer portals, analytics and monetization. The biggest difference is scope and cost shape: API Gateway is a lean gateway billed per call, while Apigee is a broader management platform with monthly environment fees before any traffic.

Amazon API Gateway or Apigee: our take

Amazon API Gateway is a managed gateway inside AWS. It offers REST APIs with usage plans, API keys, request validation and caching, cheaper HTTP APIs for simple proxying, and WebSocket APIs for real-time apps. It plugs straight into Lambda, IAM, Cognito and CloudWatch, which makes it a natural front door for serverless apps. Apigee is a fuller API management product: teams put proxies in front of backends, apply policies for authentication, quotas, transformations and caching, publish APIs through developer portals and API products, and track usage with built-in analytics, an API hub and paid add-ons for API security and monetization.

Pricing works very differently. API Gateway has no minimum fees: HTTP API calls cost $1.00 per million for the first 300 million, and REST API calls $3.50 per million in US East, with a free tier of one million REST and one million HTTP calls a month for 12 months for new accounts. Apigee offers a free 60-day evaluation, then pay-as-you-go or negotiated subscriptions. On pay-as-you-go, standard proxy calls cost $20 per 1M calls, and environments start at $365 per month per region, so there is a fixed cost before any traffic arrives.

Deployment options differ too. API Gateway only runs inside AWS, and each API lives in one region. Apigee runs as a managed service on Google Cloud, with a hybrid option that keeps the runtime in your own Kubernetes clusters while Google hosts the management plane. API Gateway has no polished developer portal out of the box, which is one of Apigee's strengths, but Apigee's XML-based policy configuration feels heavier than code-first setups.

Pick API Gateway if your backends are on AWS, you want to pay only for what you use, and you mainly need a gateway rather than a full API program. Pick Apigee if you run many APIs for outside developers or partners, need portals, analytics and monetization in one product, or want to keep traffic in your own clusters through the hybrid option.

Choose Amazon API Gateway if…

Teams building serverless or AWS-hosted backends who want pay-per-call APIs with no servers.
No minimum fees; you pay per call and data out
Tight integration with Lambda, IAM and Cognito

Choose Apigee if…

Large enterprises on Google Cloud that need full API lifecycle management, portals and analytics.
Covers proxies, portals, analytics and monetization in one product
Hybrid option keeps API traffic in your own clusters

What is Amazon API Gateway?

Amazon API Gateway is AWS's fully managed service for creating and running APIs. It offers three API types: REST APIs with the fullest feature set (usage plans, API keys, request validation, caching), cheaper and faster HTTP APIs for simpler proxying, and WebSocket APIs for two-way real-time apps. It integrates directly with Lambda, other AWS services and any HTTP backend, and uses IAM, Cognito or custom Lambda authorizers for access control, with logs and metrics in CloudWatch. There are no servers to manage and no minimum fees; you pay per API call received plus data transferred out, with optional paid caching. New accounts get a free tier of one million REST and HTTP calls a month for up to 12 months. It suits teams already building on AWS, especially serverless apps. The trade-offs are that it only runs inside AWS, each API lives in one region, and a developer portal or monetization takes extra work.

What is Apigee?

Apigee is Google Cloud's API management product. Teams put API proxies in front of their backend services and use policies to handle authentication, quotas, transformations and caching, then publish APIs through developer portals and API products. It adds analytics, monitoring, an API hub for cataloguing APIs, and paid add-ons for advanced API security and monetization. Apigee runs as a managed service on Google Cloud, and a hybrid option lets the runtime sit in your own Kubernetes clusters while Google hosts the management plane. Pricing comes in three forms: a free 60-day evaluation, pay-as-you-go billing based on API calls, environments and proxy deployments, and subscription plans negotiated with sales. It is aimed at large enterprises running many APIs, especially ones already on Google Cloud. Policies are configured mostly through XML and the console, which feels heavier than code-first gateways but gives fine control over traffic handling.

Side by side

Attribute	Amazon API Gateway	Apigee
Pricing	Paid	Paid
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
Platforms	Web	Web
Best for	Teams building serverless or AWS-hosted backends who want pay-per-call APIs with no servers.	Large enterprises on Google Cloud that need full API lifecycle management, portals and analytics.
Status	Active	Active

Verified facts, compared

Facts both apps publish, checked on each vendor's own site.

Fact	Amazon API Gateway	Apigee
Pricing model	Pay per API call, no minimum fees	Pay-as-you-go or subscription