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What is the difference between GCP endpoint and Apigee? When should I use GCP Endpoint and when should I use APigee.

Any input will be highly appreciated.

Robin Varghese
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3 Answers3

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Basically, both product do the same thing. But they are very different.

First, Endpoint, is integrated to App Engine and can be deployed elsewhere, like on Cloud Run. Endpoint has the basic features of an Endpoint Proxy: authentication, API key validation, JSON to gRPC transcoding, API monitoring, tracing and logging. Endpoint is free (or you pay only the Cloud Run when you deploy on it)

Apigee do the same things, but with more advance features, like quota, billing, request pre and post processing,... In addition, it has the capability to connect APIs that differ than REST and gRPC and thus can be integrated with a legacy application and allow it to expose API even if it hasn't designed for. Apigee is EXPENSIVE, but POWERFUL!

All depends on your use case, and your money!

Mark Watney
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guillaume blaquiere
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  • I learned a big difference today, in GCP documentation, Cloud Endpoint is neither listed in HIPPA compliance nor in PCI compliance. However, GCP has launched its new service API Gateway which is Open API compatible. Looks like it supports GCP's serverless components for now. – Robin Varghese Sep 13 '20 at 08:19
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    For now, API Gateway is simply a managed Cloud Endpoint (same features). But the list of feature will increase, and the service should be compliant with some regulation in the future. – guillaume blaquiere Sep 13 '20 at 11:03
  • I think endpoints also [supports quotas](https://cloud.google.com/endpoints/docs/openapi/quotas-configure). Your answer implies that this is only available in Apigee. – Jofre Sep 14 '20 at 07:13
  • And since the API Gateway is a managed version of Endpoints, it also [supports quotas](https://cloud.google.com/api-gateway/docs/quotas-overview). – Jofre Sep 14 '20 at 07:24
  • Cloud Endpoint and API Gateway support quotas. But you need an API Key to identify the "project" caller. – guillaume blaquiere Sep 14 '20 at 08:04
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For Endpoints, the Service Manager proxy is deployed in your own infrastructure (be it App Engine, Cloud Run, a Compute VM, or non-GCP machines).

For Apigee, the proxies are deployed in their own infrastructure.

There are a bunch of other differences, but where it runs is the one that stands out for me. For the rest of differences, you can read the docs for Endpoints and Apigee.

Choosing one or the other will depend on the features you need.

Jofre
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    A good rule of thumb is to develop in whatever is easier/faster for you. If you are already used to one product, stick with it. It's usually more expensive to re-train a team and learn from scratch, unless you need a very specific feature that only one of the products support. – Jofre Oct 08 '19 at 12:46
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I recently spent a few weeks dickering with a prototype in Apigee my overall impression is that it makes the work of API development a snap. The docs are reasonable, and the web interface is complemented by a management API that seems robust. I was able to, with a handful of openAPI3 specs build a functioning API surface, that interacted with a host of external services, pulling data, authenticating; calling external services to parse and return validated data. Once I got through doing tutorials and samples, it was ridiculously straight forward.

Endpoints is another story. The Docs are a not completely up-to-date for each of the services as deployed. I've submitted a few error issues and been told a fix is in a PR as a result. There are a lot of limitations to Endpoints that are hard to discover as they are an interplay of the way you deploy Endpoints (CR, KUbernetes etc) and where you deploy the services (AE, Functions, etc). I've had a hell of a time with Endpoints since I had to abandon Apigee due to it's extravagant cost, even at the lowest they could offer my company. Think of the annual cost on the level of a dev's salary.

While Apigee can make API development up and going really quickly, cost is a significant barrier for small companies eager to get going. Endpoints poses more of a challenge due to the limitations associated with each choice of deployment runtimes. That said, the free quotas on GAE and even their pricing models aren't exorbitant.

Were it my choice, and had the scratch, I'd choose Apigee. Rumor has it they are working on something in between the two.

TheMathochist
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  • As an update to this, the middle-ground offering is called [API Gateway](https://cloud.google.com/api-gateway/docs). An original name, I know. It just went public beta and so far, the implementation is substantially less cumbersome. – TheMathochist Sep 16 '20 at 19:00