Best API Development Tools in 2021

With the year coming towards an end, the entire IT community is abuzz with the new trends and tools which will help the professionals and make the coming year more promising. Like software developers look for software development frameworks, and web designers look for web designing tools similarly, API developers need some API development tools to make life easier.

API tools or Application Programming Interface tools allow developers to build these building blocks of modern applications swiftly and efficiently. Not just the development, these tools also allow monitoring, testing, designing, documentation, load testing, and many other functionalities to have better APIs. If you are also looking for the best API development tools in 2021, this write-up sums up some of the best tools.

What Is An API?

An API or application programming interface is a solution that receives requests from users and tells the system what to do, and then sends responses accordingly. It is more like the unsung hero of the internet world that supports connectivity by allowing two software or apps to talk to each other. You can compare API to a server at a restaurant that connects your requests to the kitchen or chef (system) and brings the order (response) as prepared by them. Today, modern APIs are treated more like products than codes and hence need expert API developers or API development tools to build them.

Why You Need A Tool For API Development?

There are many reasons why development teams go for an API development tool to build the application programming interface. Some of these are:

• Development tools make it easy for both developers and non-developers to build the API efficiently.
• These API development tools make RESTful API documentation easier.
• Many tools allow the creation of mock APIs to ensure the design looks as intended.
• There are code-generators in many API development tools that generate server stubs in any language required.
• There is a large community supporting most of the tools, making it easier to resolve an issue where an API developer might get stuck.

Best API Development Tools For 2021

When it comes to API development, several tools have made life easier for API developers. These tools are some of the best API development tools out of the countless options available. So, let’s find out.

Swagger

Swagger has one of the most popular API development tools among the developer community for many years. It comes with two types of tools - Open Source and Pro. Apart from that, one can also find the SwaggerHub, which is free for all those who are just getting started with API development. There are several questions that one might have about API development. Swagger answers them all. From handling errors to code modularity, and other protocols, this tool would be the best API development tool in 2021 to build a great API swiftly.

• Swagger Codegen, one of the offerings of Swagger, allows you to generate codes automatically in over 20 languages.
• With a built-in code generator, Swagger Hub generates SDKs from the OpenAPI definitions to help the users download the API quickly.
• Swagger Editor offers an API editor to design APIs that need OpenAPI specifications in them.
• Swagger offers multiple tools for a variety of other functions like API design, documentation, testing, virtualization, governance, monitoring, and much more.

Postman

When it comes to API development, collaboration can be a challenge for the developer community. This is where an API development tool like Postman can come in handy. This is one of those tools that help you build an API before even writing the codes. This tool offers broad schema support to import all types of schema formats like RAML, WADL, OpenAPI, and GraphQL.

• Easy to create mock servers with this tool for seamless communication without the need fo a backend
• Workspace for real-time collaboration and a faster feedback cycle with the teammates on the API development
• Easy to integrate with your Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment without any system

Stoplight

Another popular API tool for designing and developing in 2021 will be Stoplight. It offers both an API design software modeling tool and an API designer for making standardized REST APIs for any application. With this tool, you can model and design APIs faster. Not just that, while designing the API, this tool can be used for getting real-time feedback on the prototype. Whether you are planning to start your API development from scratch or importing your API into this tool, you can build an exceptional API with Stoplight without any prior knowledge of coding required.

• It also offers request and response validation that allows the designers to ensure correctness in their API design.
• Developers can find many samples of codes for API development in multiple languages for quicker delivery.
• No matter what the development workflow, developers can easily integrate Stoplight with Git integrations

IBM API Connect

Originally created to help developers build APIs which can be hitched to live code, IBM API Connect is now a great tool for comprehensive API development. What makes IBM API Connect stand out from all other API development tools is that it allows developers to manage and monetize their APIs across the cloud. For those aiming for application modernization and a journey to the cloud, this tool is ideal

• Built on the IBM DataPower Gateway, this development tool is extremely secure and prevents any cybersecurity threat.
• This API tool is built to handle all types of business use cases from creation to management to securing and socializing.
• When integrating cloud services, IBM API Connect is one of the most effective tools in the market for any developer.

Other Popular API Tools

In addition to building an API, there are several other tools that help developers test, monitor, and analyze the APIs. Here is a list of some other popular tools that you can use.

Runscope

When it comes to API, just the development is not enough. One also needs a tool for continuously monitoring the performance of the API. This tool is the best when you want your developed API to run without any downtime. With Runscope, you can be the first one to know whenever your API is not working as required or is facing any downtime or lag. Not just that, this tool also allows data validation to ensure your APIs are returning the correct data. This tool is available for a free trial of 14 days, after which one needs to buy the tool to get full functionalities.

Amazon API Gateway

For developing APIs Amazon API Gateway is a great way to get started. The Amazon Free Tier offers access to Amazon API Gateway where you can have 1 million API calls per month. You can easily develop front-end APIs using this amazing API managed service in 2021. For those looking for additional functionalities and features, the paid version can be purchased. This is a great tool to create RESTful and WebSocket APIs. This fully-managed service allows for serverless as well as containerized workloads. With Amazon API Gateway, developers can manage the traffic, control the access of the APIs, and monitor the API versions with ease.

Loader

For developers and testers that want the test results delivered in real-time, Loader is the best API testing tool in the market. This is a Freemium tool that allows you to stress-test the APIs and the web apps with ease. This tool comes with thousands of connections for load testing your API. It creates graphs and stats for the testing results which are easier to comprehend and share with others in the team.

Katalon Studio

Supporting both SOAP and REST requests, Katalon Studio is one of the free API testing tools that automate testing and development. Its parameterization functionalities allow for better product quality and CI/CD processes. This Selenium-based tool offers a productive IDE and allows the reuse of automated test scripts without any additional coding. Launched in 2015, this test automation tool is built to work with all the modern frameworks. One does not need to put in a lot of effort for its maintenance and can even reuse the test artifacts of this tool with different projects.

Wrapping Up

After the roller coaster that 2020 proved for every industry, everyone has really high hopes for 2021. There is hope that the fallen markets will revive and the digital world would emerge stronger than ever. And the unsung hero of internet connectivity, the APIs, will certainly be leading from the front-foot as products connecting different apps rather than just some lines of codes. Organizations looking forward to building private APIs for their enterprise systems or apps can provide their developers with the API development tools listed above to build robust, secure, and scalable APIs in 2021.