API management functionality has improved with seamless integration and centralized documentation
What is our primary use case?
I have worked for Arden University, University of Sheffield, and Nanyang Technological University. For those institutions, I used Amazon AppStream for backend validations.
When working for Prolifics, I used it for backend validations and data creation. In our testing, we had different sets of environments, such as Test, FT, UAT, and sometimes the Dev instance, where we performed validations.
My recent project, DDI (Direct Device Interface), involved a client, Thermo Fisher Scientific, which is a product-based company. In this project, there was a Tune application they had already developed in the desktop version, and they were planning to switch it to the cloud. There, I performed API testing using Swagger and API testing.
I have used automated validations and testing features to support API quality control in my projects.
Automation, using Swagger validations in CI/CD tools, has helped catch schema mismatches early. In one of my recent projects, the backend team made changes to a response object by adding a new required field without updating the Swagger specification. Because we had Swagger CLI validations integrated into our Jenkins pipeline, it caught the mismatch immediately, thereby preventing breaking changes and facilitating faster feedback with automated Postman.
What is most valuable?
SwaggerHub has significantly improved how my organization designs, documents, and manages APIs, centralizing API management so that all API definitions are stored in one location, which makes it easy for stakeholders, developers, QA, DevOps, and products to access the latest version. It has improved collaboration through role-based access tools, streamlined API design, and review processes, and accelerated development cycles while reducing errors and reworking through automated validations that catch issues early.
One of the best features I appreciate about Swagger is the interactive API documentation it offers, which has saved me a lot of time during validations and exploratory API testing as a QA engineer.
For Swagger, I used it primarily for the API design and documentation as it is integrated into the SmartBear ecosystem. It supports open API specifications and helps create clear, machine-readable documentation. With Swagger UI, developers and testers can view the API endpoints with alternative web interfaces. Additionally, Swagger can generate server stubs and client SDKs in various programming languages automatically, saving a lot of time and reducing manual errors.
What needs improvement?
In SwaggerHub, I appreciate that it is a powerful platform for API design and collaboration, but currently, the access control is somewhat limited. I would love to see enhanced permissions allowing a user to comment without edit access or granting edit access to specific sections of the API specification. Better integration with CI/CD pipelines would also be beneficial, making the integrations more native and streamlined, especially for managing API specifications across different environments while avoiding manual duplications or workarounds.
For how long have I used the solution?
My experience with the AppStream is more than a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
During my experience with SwaggerHub, it has been quite stable overall. I have not encountered any major performance issues, crashes, or unplanned downtimes. The cloud-hosted version we used was reliable and responsive, even with multiple users collaborating on the same API simultaneously. However, there were brief lags or slow loading times when working with very large or complex open API specs, but these occurrences were rare and didn't disrupt our work.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SwaggerHub has proven scalable, especially in a team environment with growing API definitions and multiple collaborators. We worked with several large and complex open API specifications, including multiple endpoints, schemas, and reusable components, that it handled smoothly. While we noticed slight performance lags when loading very large specs, it never became a blocker.
How are customer service and support?
I have not had to reach out to SwaggerHub technical support directly, as most issues we faced were either minor or could be resolved internally through documentation and forums.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have not worked with any other API management solutions, as I had limited opportunities to perform API testing, having used only Swagger and Postman in my previous organization.
How was the initial setup?
I wasn't directly involved in the initial setup or deployment process of SwaggerHub. However, once it was integrated into our development workflow, I became deeply involved with it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
While I haven't been directly involved in the procurement process, I do have a general understanding of SwaggerHub's pricing model from my experience using it in enterprise environments, but I can't provide specific details.
I am not aware of the pricing, licensing cost, or setup cost of SwaggerHub.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did not evaluate any other options or solutions available on the market for API management.
What other advice do I have?
Based on my limited experience with SwaggerHub, I can share a few practical recommendations for implementing it effectively. Before onboarding multiple teams, it's important to define naming conventions and standards, and leverage reusable components to maintain consistency across APIs, which avoids tech debt in the future. Integrating SwaggerHub with Git-based workflows such as GitHub or GitLab repositories early on ensures that all API changes are traceable and synchronized with the code base.
Once we finished scripting, we push the code into GitHub so that when we want to build the project in Jenkins, we configure Jenkins to run in the backend and send reports to stakeholders. It triggers mail notifications whether the build is successful or failures, and we set configurations for user email addresses and the timing of Jenkins runs.
The centralized API management location in SwaggerHub has ensured that all teams, including developers, QA, and DevOps, work with the latest and approved API specifications to reduce miscommunication. SwaggerHub supports role-based permissions that enforce who could view, edit, and publish API specifications, which prevents unauthorized changes and helps secure workflows, especially in sensitive, regulated environments.
The documentation capabilities via Swagger UI and SwaggerHub have significantly impacted both technical and non-technical stakeholders, improving their understanding and utilization of our APIs. This has resulted in reducing support requests, increasing adoption and integration speed, and empowering non-technical stakeholders while providing improved clarity for developers and QA teams.
I rate this solution 8 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
It is very helpful with understanding of publishing
What do you like best about the product?
It corrects and thoroughly explains what needs to be understood
What do you dislike about the product?
It doesn't give you different options if paragraphs or languages
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It offers clear direct statements and spelling and grammar
BEST TOOL FOR API DESIGN DOCUMENTATION
What do you like best about the product?
SmartBear SwaggerHub is a platform designed for API design, documentation, and testing, offering a collaborative environment for teams to work on their APIs. It's known for its ability to enforce OpenAPI standards, manage API evolution, and integrate with CI/CD pipelines. While praised for its user-friendly interface and ease of integration, some users find the API testing functionality limited and suggest improvements in integration with microservices and cloud technologies.
What do you dislike about the product?
Some key drawbacks include the complexity of integration with existing projects, potential performance issues with larger projects, and limitations in collaboration features. Additionally, the free version has limited functionality, and some users report that refreshing the page can reset the payload and query parameters.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
API Hubs help solve several key business challenges related to API management and integration. They address the need for centralized discovery, streamline development processes, enhance security, and improve collaboration among teams. By providing a central location for APIs, API Hubs simplify the process of finding, understanding, and using APIs, ultimately boosting development efficiency and accelerating time to market for new products and features.
How API Hub helped collaboration and reduced KT times
What do you like best about the product?
The most helpful feature is the ability to create and edit OpenAPI definitions in a collaborative, web-based editor.
What do you dislike about the product?
The pricing seems to pricy sometimes and i hope if it can be more affordable
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Easy to collaborate and maintain role based access .
Facilitating enterprise-wide API governance and management
What is our primary use case?
I started using SwaggerHub in its previous version, SmartMiner, with a tool called SoapUI. I used it to create mock web services to test web services and create test scripts and mock APIs.
This usage began in 2009 or 2010. Later, I adopted SwaggerHub as the platform evolved into Swagger and now OpenAPI, to create APIs.
What is most valuable?
One of the best features of SwaggerHub is how it allows me to create APIs and control the evolution of APIs within an organization. It serves as a central hub for API design, development, adoption, and management. I can create different teams within an organization and expose these APIs to other parts of the organization. SwaggerHub facilitates enterprise-wide governance and standardization in API adoption.
What needs improvement?
Some areas of SwaggerHub that could be improved include the interface between the code editor and the visual editor, the integration with private APIs, which currently requires an upgraded account. The scalability also needs enhancement, as it becomes flaky under increased load.
Additionally, the versioning management could be improved to be on par with source code management tools.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SwaggerHub since its version as SmartMiner's SoapUI, which began around 2009 or 2010.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
When load testing and stress testing SwaggerHub, it becomes a bit slow to react under extreme conditions. However, overall, it is stable for the most part and has improved over time.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability aspect of SwaggerHub can be improved. It becomes a bit unreliable when the load is increased and isn't up to par with expectations for scalability.
How are customer service and support?
The support from SwaggerHub is decent yet not the best. The response time needs improvement as it takes a while to receive a response.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I used SmartMiner with a tool called SoapUI before transitioning to SwaggerHub.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for SwaggerHub is straightforward and allows setting up a basic API quickly, within 15 to 30 minutes.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Regarding pricing, while I do not have specifics for SwaggerHub, I recall licensing costs for SoapUI being around $600 to $700.
What other advice do I have?
For newcomers, it is advisable to start small. Have one team use SwaggerHub initially, and then expand as needed. If you have existing APIs, begin by using SwaggerHub to test and standardize them. For new developments, adopting an API-first design is beneficial.
I rate SwaggerHub as eight out of ten. It has grown significantly over the years.
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Good experience with swagger Hub
What do you like best about the product?
Main advantage is the automatic generation of client and server SDKs in various languages, that expediting the development process.
What do you dislike about the product?
I could not found any concern as such while using swagger hub.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
This platform that helps teams to design, document, and test APIs.
My API development journey with SwaggerHub
What do you like best about the product?
I use SwaggerHub frequently to create API Documentation.
Easy to test the api's locally before deployments.
Simple to export the code to the programming language of my choice and implementation is made easy.
Able to test API security with OAuth Authentication.
Easy to validate API requests and integrate to other systems.
Easy to copy/download curl requests.
What do you dislike about the product?
Free version has limited features.
Once we refresh the swagger, json payload will be reset to default and query parameters will be erased.
Team collabration options are limited.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
To share API documentation across the teams
Swagger: A Tool for testing my work
What do you like best about the product?
The UI is simple and clean, Provides ease of access to new users. The authentication token can be configured easily. I use it in my daily development activities. The APIs I wrote, I test them using swagger. After I test my APIs through swagger, then I will start integration with frontend APIs. With some additional configuration swagger persists auth token, changes theme, displays response time too.
What do you dislike about the product?
If we reload swagger then all the request body we made earlier for APIs will be erased, we should have a persistence option to save requests. For example postman supports saving requests etc. Swagger Filter option is not upto the mark.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Testing APIs before integrating them with frontend, helps me to make backend APIs strong and stable before I move to frontend development
Overall a good tool to have API documentation and test using several Instances
What do you like best about the product?
Its structured documentations help alot while doing any integerations
What do you dislike about the product?
Its authorization, some time become glitchy need to reauthorise it
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Now, we have a platform which is shared among external developer and they can easily go through the API which we are exposing and can test it there itself and vice versa
