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Apiary vs Gelato.io vs Swagger UI: What are the differences?
- Key Differences - Supported Formats: One of the key differences between Apiary and Gelato.io is that Apiary supports API Blueprint and Swagger formats, while Gelato.io only supports OpenAPI (formerly known as Swagger). Swagger UI, on the other hand, supports Swagger (OpenAPI) Specification format for documenting APIs.
- Key Differences - Collaboration Features: Apiary provides robust features for team collaboration such as branching, versioning, and commenting on API designs, which are not as extensively supported in Gelato.io. Swagger UI, on the other hand, does not offer built-in collaboration features like Apiary.
- Key Differences - Mock Servers: Gelato.io offers a built-in feature for generating mock servers based on API designs, allowing developers to simulate API responses easily. Apiary also provides a mock server feature, but Swagger UI does not have native support for generating mock servers directly.
- Key Differences - Documentation Customization: Apiary and Gelato.io provide more extensive options for customizing the look and feel of API documentation compared to Swagger UI. Users can apply themes, customize CSS, and brand their documentation with Apiary and Gelato.io, which is limited in Swagger UI.
- Key Differences - Code Generation: While Apiary and Gelato.io both support code generation to some extent, they may not offer as many language options or customization features as Swagger UI. Swagger UI has built-in support for generating client SDKs in various programming languages from the API specification.
- Key Differences - Hosting Options: Apiary and Gelato.io offer cloud-based hosting solutions for hosting API documentation, whereas Swagger UI can be hosted on any web server. This difference provides flexibility in deployment options for teams using these tools.
In Summary, Apiary, Gelato.io, and Swagger UI offer distinct differences in terms of supported formats, collaboration features, mock servers, documentation customization, code generation, and hosting options for API documentation.
From a StackShare Community member: "I just started working for a start-up and we are in desperate need of better documentation for our API. Currently our API docs is in a README.md file. We are evaluating Postman and Swagger UI. Since there are many options and I was wondering what other StackSharers would recommend?"
I use Postman because of the ease of team-management, using workspaces and teams, runner, collections, environment variables, test-scripts (post execution), variable management (pre and post execution), folders (inside collections, for better management of APIs), newman, easy-ci-integration (and probably a few more things that I am not able to recall right now).
I use Swagger UI because it's an easy tool for end-consumers to visualize and test our APIs. It focuses on that ! And it's directly embedded and delivered with the APIs. Postman's built-in tools aren't bad, but their main focus isn't the documentation and also, they are hosted outside the project.
I recommend Postman because it's easy to use with history option. Also, it has very great features like runner, collections, test scripts runners, defining environment variables and simple exporting and importing data.
Pros of Apiary
- Easy to use29
- Free to use19
- Traffic inspector12
- Free11
- Collaboration10
- Mock API7
- Dashboard4
- Customization3
- 30 Days Trial2
- Access Control2
- Documentation2
- Validate API Documentation2
- API explorer1
- Clean syntax1
- Provisioning1
- Shared API blueprint templates1
- Github integration helps with collaboration1
- Code auto-generation1
Pros of Gelato.io
- Swagger and API blueprint import4
- API explorer3
- Code auto-generation3
- Good feature developer likes2
- Developers on our API are saying how they love our docs2
- Great API editor2
- Kong integration1
- Easy and customizable1
Pros of Swagger UI
- Open Source49
- Can execute api calls from the documentation34
- Free to use29
- Customizable19
- Easy to implement in .Net14
- Mature, clean spec13
- API Visualization12
- Coverage9
- Scaffolding6
- Easy to use6
- Vibrant and active community5
- Elegant4
- Adopted by tm forum api3
- Clear for React2
- Api1
- Can deploy API to AWS API Gateway and AWS Lambda1
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Cons of Apiary
Cons of Gelato.io
- Dead1
Cons of Swagger UI
- Need to learn YAML and RAML3
- Documentation doesn't look that good2
- Doesn't generate code snippets in different languages1
- You don’t actually get in-line error highlighting1
- Does not support hypermedia1