Google Cloud Endpoints vs Swagger UI

Overview

Google Cloud Endpoints

Stacks36

Followers149

Votes1

Swagger UI

Stacks2.1K

Followers1.8K

Votes207

GitHub Stars28.3K

Forks9.2K

Google Cloud Endpoints vs Swagger UI: What are the differences?

Google Cloud Endpoints and Swagger UI are both tools used for documenting and testing APIs. However, there are key differences between the two that developers should be aware of.

Framework Support: Google Cloud Endpoints is specifically designed for building APIs on the Google Cloud Platform. It provides seamless integration with other Google Cloud services such as App Engine, Compute Engine, and Cloud Functions. On the other hand, Swagger UI is a framework-agnostic tool that can be used with any API implementation, regardless of the platform or programming language.
Code Generation: Google Cloud Endpoints offers built-in code generation capabilities. It can automatically generate client libraries for Android, iOS, JavaScript, and other platforms based on the API specification. This simplifies the process of consuming the API for developers working on different client applications. Swagger UI, on the other hand, does not provide this feature out-of-the-box. Developers have to rely on third-party code generators or manually implement client libraries based on the Swagger specification.
Authentication and Authorization: Google Cloud Endpoints integrates seamlessly with the authentication and authorization mechanisms provided by Google Cloud Platform. It supports authentication using OAuth 2.0 and provides fine-grained access control using Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies. Swagger UI, on the other hand, does not natively support authentication and authorization. Developers have to implement these mechanisms themselves or rely on other tools or frameworks.
API Monitoring and Analytics: Google Cloud Endpoints provides built-in monitoring and analytics for APIs hosted on the Google Cloud Platform. It collects and displays important metrics such as API latency, error rates, and usage patterns. This helps developers in identifying performance bottlenecks and optimizing their APIs. Swagger UI does not include monitoring and analytics capabilities. Developers have to rely on separate tools or services to gather and analyze API usage data.
Deployment Options: Google Cloud Endpoints can be easily deployed on the Google Cloud Platform. It supports deployment on Compute Engine, App Engine, and Kubernetes Engine, providing scalability and reliability out-of-the-box. Swagger UI, on the other hand, does not provide specific deployment options. Developers have to host and manage the Swagger UI documentation themselves, either on their own servers or using third-party hosting solutions.
Community and Ecosystem: Google Cloud Endpoints is part of the larger Google Cloud Platform ecosystem, which includes a wide range of developer tools, services, and resources. It has a strong and active community of developers and provides extensive documentation, tutorials, and support. Swagger UI, on the other hand, is part of the Swagger tooling ecosystem, which also includes tools like Swagger Editor and Swagger Codegen. It has a large and vibrant community as well, with extensive resources and support available.

In Summary, while both Google Cloud Endpoints and Swagger UI are useful tools for documenting and testing APIs, Google Cloud Endpoints offers deeper integration with the Google Cloud Platform, built-in code generation, authentication and authorization support, API monitoring and analytics, specific deployment options, and a strong community and ecosystem. Swagger UI, on the other hand, is framework-agnostic, provides flexibility in deploying on any platform, and has a large and active community.

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Advice on Google Cloud Endpoints, Swagger UI

StackShare

May 1, 2019

Needs advice

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?"

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Detailed Comparison

Google Cloud Endpoints	Swagger UI
An NGINX-based proxy and distributed architecture give unparalleled performance and scalability. Using an Open API Specification or one of our API frameworks, Cloud Endpoints gives you the tools you need for every phase of API development and provides insight with Google Cloud Monitoring, Cloud Trace, Google Cloud Logging and Cloud Trace.	Swagger UI is a dependency-free collection of HTML, Javascript, and CSS assets that dynamically generate beautiful documentation and sandbox from a Swagger-compliant API
-	The UI works in any development environment, be it locally or in the web;Allow end developers to effortlessly interact and try out every single operation your API exposes for easy consumption;Quickly find and work with resources and endpoints with neatly categorized documentation;Cater to every possible scenario with Swagger UI working in all major browsers
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 28.3K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 9.2K
Stacks 36	Stacks 2.1K
Followers 149	Followers 1.8K
Votes 1	Votes 207
Pros & Cons
Pros 1 Android Integration	Pros 49 Open Source 34 Can execute api calls from the documentation 29 Free to use 19 Customizable 14 Easy to implement in .Net Cons 3 Need to learn YAML and RAML 2 Documentation doesn't look that good 1 You don’t actually get in-line error highlighting 1 Doesn't generate code snippets in different languages 1 Does not support hypermedia
Integrations
Google App Engine Google Compute Engine Google Kubernetes Engine	Node.js Git Microsoft Edge Safari Firefox Google Chrome

What are some alternatives to Google Cloud Endpoints, Swagger UI?

Postman

It is the only complete API development environment, used by nearly five million developers and more than 100,000 companies worldwide.

Paw

Paw is a full-featured and beautifully designed Mac app that makes interaction with REST services delightful. Either you are an API maker or consumer, Paw helps you build HTTP requests, inspect the server's response and even generate client code.

Apiary

It takes more than a simple HTML page to thrill your API users. The right tools take weeks of development. Weeks that apiary.io saves.

Karate DSL

Combines API test-automation, mocks and performance-testing into a single, unified framework. The BDD syntax popularized by Cucumber is language-neutral, and easy for even non-programmers. Besides powerful JSON & XML assertions, you can run tests in parallel for speed - which is critical for HTTP API testing.

ReadMe.io

It is an easy-to-use tool to help you build out documentation! Each documentation site that you publish is a project where there is space for documentation, interactive API reference guides, a changelog, and much more.

Appwrite

Appwrite's open-source platform lets you add Auth, DBs, Functions and Storage to your product and build any application at any scale, own your data, and use your preferred coding languages and tools.

Runscope

Keep tabs on all aspects of your API's performance with uptime monitoring, integration testing, logging and real-time monitoring.

Insomnia REST Client

Insomnia is a powerful REST API Client with cookie management, environment variables, code generation, and authentication for Mac, Window, and Linux.

RAML

RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML) makes it easy to manage the whole API lifecycle from design to sharing. It's concise - you only write what you need to define - and reusable. It is machine readable API design that is actually human friendly.

Docusaurus

Docusaurus is a project for easily building, deploying, and maintaining open source project websites.

Related Comparisons

Google Cloud Endpoints vs Swagger UI: What are the differences?

Google Cloud Endpoints and Swagger UI are both tools used for documenting and testing APIs. However, there are key differences between the two that developers should be aware of.

Framework Support: Google Cloud Endpoints is specifically designed for building APIs on the Google Cloud Platform. It provides seamless integration with other Google Cloud services such as App Engine, Compute Engine, and Cloud Functions. On the other hand, Swagger UI is a framework-agnostic tool that can be used with any API implementation, regardless of the platform or programming language.
Code Generation: Google Cloud Endpoints offers built-in code generation capabilities. It can automatically generate client libraries for Android, iOS, JavaScript, and other platforms based on the API specification. This simplifies the process of consuming the API for developers working on different client applications. Swagger UI, on the other hand, does not provide this feature out-of-the-box. Developers have to rely on third-party code generators or manually implement client libraries based on the Swagger specification.
Authentication and Authorization: Google Cloud Endpoints integrates seamlessly with the authentication and authorization mechanisms provided by Google Cloud Platform. It supports authentication using OAuth 2.0 and provides fine-grained access control using Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies. Swagger UI, on the other hand, does not natively support authentication and authorization. Developers have to implement these mechanisms themselves or rely on other tools or frameworks.
API Monitoring and Analytics: Google Cloud Endpoints provides built-in monitoring and analytics for APIs hosted on the Google Cloud Platform. It collects and displays important metrics such as API latency, error rates, and usage patterns. This helps developers in identifying performance bottlenecks and optimizing their APIs. Swagger UI does not include monitoring and analytics capabilities. Developers have to rely on separate tools or services to gather and analyze API usage data.
Deployment Options: Google Cloud Endpoints can be easily deployed on the Google Cloud Platform. It supports deployment on Compute Engine, App Engine, and Kubernetes Engine, providing scalability and reliability out-of-the-box. Swagger UI, on the other hand, does not provide specific deployment options. Developers have to host and manage the Swagger UI documentation themselves, either on their own servers or using third-party hosting solutions.
Community and Ecosystem: Google Cloud Endpoints is part of the larger Google Cloud Platform ecosystem, which includes a wide range of developer tools, services, and resources. It has a strong and active community of developers and provides extensive documentation, tutorials, and support. Swagger UI, on the other hand, is part of the Swagger tooling ecosystem, which also includes tools like Swagger Editor and Swagger Codegen. It has a large and vibrant community as well, with extensive resources and support available.

Google Cloud Endpoints vs Swagger UI

Overview