Tyk vs Apollo – evaluating API management alternative
Have you come across Apollo in your hunt for the right API management solution for your business? Or perhaps you’re using it already? Either way, it’s time to talk about Tyk. If you’re not using Apollo yet, Tyk’s Universal Data Graph will provide everything you need. And if you’re already using Apollo, you can add Tyk to make your environment production ready…
Let’s start with the fundamentals.
Read on to discover how much you could gain.
| Feature | Benefit | Tyk | Apollo |
| Easy adoption | Built with developers in mind, so easy to adopt and use. |  |
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| Self-serve trial for enterprise | Install and use the product at your leisure, to be sure it fully meets your needs before you implement it. | |
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| Supports GraphQL federation with subscriptions (coming soon) | Enables the easy translation of existing services and data sources into GraphQL APIs. | |
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| Next generation service orchestration engine (Universal Data Graph) | Adopt GraphQL immediately with no code and add additional data sources at will. Supporting your business into the future. | |
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| World’s first GraphQL developer portal | Developer-driven solutions that are modern, lightweight and cloud native. | |
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| Easy scalability for microservice stacks | Clear, efficient setups that are easy to create and use | |
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| All Gateway features available out-of-the box | Fast, easy implementation – a better experience overall. | |
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| Native support for Kubernetes, with an Operator that allows you to manage your GraphQL APIs through the Kubernetes API | Reliable, powerful and secure API management for Kubernetes environments. | |
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| Lightweight, ultra-performant, low overhead, cloud native gateway | Delivers efficient API management, without piling extra layers onto your existing stack and adding complexity. | |
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| Extensibility in any language, not just Lua or JS | Implement without changing your architecture or ways of working, thanks to built-in flexibility. | |
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| Licence cost not tied to usage | Fixed fee self-managed licences avoid “per API call” costs, meaning lower expenditure for your business, no matter how much you scale. | |
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1. GraphQL expertise
| Tyk Next-level GraphQL expertise |
Apollo Solid credentials but adds complexity |
Apollo was the industry standard-bearer for GraphQL. It allows you to do everything you need to adopt GraphQL, from developing APIs to consuming them and federating/serving them up.
Tyk takes this to the next level. We cut out the messy federation process and remove the requirement for you to write all the resolvers yourself. The result? GraphQL expertise at your fingertips without adding an extra service layer to your stack.
Tyk is easier to use and delivers blistering performance.
2. Scalability
| Tyk Scale with confidence |
Apollo Great for small projects |
How do you plan to scale your microservices?
Tyk’s advanced Universal Data Graph provides ultimate flexibility. This next-gen solution integrates your existing services into a single, GraphQL-enabled endpoint. Simple. Powerful. Highly scalable.
Apollo’s federation-based approach gets complicated fast. It means you have to add in a whole new service layer or go for a rewrite.
3. Manage, don’t just create
| Tyk Full lifecycle GraphQL API management |
Apollo Great for writing GraphQL services |
Apollo is the market leader when it comes to writing GraphQL services. However, when it comes to managing your APIs and getting the best out of them, it’s Tyk’s time to shine.
If you’re doing GraphQL, you’ll need an API management layer eventually. With Tyk, you get everything you need, straight out of the box.
4. Powerful security
| Tyk Secure, flexible, scalable |
Apollo Harder to scale |
Do you always want to redeploy the whole stack if you change a security policy? What if you need the flexibility to expose the same API to different groups of users? How do you model this with a single annotated schema?
Answer: with Tyk.
Tyk delivers powerful security that scales with your business, as part of our full lifecycle API management solution.
5. Flexible API exposure
| Tyk Easily limit the schema of the upstream service |
Apollo Stand up a whole new server |
Tyk makes it easy for you to manage the difference between internal and external use cases for your services. Our GraphQL proxy lets you limit the schema of the upstream service. It’s simple, flexible and effective, with no need for a whole new server or new resolvers.
6. No-code solutions
| Tyk Can be implemented with no coding |
Apollo Relies heavily on code-based solutions |
With Apollo, you have to write everything in NodeJS. Developers use their OSS libraries to write the GraphQL server, which itself is a bridge to their other services (REST, database, etc.). This means every service needs to be re-created in a GraphQL representation inside the GraphQL server to make it work.
That sounds like a lot of work to us. With Tyk’s Universal Data Graph, you can simply stitch together all of your disparate data from multiple sources. Use the Tyk GUI to turn it into a single API. No new code, services or infrastructure required.
7. Performance
| Tyk Outstanding performance |
Apollo Reasonable performance |
The Tyk API Gateway and Universal Data Graph are fast. Incredibly fast.
We’re known for our blistering performance and low latency, so if performance is your priority, it’s time to talk to Tyk.
8. Support for polyglot ecosystems
| Tyk Seamless adoption |
Apollo Layered complexity |
If you use REST and other APIs in your stack, you’ll need an API Gateway. Tyk’s GraphQL features allow for seamless adoption without the ‘switching costs.’ Why? Because there’s no switch – just organic adoption and transparent access.
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Explore three key steps to managing your APIs.
Find out more about the differences between Tyk and Apollo
