API Architect vs Zally

API Architect is a web product for describing software architecture, business rules, APIs, and AI governance in a shared executable DSL. Its versioned language models systems, containers, and flows, while centralizing DTOs, compliance rules, and operational constraints. From those definitions, it generates APIs aligned with business needs, governance, and standards. Enterprise DSL is presented as a declarative language covering architecture, business, APIs, rules, AI, governance, and compliance. AI systems can load the DSL as an internal model so generated APIs follow business rules and governance boundaries. An example sets a market-specific maximum length for a resource field and defines a GET route returning that resource. Listed use cases include banking and insurance, retail and e-commerce, industry and energy, and SaaS publishers. Free costs nothing for one active project and community support; Starter is €29 a month; Pro is €79 a month.

Zally is an API linter and quality assurance tool for OpenAPI specifications. It supports OpenAPI 3 and Swagger OpenAPI 2, with a RESTful API, command-line interface, and web interface. Its standard configuration checks APIs against Zalando’s RESTful Guidelines, and the project says it can also be used out of the box by others. Teams can enable or disable server-side rules, configure some existing rules, or implement their own in Kotlin. An API definition can use the x-zally-ignore extension to disable rules for that API. The web interface lists implemented rules and can lint external files and API definitions in its online editor. The project describes starting the web UI, server, and database together using Docker Compose. It also lists an unofficial Zally Maven Plugin integration. Maintained by Zalando, Zally is offered under an MIT license with an exception. Its Open source plan costs nothing.