Apigee API hub vs Karate
Apigee API hub
cloud.google.comKarate
karatelabs.ioSide by side
| Figure | Apigee API hub | Karate |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $8.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 5 |
| Spec score · API Governance Software | 8.2 (#12) | 9.1 (#3) |
| Founded | 1998 | 2021 |
| Headquarters | Mountain View, California, USA | LinkedIn lists headquarters as Worldwide, United States, with locations shown in Sugar Land, London and Bengaluru. |
| Purpose | Apigee API hub centralizes API information so teams can discover, evaluate, organize, and manage APIs. | Karate combines API, UI, mock, and performance testing in one framework with readable syntax. |
| Support | Google's release notes direct users to contact Google Cloud Support for questions or assistance. | The free tier includes community support, Pro includes priority email support, and Enterprise includes commercial support with an SLA and dedicated Slack channel. |
Plans
Karate
- FreeFree
- IDE Plus$100 a year
- Xplorer Premium$200 a year
- Pro$640 a year
- Karate EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Apigee API hub
Apigee API hub centralizes API information so teams can discover, assess, organize, and manage an organization's API portfolio. Catalog entries can capture versions, specifications, operations, deployments, dependencies, and lifecycle details. Search supports filters and LLM-based free-text queries across API definitions. The hub parses OpenAPI specifications into definitions and operations and can provide linting feedback on imports. It can import proxy information from Apigee and Apigee hybrid projects, with synchronization scheduled every six hours. Other supported sources include Google Cloud API Gateway, Apigee Edge, and preview plugins for AWS API Gateway and Azure API Management; custom plugins can connect on-premises or multicloud sources. VPC Service Controls can constrain ingress and egress, and instance and search-data locations can be selected during provisioning. Advanced API Security is an additional add-on for risk assessment across multiple Apigee organizations, environments, and gateways, with some features excluded in multi-gateway use. The dashboard requires at least five registered APIs. Eligible Apigee organizations in supported regions can use it at no additional cost; pricing is also listed from $13, with a 60-day trial.
Karate
Karate is a testing framework for API, UI, mock, and performance work. Its MIT-licensed core is free for commercial projects and supports REST, GraphQL, and SOAP testing, with JSON and XML assertions and schema validation. It can automate browsers and desktop apps, and combine UI and API steps in one test. Built-in Gatling integration lets teams reuse API tests for performance testing. The Free plan costs nothing and includes community support. Paid plans include IDE Plus at $100 a year, Xplorer Premium at $200 a year, and Pro at $640 a year; Pro adds IDE plugins, debugging, enhanced autocomplete, development async protocol testing, and priority email support. The platform lists integrations including AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Maven, Gradle, Docker, IntelliJ, VS Code, and Gatling. Enterprise async protocol testing covers Kafka, gRPC, and WebSocket, but production CI/CD execution requires an Enterprise runtime license. Platforms include API, extension, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, and Windows.