2022 State of the API Report

Postman State Of The API Report Postmanauts researching ontop of graphs. Illustration.

Tooling for APIs and Development

API platforms and tools

When respondents were asked which API tools and platforms they use, Postman led the way, garnering mentions from 89% of respondents. SwaggerHub and Insomnia also posted double digits at 24% and 10%, respectively.

Postman: 89%
SwaggerHub: 24%
Insomnia: 10%
ReadMe: 7%
ReadyAPI: 6%
Kong: 5%
Backstage: 3%
Stoplight: 3%
Other: 3%
Paw: 2%
42Crunch: 2%
Salt Security: 2%
REST United: 1%

Multiple choices allowed

Today's API developers may speak English, Spanish, JavaScript, Python, and Java, but we also speak the language of workspaces, collections, and monitors routinely. These terms have become part of our everyday vocabulary, helping us collaborate effectively among API producers and consumers.

Swapnil S., senior tech lead

Source code tools

In a new question, we asked which tools or platforms respondents use for source code. GitHub was the most popular choice at 65%, followed by GitLab, which was at 32%, and Bitbucket at 27%. Newer names such as JetBrains Space showed some recognition as well.

GitHub: 65%
GitLab: 32%
Bitbucket: 27%
Azure Repos: 22%
AWS CodeCommit: 16%
JetBrains Space: 6%
Beanstalk: 5%
Sonatype Nexus: 5%
SourceForge: 3%
Assembla: 3%
JFrog Artifactory: 1%

Multiple choices allowed

Application performance management

For the first time, we also asked about the most commonly used APM tools. Taking the lead was Elastic (34%) then Grafana (31%), followed by Datadog (20%) and Splunk (19%).

Elastic: 34%
Grafana: 31%
Datadog: 20%
Splunk: 19%
Sentry: 17%
New Relic: 14%
AppDynamics: 13%
PagerDuty: 11%
Dynatrace: 8%
BigPanda: 7%
Honeycomb: 7%
Opsgenie: 6%
IBM Instana: 5%
Statuspage: 5%
LogicMonitor: 4%
Chronosphere: 4%
ServiceNow Lightstep: 3%
Coralogix: 3%
Observe: 3%
Cribl: 3%
Keen: 2%

Multiple choices allowed

Deploying APIs

Respondents who deploy APIs reported using a number of approaches. CI/CD pipelines were even more popular than last year, with 61% of respondents citing them as the most common tool. Following them were deploying APIs in the cloud (38%), frameworks (35%), and custom-built deployment methods (27%).

CI/CD pipelines: 61%
In the cloud: 38%
Frameworks: 35%
Custom-built: 27%
Serverless: 24%
Gateways: 23%
On-premise: 22%
Code generation: 21%
Other: 1%

Multiple choices allowed

CI/CD tools and platforms

When asked which CI/CD solutions were favored, half of respondents cited GitHub. Jenkins (36%) and GitLab (28%) were also popular choices, followed by Azure Pipelines and Bitbucket (22% each).

GitHub: 50%
Jenkins: 36%
GitLab: 28%
Azure Pipelines: 22%
Bitbucket: 22%
AWS CodePipeline: 16%
Google Cloud: 12%
CircleCI: 8%
Atlassian Bamboo: 8%
TeamCity: 5%
HashiCorp: 4%
Travis CI: 3%
Octopus Deploy: 3%
JFrog Pipelines: 3%
Bitrise: 2%
CloudBees: 2%
Buddy: 2%
Buildkite: 1%
Harness: 1%

Multiple choices allowed

API gateways and cloud API management

When it comes to API gateways or cloud API management tools, two solutions stood out. Half of respondents cited AWS API Gateway, and a bit more than a quarter mentioned Azure API Management. Some 11% cited Apigee, and from there solutions posted single-digit figures.

AWS API Gateway: 50%
Azure API Management: 28%
Apigee: 11%
MuleSoft: 9%
Kong: 8%
IBM API Connect: 7%
KrakenD: 6%
Ambassador: 5%
RedHat 3scale: 5%
Boomi: 4%
Layer7 API Gateway: 4%
Gravitee: 3%
Axway Amplify: 3%
Software AG: 3%
Solo: 3%
Aklivity: 3%
WSO2: 3%
TIBCO Cloud: 3%
Tyk: 2%

Multiple choices allowed

Postman v11 is here!

It's jam-packed with updates to help you collaborate on your APIs, augment yourself with AI, and more.

See what's inside v11 →