Paying for API monetization is like renting instead of owning. It adds overhead to your operating costs that prevent you from delivering the best prices to your customers. To make matters worse, that’s a recurring expense unless you take control of your API monetization strategy.

Expense is just one of the drawbacks of depending on third-party providers to process your API monetization plans. It also means you don’t fully control your API monetization strategy. Open-source tools put that power back in your hands, allowing you to customize your API monetization plans however you see fit.

Analysts predict API monetization will more than double by 2027, growing from $3.97 billion in 2023 to $8.56 billion. The need for API monetization tools will only continue to grow. Luckily, many open-source API monetization tools can meet these needs. Below, we look at ten open-source tools to aid your API monetization efforts.

Kong (with Moesif plugin)

Kong is an open-source API gateway that serves as a microservices management layer. Kong is especially popular due to its robust, comprehensive features like authentication, rate limiting, logging, and API monitoring.

Kong can be extended with plugins like Moesif API Monetization and Analytics to support various API monetization strategies. Developers can use Kong to monitor and enforce usage policies, manage API traffic, and obtain deep insights through detailed analytics. Kong’s flexible architecture allows easy integration with existing billing systems, making it useful for tracking and charging API usage. Kong can also be deployed in different ways, including on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.

WSO2 API Manager

WSO2 API Manager is a robust open-source API management tool that’s powerful and fully featured enough for professional applications. It’s a fully functioning API lifecycle management tool that supports everything from API creation to deployment. WS02 API Manager offers a powerful set of tools for API governance, security, and monitoring.

WS02 API manager can also be used for API monetization. It even supports native billing, so API providers can monetize their services through subscriptions, billing based on usage, and other revenue models directly from the platform. It also integrates seamlessly with third-party billing and payment solutions, allowing automated invoicing and payment collection. It can even provide detailed analytics and reports to help API providers better understand usage patterns and optimize their API monetization strategies.

Tyk

Tyk is an open-source API management platform and API gateway with a comprehensive suite of features for securing and managing APIs. It also supports API monetization thanks to its advanced usage tracking, rate limiting, and quota management features.

Using Tyk, API developers can even define custom usage plans and integrate with payment gateways to facilitate billing and payments, making it one of the more useful open-source platforms for API monetization. Tyk’s open-source API management platform may not support API monetization right out of the box, but it can be implemented relatively simply. For example, you can simply route the user to some form of third-party platform for receiving payments as part of the authorization process.

Tyk’s analytics dashboard is one of its strongest selling points. It provides detailed insights into API usage, which helps to optimize pricing strategies and offer an optimal user experience. Tyk is highly customizable, allowing developers to create plugins and middleware to extend its capabilities. It can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or in hybrid environments.

APISIX

Apache APISIX is another powerful open-source API gateway with a deep set of features useful for API monetization. It offers traffic control, logging, API monitoring, and advanced security capabilities. Like Tyk, APISIX is useful for API monetization thanks to its plugin system, which allows developers to quickly implement usage tracking, rate limiting, and custom billing.

APISIX’s efficient performance and low latency time make it capable of handling large volumes of API traffic, helping to ensure an optimal user experience. APISIX boasts a flexible architecture, allowing for easy, efficient integration with existing billing systems and making APISIX even more useful as an API monetization solution.

KrakenD

KrakenD Community Edition is another open-source API gateway designed for speed and performance thanks to its low latency. It features everything from rate limiting to authentication and request transformations, making it useful for managing microservices.

As with a few of the other tools mentioned, KrakenD Community Edition can be used for monetization with a bit of a workaround. KrakenD offers flexible configuration options, allowing developers to set usage quotas and implement rate limiting. These features can be integrated with third-party billing systems to track API usage and charge users accordingly. KrakenD’s scalability and performance make it a good pick for large-scale deployments, which helps to ensure reliable and efficient API management.

Express Gateway

Express Gateway is is an API Gateway built using Express.js, making it useful for Node.js developers. It offers much of the functionality needed to deploy and maintain APIs, such as authentication, rate limiting, and logging. As with several other open-source API monetization tools on our list, Express Gateway supports API monetization through its plugin system and middleware, allowing developers to create custom usage tracking campaigns and billing mechanisms.

Express Gateway also enables automated invoicing and revenue collection thanks to easy integration with third-party billing platforms. It’s a good choice for small to medium-sized businesses that want to monetize their APIs without spending too much money, thanks to its power and how easy it is to use.

API Umbrella

API Umbrella is an open-source API management platform offering various features for securing, managing, and monitoring APIs. This includes API key management, rate limiting, and detailed analytics. API Umbrella is useful for API monetization by allowing developers to enforce usage policies and keep track of API consumption.

Developers can also define custom rate limits and quotas, which can be integrated with billing systems to charge users based on their API usage. Its analytics dashboard also offers insights into API performance and usage patterns, which is useful for optimizing monetization strategies. API Umbrella is suitable for organizations of all sizes looking to manage and monetize their APIs effectively.

Gravitee.io

Gravitee.io is an open-source API management platform that features a complete suite of tools for API lifecycle management. It supports API design, publishing, security, and analytics. Gravitee.io enables API monetization through rate limiting, quota enforcement, and detailed usage tracking.

The platform allows developers to create subscription plans and integrate with payment gateways for automated billing and revenue collection. Gravitee.io’s analytics and reporting capabilities provide insights into API usage and performance, helping developers refine their API monetization strategies. The platform is highly customizable and can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid environments.

DreamFactory

DreamFactory is an open-source REST API backend generator that simplifies the process of creating, managing, and deploying APIs. It offers features like API key management, rate limiting, and detailed analytics. DreamFactory supports API monetization through its extensible architecture, which allows developers to implement custom billing and usage tracking.

It also integrates with existing payment gateways, allowing DreamFactory to enable automated invoicing and payment collection. The platform’s comprehensive analytics dashboard provides insights into API usage and performance, which helps to optimize monetization strategies. DreamFactory is suitable for businesses of all sizes that want to streamline their API management and monetization processes.

Fusio

Fusio is an open-source API management platform that excels in streamlining the creation, management, and monetization of APIs. It supports a range of flexible monetization options, allowing developers to implement strategies such as subscription-based or pay-per-use models by configuring specific routes and endpoints for bills. This makes Fusio especially useful for supporting a wide range of business models.

Final Thoughts on Open-Source API Monetization Tools

As you can see, you don’t need to spend a fortune on API monetization tools. Numerous open-source API monetization tools and platforms are more than powerful enough, even for commercial products. Considering how easy and efficient monetization becomes with some of these tools, there’s little reason not to try out API monetization. We all need as many revenue streams as we can get!