# Zuplo vs Apigee

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/zuplo-vs-apigee/

Every value below is read from Zuplo's and Apigee's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Zuplo | Apigee |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Kind of free offer | Free tier | Free trial |
| Entry paid plan | $25 a month for Builder, which includes 100,000 requests and then charges $100 per additional 100,000. Enterprise starts at $1,000 a month on an annual contract. | $365 a month per region for a Base environment, plus $20 per million API calls on a Standard proxy. Pay-as-you-go means no contract, not no floor — calls are served by an environment and the cheapest environment carries that monthly charge whether traffic arrives or not. The most expensive entry in this category by an order of magnitude. |
| Pricing model | Per request, in blocks: Builder includes 100,000 a month and bills $100 per 100,000 beyond it, which works out far above the per-million rates AWS and Apigee quote and is aimed at low volume rather than scale. The MCP gateway, AI gateway and developer portal are included on every plan rather than sold separately. | Per million API calls, at a rate set by which of two proxy types serves them. A Standard proxy is $20 per million up to 50 million, $16 to 500 million and $13 above that; an Extensible proxy, which unlocks the full policy set, is $100, $80 and $64 across the same bands — five times the price for the same call volume. Choosing the proxy type is therefore a pricing decision as much as a capability one. |
| Uptime SLA | 99.5% as the baseline, rising to as much as 99.999% on Enterprise. The lowest published floor in this category and the highest published ceiling, both on the same page. | 99.99% for Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus subscriptions; 99% for Apigee Standard. The pricing page states it differently again, capping a Base environment at "up to 99%" — so a pay-as-you-go customer holds a 99.99% commitment while deploying into environments the price table rates at 99%, and neither page reconciles the two. |

## Where they differ

### Kind of free offer

- Zuplo: Free tier ([source](https://zuplo.com/pricing))
- Apigee: Free trial ([source](https://cloud.google.com/apigee/pricing))

### Entry paid plan

- Zuplo: $25 a month for Builder, which includes 100,000 requests and then charges $100 per additional 100,000. Enterprise starts at $1,000 a month on an annual contract. ([source](https://zuplo.com/pricing))
- Apigee: $365 a month per region for a Base environment, plus $20 per million API calls on a Standard proxy. Pay-as-you-go means no contract, not no floor — calls are served by an environment and the cheapest environment carries that monthly charge whether traffic arrives or not. The most expensive entry in this category by an order of magnitude. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/apigee/pricing))

### Pricing model

- Zuplo: Per request, in blocks: Builder includes 100,000 a month and bills $100 per 100,000 beyond it, which works out far above the per-million rates AWS and Apigee quote and is aimed at low volume rather than scale. The MCP gateway, AI gateway and developer portal are included on every plan rather than sold separately. ([source](https://zuplo.com/pricing))
- Apigee: Per million API calls, at a rate set by which of two proxy types serves them. A Standard proxy is $20 per million up to 50 million, $16 to 500 million and $13 above that; an Extensible proxy, which unlocks the full policy set, is $100, $80 and $64 across the same bands — five times the price for the same call volume. Choosing the proxy type is therefore a pricing decision as much as a capability one. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/apigee/pricing))

### Uptime SLA

- Zuplo: 99.5% as the baseline, rising to as much as 99.999% on Enterprise. The lowest published floor in this category and the highest published ceiling, both on the same page. ([source](https://zuplo.com/pricing))
- Apigee: 99.99% for Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus subscriptions; 99% for Apigee Standard. The pricing page states it differently again, capping a Base environment at "up to 99%" — so a pay-as-you-go customer holds a 99.99% commitment while deploying into environments the price table rates at 99%, and neither page reconciles the two. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/apigee/sla))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Zuplo if Getting an API behind a gateway without a procurement conversation: 100,000 requests a month free forever, no card, with the developer portal, AI gateway and MCP gateway included rather than sold as tiers.

Pick Apigee if API programmes that need policy depth and are already on Google Cloud, with 60 days of sandbox evaluation before any commitment and volume rates that fall to $13 per million calls above 500 million.

Consider something else: Zuplo — Volume is the point. Builder bills $100 per additional 100,000 requests — $1,000 per million against AWS at $1.00 and Apigee at $20 — so the pricing is built for low traffic and gets expensive quickly above it.

Consider something else: Apigee — Cost at the bottom end decides it. The floor is $365 a month per region for a Base environment before a single call is served, against $25 at Kong and Zuplo and nothing at all at AWS — and an Extensible proxy, the one that unlocks the full policy set, is $100 per million against a Standard proxy at $20.

## Documented by only one

- What the free plan includes: Zuplo: 100,000 requests a month, one day of analytics, live logs and traces, up to two developer seats and GitOps from GitHub. No card, and no expiry — the only standing free tier in this category rather than a trial or a credit.
- Rate limits: Apigee: 50 queries per second on a Base environment. Throughput is a property of the environment type rather than a usage line you can raise, so more requests per second means a more expensive environment rather than a larger bill for the same one.
- SAML single sign-on: Zuplo: Supported — Enterprise tier, with RBAC alongside it
- Audit logs: Zuplo: A full management audit trail, listed as an Enterprise-tier feature.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Zuplo or Apigee?**

Zuplo: $25 a month for Builder, which includes 100,000 requests and then charges $100 per additional 100,000. Enterprise starts at $1,000 a month on an annual contract.
Apigee: $365 a month per region for a Base environment, plus $20 per million API calls on a Standard proxy. Pay-as-you-go means no contract, not no floor — calls are served by an environment and the cheapest environment carries that monthly charge whether traffic arrives or not. The most expensive entry in this category by an order of magnitude.

**Should I choose Zuplo or Apigee?**

Pick Zuplo if Getting an API behind a gateway without a procurement conversation: 100,000 requests a month free forever, no card, with the developer portal, AI gateway and MCP gateway included rather than sold as tiers.
Pick Apigee if API programmes that need policy depth and are already on Google Cloud, with 60 days of sandbox evaluation before any commitment and volume rates that fall to $13 per million calls above 500 million.