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Zuplo vs Apigee

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Zuplo and Apigee built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 12 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose 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.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose 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.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • 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.
  • 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.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Zuplo alternatives · Apigee alternatives

5 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Zuplo documentationVisit Apigee documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionZuploApigee
Pricing
Free tier
Yes
No
Kind of free offerFree tierFree 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 modelPer 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.
Infrastructure
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% on Apigee Standard, the cheapest tier carrying any commitment. Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus commit to 99.9%, and reach 99.99% only for environments provisioned across two or more regions with a dual-region, multi-regional or global Cloud KMS key — an opt-in configuration rather than what you get by default.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Free tier

Zuplo
Yes
Apigee
No
Sources (2) →

Kind of free offer

Zuplo
Free tier
Apigee
Free trial
Sources (2) →

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.
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.
Sources (2) →

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.
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.
Sources (2) →

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.

Apigee

99% on Apigee Standard, the cheapest tier carrying any commitment. Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus commit to 99.9%, and reach 99.99% only for environments provisioned across two or more regions with a dual-region, multi-regional or global Cloud KMS key — an opt-in configuration rather than what you get by default.

Sources (2) →
  • Zuplo Pricing ↗

    “SLA guarantee enterprise 99.5% baseline, up to 99.999% on Enterprise”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Apigee Service Level Agreement ↗

    “Covered Service Monthly Uptime Percentage: Apigee Standard >= 99%. Apigee Enterprise, Apigee Enterprise Plus, or Apigee Pay-as-you-go >= 99.99% for environments provisioned in 2 or more Regions with a dual-region, multi-regional, or global Cloud KMS encryption key, or >= 99.9% for all other environments.”

    Read 2026-09-21 · official docs · Report a correction

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

What the free plan includesZuplo: 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.
Credit card to startZuplo: No
Rate limitsApigee: 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-onZuplo: Supported — Enterprise tier, with RBAC alongside it
Audit logsZuplo: A full management audit trail, listed as an Enterprise-tier feature.Apigee: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Apigee.
SOC 2Zuplo: compliance including our SOC2 Type II accreditation status.Apigee: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Apigee.
Encryption at restZuplo: Customer data is encrypted at rest.Apigee: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Apigee.
04.

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.

Free tier: Zuplo or Apigee?

Zuplo: Yes

Apigee: No

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.

Provider pages

ZuploA programmable API gateway deployed to the edge, billed per request with a free tier that does not expire.ApigeeGoogle Cloud's API management platform, billed per million API calls at a rate set by which proxy type handles them.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.