API complexity is a lie

Anyone who tells you that working with APIs is hard is not telling the truth. What’s hard isn’t the API. It’s all the tools, processes, and technical language around it. Some companies thrive on navigating and nurturing this perceived complexity. Others, however, strip away all the noise to deliver solutions that are as simple as possible. Why is that?

This article was created with the help of our supporter: Ease of speaking.

Ease of speaking gives you the tools to create truly developer-friendly integration experiences for your APIs: idiomatic, strongly typed, lightweight, and customizable SDKs in 8+ languages, Terraform providers, and always-in-sync docs. Increase API user adoption with frictionless integrations.

Try Speakeasy now!

“If you’re not part of the solution, you can make good money by extending the problem.” This quote fits what I think is happening with some API tools right now. Instead of providing solutions, many tools present themselves as a way to alleviate existing problems. If those problems go away, there’s no money to be made. So many companies thrive by encouraging the growth of API complexity.

API security is an area where there is an incentive to prolong the problem. The longer companies have API security challenges, the longer security companies can sell their products. According to Gartner’s 2023 API Hype Cycle, API security testing topped the charts. Sitting at the so-called “peak of inflated expectations,” API security companies will likely have two to five years until the industry matures. Today, however, API security testing is navigating Gartner’s infamous “trough of disillusionment,” which shows it’s trying to mature.

You can see the interest in API security companies reflected in the number of recent partnerships, acquisitions and funding. Whether it’s Akamai Acquires Noname, Traceable entry into a strategic agreement with AWS, F5 buys Wibor start-up financing such as LeakSignal’s $1.6 MillionAnd P0’s $6.5 million. There is clearly money to be made in API security. Because it is an area that feels complex to navigate, most decision makers would rather buy a “fix” than risk their reputation and become the target of an attack. In other words, what these companies are selling is a painkiller that doesn’t solve the security problem, but instead provides a way to discover and mitigate it.

Another area where selling complexity works is API management. It started out as a primarily technical area, where the goal was to make it easy to expose your API to consumers. Then it slowly permeated almost all areas related to building and maintaining APIs. When one area became easy to understand, new areas were added to API management products to make the entire problem space bigger.

Suddenly you see products that want to do everything. And in doing so, they make it seem like APIs are complex and hard to use. Because otherwise you wouldn’t need those products, right? After these bloated products, you see a growth in consulting professionals. Their goal is to help you with those products to efficiently manage and secure your APIs. Yes, those products get so complicated that eventually you need help from consultants. But that doesn’t have to be the case.

On the other end of the spectrum, you see companies building what I like to call single-feature products. These are simple API products that offer one or a few very well-executed features. These products have a clear value proposition and provide a real solution to an existing challenge. They are not painkillers. They exist to solve the problem that is causing the pain.

One area where I’ve seen this “unbundling” and simplification happening is with API gateways. Where years ago API gateways were complicated pieces of software, now anyone with minimal knowledge can use them. Most recent API gateway products don’t try to sell more than they need to. They don’t try to expand their footprint into adjacent areas. Their goal is to make your life easier by removing all the complexity associated with exposing your API operations.

The product segment where I think there is a strong desire for simplicity is API documentation. We have come a long way from the days of having to manually document APIs. Now API documentation is embedded in the design process. It is, in fact, part of the design process. A well-designed API benefits from automatically generated documentation. Most documentation products provide tools that do one thing well and don’t get in the way.

Also, the output of generated API documentation is becoming simpler and more user-friendly than before. There is a specific interest in providing the best possible experience to API consumers. API producers and consumers are becoming more sophisticated and expect documentation products to deliver results. I have shared my thoughts on what good API documentation should beI have to say that this new wave of products that I see provide all the elements you need to provide good documentation.

So why do some companies go for complexity, while others choose simplicity as their moat? I think it has to do with the target personas of the product they are building. When a product is aimed at the API producer, the features are often more complex. The product itself compounds the difficulty of dealing with API processes, while not wanting to change the status quo too much. Products that are aimed at API consumers – or the direct relationship between them and the producers – often rely on simplicity and challenge the status quo.

I believe that companies that feed on API complexity will have to change at some point. New products will emerge that unbundle what the more complex products offer. Those new products will offer a more simplistic approach to common challenges, rather than exacerbating them. What is commonly seen as complex today will become patently simple. API complexity is not real. Some companies want you to believe that so you keep buying their products.