The 5 Top API Security Tools

To deliver robust API security, vendors are developing dedicated tools that focus on protecting organizations from API attacks. With many API security tools now on the market, how do you know which solution delivers the best protection for your business?

Top 5 API Security Tools for 2025

#1. Check Point CloudGuard WAF

A comprehensive cloud security solution, Check Point CloudGuard WAF uses contextual AI analysis to protect web applications and APIs. CloudGuard tracks and adapts to real-time user behavior to identify both known and unknown threats, including zero-day vulnerabilities.

While many API security tools rely on updating signature databases, CloudGuard’s AI-based, prevention-first approach simplifies and enhances protection. Removing the need to finetune API security testing based on the latest signatures and improving accuracy for fewer false positives.

Additionally, CloudGuard API discovery and monitoring provides comprehensive visibility into your APIs. This includes shadow APIs, zombie APIs, rogue APIs, and deprecated endpoints to reduce the risk of data breaches.

Key Features:

• Contextual AI-powered API security tool that doesn’t rely on signatures to protect against known and unknown threats.
• API discovery and analysis to identify vulnerabilities.
• Identifies new APIs and changes in real-time to reduce API drift and eliminate gaps in security.
• Inbuilt bot and DDoS prevention capabilities to stop automated attacks.

• Easy-to-use configuration wizard with customization options and automated API discovery and monitoring.

Pros:

• No longer rely on finetuning and manually updating threat signature databases.
• Get AI-powered protection and behavioral analysis that can accurately identify both known and unknown threats.
• Comprehensive API visibility with the ability to identify and monitor all your APIs.
• Real-time monitoring delivers immediate insights and responds to threats before they escalate.
• Integrate with existing IT infrastructure while tailoring protection to your needs with customizable deployment and security rules

Cons:

• Flexible deployment options can lead to complex configurations.
• A small number of false positives still occur.

#2. Cloudflare API Gateway

Cloudflare API Gateway is built on top of the company’s global network to automatically discover, validate, and protect API endpoints while maintaining performance. With protections against common API security risks, including zero-day exploits, data loss, and authentication abuse, Cloudflare API Gateway also enables positive security models by only accepting traffic conforming to your API schema.

Cloudflare API protection is consolidated onto a single platform with inventory, policy management, analytics, and reporting capabilities. The API Gateway is part of Cloudflare’s broader application security portfolio, which includes additional functionality such as DDoS protection and supply chain protections.

Key Features:

• • Automatically identifies API endpoints with continuous monitoring, including shadow APIs.
  • Documents all public APIs in use, even if they are unsecured or unmanaged.
  • Protection against common API threats, including the OWASP Top 10 API security risks.

• Continuous scanning and API security testing of response payloads to ensure sensitive data is not exfiltrated.

Pros:

• Rate limiting for bot protection while keeping low latency to prevent performance impact.
• Automated API discovery simplifies cataloging and managing API endpoints, even if they are unmanaged.
• Quickly implement a positive security model to block any traffic that doesn’t match your API schema.

Cons:

• Implementation has a steep learning curve requiring an understanding of API gateways and Cloudfare products.

• Limited documentation, including a lack of detail for some of the security tool’s advanced features.

#3. Postman

Postman is one of the most popular open-source API security tools available. Primarily an API building and testing tool, Postman also offers security capabilities. Users can write scripts for API security testing, including authentication and encryption, and automate scans to flag potential problems. These tests can also be integrated into CI/CD pipelines.

One of the biggest benefits of Postman as an open-source API security tool is the opportunity for collaboration. Teams can collaborate at each stage of API development, including sharing API requests for testing and reusing others’ examples.

Key Features:

• Builds APIs and automates manual API security testing.
• Simulates how API endpoints respond to different requests, checking security and performance.
• Integrates API tests into the CI/CD pipeline.

• Easy collaboration features such as version control.

Pros:

• Automate your API test scripts to check security.
• Seamlessly integrate API security testing into your development process.

• Offers video tutorials and documentation to learn how to use with strong support and resources from the open-source community.

Cons:

• Does not provide API posture or API runtime protection capabilities and must be integrated with other solutions for complete coverage.
• Targets developers with more in-depth knowledge of API building and testing.
• Lacks some of the advanced security features seen in proprietary API security tools.

#4. Google Apigee API Management

A comprehensive tool for managing your APIs, Apigee offers a vast array of security features to protect and analyze APIs on Google Cloud. Apigee facilitates the design, testing, deployment, and monitoring of APIs, allowing you to track traffic, error rates, and response times. The platform utilizes API proxies that decouple public-facing APIs from the backend so apps can keep making requests even if you make changes to the underlying code.

Key Features:

• Large number of API security features covering authentication, encryption, and more.
• Controls API traffic and meter usage to prevent bot attacks through rate limiting while also ensuring optimal resource usage.
• Analytics and monitoring tools to understand API usage patterns and identify anomalies.

Pros:

• High-granularity monitoring and tracking for a detailed and comprehensive view of API traffic.
• Simple to set up and start designing APIs.
• High scalability for enterprises looking to grow.

Cons:

• Primarily aimed at customers building larger and more complex applications.
• Designed for Google Cloud and may require additional effort to integrate with other providers.

#5. Akamai API Security

Akamai’s API security tool provides full API visibility with enhanced protections through real-time analysis and continuous API vulnerability scanning. The platform identifies potential API vulnerabilities and misconfigurations (including the OWASP top 10) while also performing behavioral analysis to spot attacks quicker.

Key Features:

• Continuously discovers new APIs for complete coverage, including shadow, zombie, and rogue APIs.
• Visibility capabilities that show who can access an API and what data it has access to
• Contextual, behavioral analysis to spot suspicious activity.
• Integrates with existing infrastructure, including API gateways, load balancers, and WAFs.

Pros:

• Visualization tools to better understand your API traffic flows, business logic, and physical network.

• Continuous monitoring features help ensure compliance.

• The ability to develop faster remediation workflows.

• Integrate API security testing into existing CI/CD pipelines.

Cons:

• The platform can be complex to configure.
• Latency concerns reported during high-traffic periods.
• A lack of budget-friendly pricing options for smaller operations.