Gravitee API Management
Gravitee — open-source API management platform supporting REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and event-native APIs (Kafka, MQTT, WebSocket) with a self-hosted gateway, management API, and developer portal.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
Open source — fully auditable Java codebase. mTLS support. OAuth2 and JWT validation built-in. Self-hosted for full data sovereignty. Enterprise adds audit logging and SSO.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
You need an open-source API gateway that handles both synchronous REST/GraphQL and asynchronous event-based APIs (Kafka, WebSocket) in a self-hosted environment.
Avoid When
You want a hosted, managed API gateway without infrastructure management — use Kong, Zuplo, or AWS API Gateway.
Use Cases
- • Agents managing event-driven APIs alongside REST APIs — Gravitee's event-native gateway handles Kafka and WebSocket proxying
- • Self-hosted API management in air-gapped or regulated environments where cloud gateways can't be used
- • GraphQL federation gateway — agents routing GraphQL queries across multiple subgraph services via Gravitee
- • API access control — agents creating fine-grained access policies for multi-tenant API consumption
- • API analytics — agents querying Gravitee for usage metrics, quota consumption, and SLA tracking
Not For
- • Teams wanting fully managed, zero-ops API management — use Kong Cloud or AWS API Gateway
- • Simple REST proxying — overkill without multi-protocol or enterprise policy requirements
- • Non-technical teams — Gravitee requires Docker/Kubernetes and infrastructure expertise
Interface
Authentication
Management API uses JWT bearer tokens. Gateway supports API keys, OAuth2, JWT, mTLS, LDAP, and custom auth policies. Role-based access control in management UI.
Pricing
Community Edition is fully functional and free. Enterprise adds advanced features: audit logs, custom policies, SSO, dedicated support. Cloud-hosted option available.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ Management API and Gateway API run as separate services — different ports and auth requirements
- ⚠ API deployments require explicit publish step — creating an API does not automatically deploy it to gateway
- ⚠ Event-native APIs (Kafka bridge) require additional license in Enterprise — not available in Community
- ⚠ Analytics require separate Elasticsearch cluster — no built-in analytics storage in Community Edition
- ⚠ Policy execution order matters — policy chain configuration is order-sensitive and errors can be subtle
Alternatives
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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-07.