We interviewed the product managers at a number of the larger API-first companies that are based in San Francisco. The companies are all publicly traded, have TTM revenue of more than $100M and are in the fields of billing, security, communications and workflow automation. The PMs were asked what were their favorite tools and what API metrics they cared most about.

When you set out to build your first API, it can very well be that you are either overwhelmed or forget essential points. The ecosystem for API tools is vast, and it’s vital to get the right tool for every phase of your project. In this article, we will go through the different phases an API project usually has. For every phase, I will list the significant points and tools that help there.

For any API-first company, implementing the right API analytics platform is critical for tracking the utilization of your APIs and to discover any performance or functional issues that may be impacting customers. There are a variety of open-source projects you can leverage to build a complete API analytics platform. Before jumping into building an API analytics solution yourself, you should first list out your requirements and use cases.