What Apiary does

Apiary is a cloud-based API design, documentation, and testing platform founded in Prague in 2012. It pioneered the API Blueprint format, a Markdown-derived open standard for describing REST APIs, and built an ecosystem of open-source tooling around it including the Dredd documentation-driven test runner, the Gavel HTTP validator, the MSON data-structure syntax, and the Snowcrash parser. The platform supports both API Blueprint and OpenAPI/Swagger specifications and combines collaborative design, interactive three-column documentation with multi-language code samples, mock-server generation from blueprints, GitHub two-way synchronization, traffic inspection via the API Inspector, and CI-friendly automated testing. Named enterprise customers span media and entertainment (Viacom, NBC Universal, GoPro, BrightCove, Akamai), software and cloud (Microsoft, Salesforce, Dell, Rackspace), financial services (Bloomberg, Capital One), retail and consumer (Nike, Target, GoDaddy), aerospace (DigitalGlobe), and marketing cloud (ExactTarget).

Apiary operated a freemium distribution model anchored by a free tier for individual developers, with deprecated Standard and Pro subscription plans and custom-priced enterprise contracts that, post-2017, were sold through Oracle Cloud. Go-to-market combined self-service signup at apiary.io, GitHub-integrated PLG workflows, and the Paw REST client partnership. The company raised approximately $14.6 million in disclosed funding across a $1.63 million seed round in September 2013 (Baseline, Flybridge, Heavybit, XG Ventures) and a $6.8 million Series A in August 2015 (Flybridge-led, with Baseline and Credo Ventures), and was recognized as a Gartner Cool Vendor in Web Computing in May 2014. On February 10, 2017, Oracle completed the acquisition of Apiary and folded the platform into its API Integration Cloud as part of the Oracle Cloud portfolio, at which point Apiary ceased independent operation as a venture-backed company and has since operated as a wholly-owned Oracle subsidiary.

Name

Apiary

Legal name

Apiary Inc.

Website

https://apiary.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Apiary is a cloud platform for designing, documenting, and testing REST APIs via the open-source API Blueprint standard. It served developer teams and enterprises including Microsoft, Salesforce, Bloomberg, and Akamai before being acquired by Oracle in February 2017.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

API Design and Documentation Software

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

API Documentation & Developer Portals (BPAMAOAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

API Management & Gateways (BPAMAOAA), API Security & Governance (Policy, Threat Protection) (HDAEAIAI)

Keywords

• API design platform
• API documentation
• API testing
• Developer collaboration
• API governance

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Freemium Platform Subscription: Apiary offers a free tier for individual developers with basic API design and documentation tools. Premium plans (Standard, Pro) provide team management, private projects, embeddable documentation, advanced GitHub integration, and style guide rules. Standard and Pro plans are now deprecated with custom pricing for enterprise.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Apiary provides a cloud-based API design, documentation, and testing platform that lets teams design APIs using API Blueprint or OpenAPI/Swagger formats, generate interactive documentation, deploy mock servers, perform automated testing, and enforce style guide rules through GitHub-integrated workflows. The platform is sold on a freemium model to individual developers and on custom enterprise pricing to teams, and is now distributed through Oracle Cloud following Oracle's February 2017 acquisition.

Product overview

Apiary is a unified API design and documentation platform designed for developer collaboration. The core offering centers on the Apiary Platform, which combines API Blueprint (an open-source, Markdown-based API description format) and OpenAPI support with interactive documentation generation, mock server deployment, traffic inspection, and automated testing via Dredd. The platform supports team collaboration through role-based access control, GitHub synchronization (including Enterprise), and enterprise-grade features like API Design Assertion Language (JavaScript-based style guide rules) and Embeddable Documentation. Plans range from Free (limited collaborators) through Standard and Pro (deprecated) to custom Enterprise offerings. The platform is now owned by Oracle following acquisition in February 2017.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• APIFlow: Apiary's pioneering solution providing the framework and tools for developing APIs that share enterprise services and data, spanning the API creation lifecycle including design, governance, testing, and documentation.

Products and services

• Apiary Platform Cloud-based SaaS platform for API design, development, documentation, and testing. Enables teams to design APIs using API Blueprint or OpenAPI formats, generate interactive documentation, deploy mock servers, run automated tests via Dredd, and enforce style guide rules with GitHub-integrated workflows. Sold on a freemium model with custom enterprise pricing now distributed via Oracle Cloud.
• Apiary CLI Command-line tool for advanced developers to preview, fetch, publish, and manage API Blueprint documentation from the terminal. Interfaces directly with the Apiary API using token-based authentication and supports local HTML preview and validation of API Blueprint and Swagger documents. Open-sourced on GitHub under MIT license.
• API Blueprint Open-source, Markdown-based API description format created by Apiary for documenting RESTful APIs in a human-readable and machine-parseable format. Recognized as a language on GitHub with native syntax highlighting and supported across the Apiary Platform and Dredd tooling ecosystem.
• Dredd — API Blueprint Testing Tool Command-line test runner that validates backend API implementations against API Blueprint documentation for continuous integration. Supports CI/CD integrations with Travis CI, CircleCI, Codeship, Semaphore, Jenkins, TeamCity, and Atlassian Bamboo. Open-sourced on GitHub.
• Gavel — HTTP Validation Library

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 25,000 APIs created in first year of operation (2013)
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers16 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration14 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• OraclecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 February 2017Oracle completed the acquisition of Apiary on February 10, 2017. The combination creates the most comprehensive API Integration Cloud by adding Apiary's API design and governance solution to Oracle's existing API management capabilities. Apiary operates as part of Oracle Cloud.
• Heavybit IndustriescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 September 2013Apiary joined the Heavybit program, a developer-focused accelerator in San Francisco. Heavybit provides mentorship, resources, and a network of developer tool companies. Co-founder James Lindenbaum (Heroku) and team provide guidance.
• GitHubcoreTechnology or IntegrationDeep integration with GitHub for version control of API blueprints. Supports public and private repositories, automatic synchronization, branch management, and GitHub Enterprise integration for larger organizations.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Stoplight: Stoplight offers a collaborative API design, documentation, mocking and governance platform (Spectral, Elements) directly competing with Apiary's API design and documentation stack for developer and enterprise buyers.
• ReadMe: ReadMe is a developer hub for API documentation, interactive docs and metrics, targeting the same developer-led enterprise API documentation workflows that Apiary pioneered.
• SwaggerHub (SmartBear): SwaggerHub by SmartBear is the commercial home of the OpenAPI/Swagger ecosystem and offers API design, documentation and governance tools that are a direct substitute for Apiary's OpenAPI-side offering.
• APIMatic: APIMatic provides automated API documentation, code-gen and SDK generation from OpenAPI/AsyncAPI specs, directly competing with Apiary's interactive documentation and code sample generation.

Broad incumbents

• Postman: Postman is the broadest API development platform (design, testing, mocking, documentation, collaboration) used by millions of developers and considered the category leader that now eclipses Apiary's narrower design-and-docs focus.
• MuleSoft (Salesforce): MuleSoft offers enterprise API design, integration and management, and is now part of Salesforce, making it a strategic adjacent to Apiary inside Oracle's broader API Integration Cloud competitive set.
• Apigee (Google Cloud): Apigee is a broad enterprise API management platform offering design, governance and analytics, competing with Oracle's combined Apiary + Oracle API Integration Cloud in large enterprise deals.
• AWS API Gateway: AWS API Gateway is the hyperscaler incumbent for API management and adjacent governance, an indirect substitute for the runtime side of Apiary's expanded scope within the Oracle Cloud portfolio.

Emerging players

• Redocly: Redocly builds API documentation (Redoc), linting (Spectral descendant) and developer portal tools targeting the same OpenAPI documentation and governance workflows as Apiary.
• Mintlify: Mintlify provides AI-powered developer documentation (including API reference docs) for engineering teams, competing with Apiary on interactive API documentation and developer portals.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/apiaryio
• GitHubgithub.com/apiaryio
• Facebookfacebook.com/apiary.io
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/apiary-io

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors6 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Apiary