API development tools allow users to design, build, simulate, and fully test the functionality of their custom-built application programming interfaces (APIs) in a secure environment. These tools help the user with the pre-production requirements for APIs by enabling developers to ideate, set design guidelines, and ultimately build and test APIs under one dashboard. Once an API is published, developers use API management tools to govern it. Some API marketplace solutions contain tools for editing APIs, but those tools are less focused on developing and managing an API and are more focused on choosing external APIs to benefit the actual product.
To qualify for inclusion in the API Development category, a product must:
Provide native tools to design and develop APIs
Allow parallel development and team-wide visibility throughout the development process
Provide simulation and testing capabilities for pre-production APIs