Compare Fusio to API Platform

This page compares Fusio, an open-source API management platform designed to build and manage structured APIs with lifecycle tooling, with API Platform, an open-source API-first framework for building modern web APIs often on top of Symfony. While both tools help developers create APIs, they target different parts of the development lifecycle and workflows.

🔍 Feature Comparison

Feature	Fusio	API Platform
Type	API management platform	API-first framework
Primary Use Case	Build, secure, document, and manage REST APIs	Build modern REST/GraphQL APIs as part of an application
Open Source	✅ Yes (Apache 2.0)	✅ Yes (OSL-3.0 / MIT ecosystem)
API Generation	Manual definitions + generators	Automatic CRUD/GraphQL generation from models
Documentation	Auto-generated OpenAPI	Auto-generated OpenAPI + interactive docs
Authentication & Security	Built-in OAuth2 server	Integrates with JWT, OAuth providers, API keys via Symfony Security
Custom Logic	PHP/JS/SQL actions	Custom within framework (services, DTOs)
Response Standards	JSON (schema-driven via OpenAPI)	JSON-LD, HAL, Hydra, JSON:API, GraphQL
Extensibility	Plugins / action system	Symfony ecosystem bundles and extensions
Typical Projects	API products, gateways, microservices	API-first applications, rich hypermedia APIs

🎯 Key Differences

The main difference between Fusio and API Platform lies in their fundamental design goals and how they generate and manage APIs.

Fusio is an API management platform focused on giving developers fine-grained control over API behavior, security, and lifecycle:

Create structured REST APIs with custom backend logic
Manage OAuth2 security, API scopes, and tokens out of the box
Automatically generate OpenAPI documentation
Support multiple SQL databases and backend connectors
Provide a dedicated dashboard for API governance

Fusio focuses on API lifecycle management, developer workflows, and governance across complex API systems.

API Platform is an API-first development framework designed to automatically expose your data model as modern APIs with minimal code:

Generate REST and GraphQL APIs automatically from PHP models/entities
Support advanced serialization formats (JSON-LD, Hydra, HAL, JSON:API)
Auto-generate interactive documentation and API explorer UIs
Integrate authentication/authorization via Symfony Security (JWT/OAuth)
Use Symfony components and ecosystem for full customization

API Platform emphasizes rapid API creation with standards support and rich hypermedia features.

📌 When to Choose Which

Choose Fusio if:

You need a dedicated API management platform with built-in governance and lifecycle tools
Security workflows like OAuth2, scopes, admin dashboards, and developer portals are priorities
You want API management separate from application frameworks
Your project involves multi-database integration or custom backend workflows

Fusio excels when your focus is on API productization, API governance, and structured API ecosystems.

Choose API Platform if:

You want to rapidly generate APIs from your domain model with minimal boilerplate
You need REST and GraphQL support with modern API standards
You value hypermedia formats (JSON-LD, Hydra, JSON:API) and rich interactive docs
You're already using Symfony or want deep framework integration

API Platform is ideal for API-first applications and rich API standards support, especially in Symfony ecosystems.