I need an API with retries, fallbacks, monitoring, and usage analytics. Which ones are worth looking at?

Here are the main API gateway / management / reliability platforms worth looking at, depending on how much you need in one place.

Strong all-in-one options

1) Kong

• Good for: retries, fallbacks via routing/plugins, rate limiting, observability, plugins, and API management
• Strengths:
  • Very flexible and extensible
  • Good for hybrid/multi-cloud
  • Large ecosystem
• Watch for:
  • Can take some effort to operate and tune

2) Apigee (Google Cloud)

• Good for: enterprise API management, analytics, quotas, policies, monitoring
• Strengths:
  • Strong analytics and governance
  • Great for large orgs with many APIs and teams
• Watch for:
  • Usually more expensive and heavier-weight

3) Azure API Management

• Good for: retries/policies, monitoring, analytics, auth, versioning, developer portal
• Strengths:
  • Best if you’re already on Azure
  • Nice built-in policy framework
• Watch for:
  • Less attractive if you’re not in Azure

4) AWS API Gateway + CloudWatch + X-Ray

• Good for: managed API front door with monitoring and usage tracking
• Strengths:
  • Excellent if you’re on AWS
  • Usage plans, throttling, auth, logging are built in
• Watch for:
  • Retries/fallbacks often require additional architecture (Lambda, Step Functions, application logic)

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Good if you want retries/fallbacks at the service layer

5) Envoy / Istio

• Good for: retries, timeouts, circuit breaking, traffic shaping, observability
• Strengths:
  • Great for service-to-service resilience
  • Excellent telemetry and policy control in Kubernetes/service mesh setups
• Watch for:
  • Not a full API management product by itself
  • Analytics and developer portal features are limited compared with dedicated API platforms

6) NGINX Plus

• Good for: API gateway, load balancing, retries, basic observability
• Strengths:
  • Mature, fast, widely used
  • Good edge proxy for APIs
• Watch for:
  • Analytics and API product management are not as rich out of the box

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Best open-source / cost-conscious picks

7) Tyk

• Good for: API gateway, auth, rate limiting, analytics, dashboards
• Strengths:
  • Solid feature set
  • Easier to adopt than some heavier enterprise stacks
• Watch for:
  • Some features depend on edition/licensing

8) KrakenD

• Good for: API aggregation and composition, high performance
• Strengths:
  • Very fast
  • Great for assembling multiple backend calls into one API
• Watch for:
  • Less of a full API management suite; analytics/portal/retry workflows are more limited

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If you mainly want observability/analytics plus resilience

9) Grafana Stack + OpenTelemetry + a gateway

• Good for: deep monitoring, tracing, dashboards, alerting
• Strengths:
  • Best-in-class visibility when paired with a gateway/service mesh
• Watch for:
  • Not a complete API management layer on its own

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How to choose quickly

• Need full enterprise API management + analytics?
  Look at Apigee, Azure API Management, or Kong
• Already on AWS/Azure/GCP?
  Start with the cloud-native option:
  • AWS: API Gateway
  • Azure: API Management
  • GCP: Apigee
• Need strong retries/circuit breaking in microservices?
  Look at Envoy/Istio or Kong
• Want open-source and practical?
  Look at Kong or Tyk
• Need just high-performance edge proxying?
  Look at NGINX Plus or KrakenD

My short list

If you want the best balance of your requirements:

1. Kong
2. Apigee
3. Azure API Management
4. AWS API Gateway
5. Tyk if you want a lighter/open-source-friendly option

If you want, I can also give you:

• a feature comparison table
• recommendations by cloud provider
• or a “best for small team / startup / enterprise” shortlist.