Other findings
Versioning
- Most companies version their API, which they do mainly at URL level.
- Companies with higher level of funding or traffic tend to version at header level. Younger companies tend not to offer API versioning.
- 19% of the companies with the highest traffic do not version their APIs.
Lowest traffic half
Highest traffic half
Lowest funding half
Highest funding half
Traffic and go-to-market insights
Here is the split between different traffic sources for API companies. Whatever the company’s level of funding, the traffic shares remain almost the same.
Companies in the highest funded half have 35 times more traffic than those which raised less (between $20m-$85m).
On the other hand, SEO performance is not better for companies with higher levels of funding. (The reason seems to be that the SEO technical performance of an API portal and documentation has a marginal impact on the number of visits to the API portal.)
Companies without public pricing spend two times more on paid traffic than others.
The “Referral” share, as a traffic source, is 2 times larger for companies in the top half of the funding bracket.
Business model and Pricing
- Companies in the top half of the funding bracket tend to publish less information about their pricing. They also tend to use the PAYG model with pricing two to three times lower than other companies.
- Pricing is visible only if the API start price is below $1,000
- Companies that raised less tend to use a subscription model. When they use PAYG models, they are more expensive than companies that raised more. This also applies to their use of the subscription model.
- For PAYG business models, companies with higher levels of funding take particular care over the onboarding experience. For example, they send 2 additional emails compared to others. What’s more, emails are contextual and related to the issue a user might face in 25% of cases.
Product and experience insights
- Companies with the highest level of funding prefer to provide optimal user experience via FAQs as opposed to direct chats. They iterate on the support with FAQs and enhance quickstart.
