Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Amazon API Gateway VS AWS CloudTrail

Compare Amazon API Gateway VS AWS CloudTrail and see what are their differences

Amazon API Gateway logo Amazon API Gateway

Create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale

AWS CloudTrail logo AWS CloudTrail

AWS CloudTrail is a web service that records AWS API calls for your account and delivers log files to you.
  • Amazon API Gateway Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-12
  • AWS CloudTrail Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-18

Amazon API Gateway features and specs

  • Scalability
    API Gateway automatically scales to handle the number of requests your API receives, ensuring high availability and reliability.
  • Ease of Integration
    Seamlessly integrates with other AWS services like Lambda, DynamoDB, and IAM, enabling a cohesive environment for developing serverless applications.
  • Built-in Security
    Provides features such as IAM roles, API keys, and AWS WAF integration for safeguarding your APIs from potential threats.
  • Monitoring and Logging
    Supports CloudWatch integration for monitoring API requests and responses, helping you maintain observability and troubleshoot issues effectively.
  • Cost-Effective
    You only pay for the requests made to your APIs and the amount of data transferred out, making it a cost-effective solution for many use cases.
  • Caching
    Built-in caching at the API Gateway level can improve performance and reduce latency for frequently accessed data.

Possible disadvantages of Amazon API Gateway

  • Complexity in Configuration
    Setting up and managing API Gateway can be complex, especially for users who are not familiar with AWS services and cloud infrastructure.
  • Cold Start Latency
    When integrated with AWS Lambda, cold starts can introduce latency which can affect the performance of your API.
  • Cost for High Throughput
    While cost-effective for low to moderate usage, the costs can escalate with high throughput and large data transfers.
  • Debugging Issues
    Diagnosis can be complicated due to the multi-tenant nature of the service and the need to dive into multiple AWS logs and services.
  • Limited Customization
    There might be constraints regarding customizations and fine-tuning your APIs compared to self-hosting solutions.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Dependence on AWS infrastructure can lead to vendor lock-in, making it challenging to migrate to other cloud providers or solutions.

AWS CloudTrail features and specs

  • Comprehensive Logging
    AWS CloudTrail provides detailed logging of all API calls made within your AWS environment, helping you maintain accountability and transparency.
  • Enhanced Security
    By logging activities, CloudTrail helps in detecting unusual behavior and potential security threats, allowing for timely response.
  • Compliance and Auditing
    CloudTrail logs are crucial for regulatory compliance and auditing purposes, supporting frameworks such as HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS.
  • Integration
    CloudTrail integrates seamlessly with other AWS services like CloudWatch and AWS Lambda, enabling automated responses to specific activities.
  • Event History
    Access historical event records for your AWS account, enabling analysis and troubleshooting of past issues.
  • Data Retention
    CloudTrail allows you to define policies for retaining log data, ensuring that logs are available as long as needed for audits and investigations.

Possible disadvantages of AWS CloudTrail

  • Costs
    While CloudTrail's basic tier is free, there are costs associated with advanced features and long-term log storage, which can add up for large organizations.
  • Complexity
    Managing and analyzing a large volume of logs can become complex and time-consuming, especially without additional tools and expertise.
  • Performance Impact
    While minimal, there may be a slight performance overhead associated with logging large volumes of AWS API calls.
  • Incomplete Coverage
    Not all AWS services and features support CloudTrail logging, potentially leaving gaps in visibility for certain activities.
  • Latency
    There is some latency involved in the delivery of log data, which might delay real-time monitoring and response in critical scenarios.
  • Data Exposure Risk
    If not properly secured, CloudTrail logs themselves could become a target for attackers seeking sensitive information about your AWS environment.

Amazon API Gateway videos

Building APIs with Amazon API Gateway

More videos:

  • Review - Create API using AWS API Gateway service - Amazon API Gateway p1

AWS CloudTrail videos

AWS Cloudtrail vs Cloudwatch in 15 minutes | AWS tutorial for beginners

More videos:

  • Review - AWS re:Invent 2018: Augmenting Security & Improving Operational Health w/ AWS CloudTrail (SEC323)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Amazon API Gateway and AWS CloudTrail)
API Tools
62 62%
38% 38
APIs
47 47%
53% 53
Cloud Computing
100 100%
0% 0
Web Service Automation
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Amazon API Gateway should be more popular than AWS CloudTrail. It has been mentiond 107 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Amazon API Gateway mentions (107)

  • 10 Lightweight API Gateways for Your Next Project
    AWS API Gateway is Amazon’s managed gateway service, designed to work seamlessly within the AWS ecosystem. It supports both REST and WebSocket APIs, with HTTP APIs being the lightweight, lower-cost option for simple proxying and routing use cases. - Source: dev.to / 7 days ago
  • 4 Cognito User Pools features you might not know about
    This opens up a world of customization options for controlling app access. For example, we can embed custom data in the ID token for the front-end client to use, enabling guards to restrict content. Alternatively, we can add custom scopes to the access token and implement fine-grained access control in an API Gateway API. All it takes is some Lambda function code, and Cognito triggers it at the right time. - Source: dev.to / 27 days ago
  • Verifying Cognito access tokens - Comparing three JWT packages for Lambda authorizers
    When the built-in Amazon API Gateway authorization methods don’t fully meet our needs, we can set up Lambda authorizers to manage the access control process. Even when using Cognito user pools and Cognito access tokens, there may still be a need for custom authorization logic. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Implementing advanced authorization with AWS Lambda for endpoint-specific access
    The API Gateway includes an endpoint structured like this:. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Turning APIs into Revenue: Passive Income Strategies for Developers
    Amazon Web Services exemplifies this approach with automatic volume discounts that encourage increased usage while maximizing revenue at each consumption level. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
View more

AWS CloudTrail mentions (15)

  • Strengthening Security and Compliance in AWS Cloud Services & The Essential Role of AI Verification.
    AWS CloudTrail AWS IAM: A service that allows you to manage access to AWS services and resources securely. https://aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Serverless AWS Account Watcher
    All actions in your account get recorded in the AWS CloudTrail application in AWS. This trail of everything that happens in your account will likely have a huge number of entries in it as it records pretty much everything that happens in your account. You can do queries on it and also download the logs and perform whatever processing you wish. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Programmatically reacting to S3 bucket external access exposures
    It uses CloudTrail events up to 90 days in the past and creates a tailor-made policy for the role based on the activity. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • AWS Security Survival Kit
    We know that CloudTrail is the bare minimum service to activate on a newly created AWS Account to track all activities on your AWS account. It helps, but this will not alert you to suspicious activities by itself. You still have to check periodically if something has gone wrong in multiple services and the console. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Receiving Slack notifications when CloudTrail logging gets turned off
    Amazon CloudTrail is the surveillance camera for our accounts. It records every API call that any users or roles make. If we have multiple accounts set up in AWS Organizations, we can create a central trail in the management account. We can then enable logging to all accounts and all regions. Or, if we use Control Tower to set up the account structure, we don't need to do anything because it will automatically... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Amazon API Gateway and AWS CloudTrail, you can also consider the following products

AWS Lambda - Automatic, event-driven compute service

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

DreamFactory - DreamFactory is an API management platform used to generate, secure, document, and extend APIs.

Apigee - Intelligent and complete API platform

Sentinet - API Management and SOA Governance for enterprises and developers

Django REST framework - Django REST framework is a toolkit for building web APIs.