The access to and scalability of cloud-based solutions has caused a real change in the software development world and in how businesses leverage technology. Cloud platforms, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, application programming interfaces (APIs) and other developer tools are all fundamental parts of software development these days and the world has seen an explosive growth of third-party API offerings.
But developers are a skeptical bunch and many are wary of third party dependencies. Therefore, the best companies which specialize in API-first services are those who are developer-focused and offer an optimal user experience as well as clear value to its users in terms of development time and efforts saved. Here is a list of the top developer-focused companies, which make developers’ lives easier and offer APIs that streamline everything from payment processing, VoIP communication, web and 3D app development, and more (in no particular order):
Stripe
Stripe is a developer-oriented commerce company that assists small and large companies in accepting web and mobile payments. Stripe’s platform specializes in financial and business operations for developers. Its simple payment API provides developers the ability to build web and mobile integrations to accept online or in-person payments. Stripe’s business operations platform additionally provides tools for developers to create security systems specializing in fraud or risk management, identity verification, custom reports, and carbon footprints.
See Stripe’s full documentation here.
Segment
Segment customer data platform that helps developers set up an infrastructure for capturing and formatting meaningful customer data. Segment’s API features allow users to simplify data collection, personalize software interactions, protect data integrity, and maintain privacy of their data. Its API provides users with the ability to identify data calls, automatically collect customer information, and optimize data collection. In November of 2020, Segment was acquired by Twilio, another company on this list making developers’ lives easier.
See Segment’s full documentation here.
echo3D
Techstars-backed echo3D is a cloud platform for augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) that provides tools and network infrastructure to help developers and companies quickly build and deploy 3D apps and content. It offers a 3D-first content management system (CMS) and delivery network (CDN) and a scalable BaaS infrastructure and API that enables developers to build an AR/VR app backend and easily manage and publish 3D content to their AR/VR app. echo3D’s platform is specially built to handle, convert, and compress 3D models and interactive content and its RESTful API supports any of the developer’s SDKs of choice (Unity, ARCore, ARKit, Vuforia, WebXR, AR.js, Oculus, etc.) while allowing them to decouple content from production. echo3D sponsors numerous hackathons throughout the year to support 3D developers.
See echo3D’s full documentation here.
Twilio
Twilio is a cloud communication company in which users use standard web languages to build voice, VoIP, and SMS applications via a web API. Twilio’s API offers a plethora of web and mobile integrations. which allow users to send and receive text and WhatsApp messages, create unique phone call experiences around the world, and build real time video and audio applications. Twilio sponsors many developer events as part of its developer relations efforts.
See Twilio’s full documentation here.
SendGrid
Incubated through the Techstars accelerator program, SendGrid is a cloud-based email delivery service designed to drive engagement and business growth. Its RESTful API allows users to streamline customer communication by drafting and sending custom emails optimized to reach targeted audiences, while benefiting from real-time analytics. Their API supports developers to build and send emails using PHP, Python, Node.js, Java, C#, Go, and Ruby. In October of 2018, SendGrid was acquired by Twilio, another developer-focused company on this list.
See SendGrid’s full documentation here.
GitHub
GitHub provides code hosting services for developers to build software for open source and private projects and offers the version control and source code management functionality of Git along with it own access control and task management tools. GitHub’s REST API allows for collaborative coding, making GitHub appealing to developers working in teams. Github also offers students free access to many developer tools as part of the GitHub Student Developer Pack, aimed at supporting students’ education and their early stage software projects, whether or not those projects are using GitHub as their repository. As of 2018, GitHub is owned by Microsoft.
See GitHub’s full documentation here.
Snowflake
Snowflake is a cloud data platform, providing developers with data warehousing, storage, processing, and analytic solutions. Snowflake decoupling of storage and compute functions, allows organizations to efficiently and cost-effectively meet their data needs. Snowflake serves as a data platform Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), meaning that developers don’t need to worry about installing, configuring, or managing complex hardware or software. Snowflake’s Snowpipe REST API allows developers to customize their data file integration and to load history reports in a quick, simple, and efficient way.
See Snowflake’s full documentation here.
Firebase
Firebase is Google’s mobile platform for developers building real-time iOS, Android, and web applications. Firebase offers a backend infrastructure that accelerates the application development process and allows developers to easily scale their apps over time. Their APIs allow developers to test for, monitor and troubleshoot stability and performance issues as well as benefit from analytics about user behavior and engagement. Its detailed API reference documentation covers Android, iOS, Web, C++, Unity, and more, allowing developers to experiment with and operate in multiple development platforms.
For Firebase’s full documentation see here.
DigitalOcean
Another Techstars company, DigitalOcean is a cloud infrastructure provider that supplies developers with cloud services to create, launch, and scale applications that run simultaneously across multiple platforms and devices. By using DigitalOcean’s cloud services, developers can speed up their server-side development as well as their client-side development process, by relying on DigitalOcean’s API which supports many coding languages. DigitalOcean runs Hacktoberfest, an annual month-long event for developers of open source software.
See DigitalOcean’s full documentation here.
Heroku
Heroku is a cloud platform that provides services to create, run, and scale web and mobile applications. By using its services and API, developers can deploy, manage, and scale their apps using most coding languages, including Node.js, Ruby, Python, Java, PHP, Go, Scala, Clojure. Developers can build their apps while relying on Heroku’s container-based runtime environment for configuration, orchestration, load balancing, failovers, logging, security, etc.
See Heroku’s full documentation here.
Datadog
Datadog is a cloud monitoring and analytics solution for development and IT and DevOps teams, which provides real-time information on servers, databases, tools, and applications used in a given system. By using Datadog’s platform, teams can track end user and performance metrics, monitor for network events, and receive actionable system alerts.
See Datadog’s full documentation here.
JFrog
JFrog is a universal package repository and and software distribution service for software developers and DevOps teams (and there intersecting work efforts). JFrog provide a multitude of tools for binary code management, software distribution and release flow controls, security operations, and CI/CD performance. By using JFrog, R&D, DevOps, and other teams involved in the development ecosystem can manage the application delivery process securely and effectively within the organization.
See JFrog’s full documentation here.
Agora.io
Agora.io is a real-time engagement platform to help developers embed voice and video chat messaging as well as live streaming into mobile and web applications. Agora.io’s extensive SDKs and RESTful APIs provide developers with the building blocks to customize and supplement the user interface of their applications with such voice and video engagement features. Agora.io’s also assists with data analytics in order to observe, track, and evaluate the usage and quality of the user and channel events.
See Agora.io’s full documentation here.
Elastic
Elastic assists in making data usable in real time and at scale for search, logging, security, and analytics, and more. Elastic provides its users with search optimization tools to find documents, monitor infrastructure, and protect against security threats and is used by some of the biggest companiens in the world. Notably, their Elasticsearch REST APIs are offered to developers who wish to configure and access Elastic’s search optimization features.
See Elastic’s full documentation here.
Parse
Parse was a mobile backend-as-a-service platform that helped developers build mobile applications, store data in the cloud, manage user authentication, handle push notifications, and more. It was acquired by Facebook in 2013 and subsequently shut down. The Parse Platform was then open-sourced and is community-managed ever since. Given its “developers for developers” spirit, we decided to include it on the list.
See here for Parse’s full documentation here.
APIs help developers are standard building blocks for software development. Over the past few years, the increased access and scalability of cloud computing and cloud-based services has drastically changed the technology landscape, resulting in an increased demand for new and improved APIs for different uses. Each of the aforementioned companies is a pioneer in their field, in large part due to their focus on their users’ development needs. echo3D is excited to see which other developer-focused companies will shine in the future and provide developers with the tools to ensure their success.
echo3D (www.echo3D.co; Techstars 19’) is a cloud platform for 3D/AR/VR that provides tools and network infrastructure to help developers & companies quickly build and deploy 3D apps, games, and content.
