Choosing the right API gateway can feel like navigating a maze. For businesses built on an API-first strategy, the decision is rarely about picking a single, one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, they rely on a diverse portfolio of gateways, each adapted to specific product needs and ecosystem requirements. From managed cloud solutions to powerful enterprise analytics platforms, the selection depends on function. A highly operational ERP system requires a different security posture than a revenue-driving CRM that integrates with external partners. This complex product ecosystem requires a strategic approach to API management.

With APIs hosted across portals, developer onboarding, partner engagement, and API adoption become challenging. Inconsistent documentation in such multi-gateway setups leads to duplicated effort and blind spots, missing reuse opportunities, and wasting developer time.

This fragmentation is precisely why a unified Developer Portal is so valuable in the modern API ecosystem. It serves as a single “shop window” where all your APIs, regardless of which gateway hosts them, are organized in one place. Developers have a single interface for discovery, testing, and subscription, and administrators can centralize their efforts for governance and analytics. External partners can discover all available apps and API products through a single smart API catalog.

In this post, we’ll explain the concept of a unified portal, walk through its key features and architecture, and show how it resolves the multi-gateway challenges. Finally, we highlight the Apiboost platform as an example solution. Stay tuned!

Key Challenges of Multi-Gateway API Hosting

Managing APIs across multiple platforms (e.g., Azure, Apigee, ERP, and CRM systems) adds layers of complexity. Let’s take a closer look at each challenge multi-dateway API management brings in.

1. Fragmented API experience

Organizations using multiple gateways often end up with a separate Developer Portal for each, or worse, the documents are only available via a code repository like GitHub. Each portal comes with its own UX/UI, navigation, data structure, and onboarding process. This forces stakeholders, from developers to external partners, to consume APIs differently across each portal, increasing cognitive load and slowing adoption.

2. Inconsistent API documentation

When APIs are published on different portals, the documentation structure will vary. Specs and guides usually become out of sync, leading to significant differences in integration steps.

3. Limited API discovery and visibility

Multiple Developer Portals make it hard for developers and partners to find, explore, and manage all your APIs. Maintaining multiple portals leads to poor API visibility and fragmented adoption. While users are seeking APIs or apps in one portal, they can be hidden in another.

4. Operational overhead and cost

Every new portal means additional support and maintenance. API teams duplicate effort to manage APIs, update documentation, and manage user access. As a result, you see a significant growth in operational costs.

What is a Unified API Developer Portal?

A unified API Developer Portal is a gateway-agnostic platform that centralizes access to all of an organization’s APIs. It performs as both an external and internal developer portal. Instead of forcing developers to navigate separate portals for Apigee, Kong, Azure, and others, a unified portal aggregates all APIs into a single, consistent catalog. Under the hood, it decouples APIs from their backend gateways: whether an API type is RESTful, GraphQL, or event-driven, the portal presents it in the same format. For stakeholders, this means one effective search box, one set of docs, one signup flow, and one approval automation workflow.

Such a centralized portal not only provides a superior Developer Experience (DX) and partner engagement but also strengthens platform governance. It standardizes documentation styles (converting OpenAPI, RAML, etc., into a common view), enforces uniform authentication (OAuth, API keys, or SSO), and automates subscription workflows across gateways.

In short, a unified portal treats APIs as products in a single marketplace: it provides consistency (auth flows, branding, and versioning) and central control (tagging, lifecycle stages, policies) no matter which gateway actually runs the API.

→ Read more: Why Enterprises Need a Developer Portal Integrated with Azure APIM

Key Features of a Unified API Developer Portal

The key features of a robust unified API Developer Portal with multi-gateway support are:

Unified API Catalog

A centralized, searchable catalog helps to index and display APIs from multiple gateways. Every API in the catalog is presented in a consistent format, complete with key metadata and detailed usage guides. Developers, product teams, or partners can easily filter or search by tags, category, or version without the need to know which gateway hosts the API.

Single Sign-On & Access Control

The portal integrates with enterprise identity providers so everyone logs in the same way. Support for SSO (SAML, OAuth) and API keys ensures that developers use one set of credentials. Role-based access controls let admins restrict APIs or environments by user role.

Standardized API Documentation

A unified API Developer Portal normalizes specs from different systems into one standardized format. No matter which gateway the API comes from, its data will look the same on the portal, also offering sample codes or interactive “try-it-now” capabilities uniformly.

Self-Service Onboarding

A unified portal automates the entire onboarding process. When a developer wants access, the portal handles their application, approval, and key generation across the relevant gateway. For instance, it can automatically issue API keys or OAuth tokens after a workflow review, streamlining what would otherwise be a manual process.

Centralized Analytics

Rather than peeking into multiple consoles, the unified portal provides an aggregated analytics view.

Team Collaboration Tools

Such a portal makes it easy for cross-functional teams and external partners to work together. Built-in collaboration capabilities such as shared workspaces, role-based permissions, and review flows allow developers, product teams, and business development teams to coordinate in one shared environment.

Summing up, a successful unified portal is a dynamic platform that covers functionalities far beyond a static API documentation. It features instant key access, rich content management, unified login, analytics, and cross-functional team collaboration tools. By offering these features consistently for every gateway, it transforms multiple fragmented portals into one seamless API experience for all stakeholders, from developers to external partners.

How to Build a Unified Developer Portal

Building a unified Developer Portal is more than copying links from each gateway into a single catalog: it requires thoughtful architecture development. Let’s take a closer look at the process of building a Developer Portal.

1. Define a single metadata model

Start by standardizing how APIs are described. Create a schema that includes attributes like name, version, owner/team, tags, and lifecycle status. This step will help to unify APIs’ look regardless of their gateway origin.

2. Connect to each API gateway

Develop or configure connectors to every gateway you use (Apigee, Azure APIM, Kong, AWS, etc.) These connectors should pull in API definitions, documentation, and stats. Ideally they sync continuously and allow the portal to push back data.

3. Standardize documentation

Implement a transformation layer that ingests each gateway’s API specs (OpenAPI/Swagger, GraphQL schemas, etc.) and renders them consistently.

4. Integrate enterprise SSO with IAM and provisioning

Hook the portal into your organization’s identity systems (SSO providers like Okta or Active Directory). Automate credential generation: when a developer subscribes to an API, the portal should coordinate with the gateway to issue API keys or OAuth client IDs. This lets developers authenticate to any API via the portal without manual overhead.

5. Build a unified, branded interface

Develop a modern, branded, responsive UI that brings everything together. The portal’s UI should offer search, filters, categories, and documentation pages. Provide dashboards so users see analytics for the APIs they own.

6. Enforce access management

Finally, once your portal is connected to multiple gateways, you need to build robust access controls. This includes setting permissions for internal teams, external partners, and public users and ensuring that credentials are automatically issued to new users.

By following these steps, you create a cohesive platform that abstracts away gateway complexity. Developers see “one portal” while the system handles synchronization behind the scenes.

Who Benefits from Building a Developer Portal that Unifies APIs from Multiple Gateways?

There is no point in investing in a product when nobody benefits from it. Here, we explain which stakeholders gain an advantage from a unified portal and how.

1. Developers

Developers stop wasting time jumping between multiple portals and inconsistent documentation. With every API visible in one searchable catalog, they can discover, test, and integrate APIs in minutes instead of days, speeding up delivery and time-to-market.

2. API owners

Internal API product managers and owners get a single source of truth for usage analytics, version tracking, and lifecycle management across many gateways. This visibility helps them plan roadmaps, eliminate outdated APIs, and measure adoption.

3. External partners

Partners gain instant access to all the APIs they need to build apps or integrations. A consistent sign-up and access flow replaces disorganized approvals and manual invites, making it easier to launch partner initiatives and grow the ecosystem.

4. Business development teams

Sales and business development teams in your company can showcase the company’s APIs as a revenue-generating product line. A single portal highlights available services and licenses, simplifies partnership negotiations, and supports API monetization strategies by demonstrating value to potential clients and allies.

Experience Apiboost Unified API Developer Portal Ready for Multiple Gateways

Modern enterprises often rely on a mix of API gateways, each with its own built-in Developer Portal. Apiboost provides a unified portal to unite and manage all these API products together. You get a single branded interface for discovering and calling any API, no matter where it is hosted.

Key features of Apiboost for multi-gateway support:

Unified API catalog across gateways

Apiboost merges APIs from multiple gateways (for example Apigee or AWS API Gateway) into a single searchable catalog. It normalizes metadata and enforces consistent policies so developers and partners can discover every approved API in one place without worrying about which gateway hosts it.

Gateway-agnostic API experience

Because Apiboost isn’t tied to any single cloud or gateway, you can publish and govern APIs across different providers. This flexibility makes it easier to scale, maintain consistent standards, and support both internal and external users as your API ecosystem grows.

Built-in CI/CD pipelines

The platform supports automated deployment workflows. You can integrate your existing CI/CD processes so API documentation, access rules, and content updates move from development to production quickly and reliably, reducing manual effort and release risk.

Robust CMS for content management

A full-featured content management system powers the Visual Page Builder. Teams can create and update business and technical content, tutorials, and API documentation using dynamic templates and reusable components while keeping brand consistency across the portal.

Custom branding

Apiboost lets you match the portal to your corporate identity. From logos and colors to layout and typography, you can apply your own branding so the developer experience feels like a natural extension of your organization.

Granular access control

Enterprise-grade access management allows admins to group APIs and grant permissions by role, developer, or team. With SSO support and multi-level policies, you can securely manage who sees which APIs and content while keeping the onboarding process smooth.

Experience Apiboost in action with our 30-day free trial. Contact us to learn more.