What is API development?
API development is the process of building diverse software components that allow applications to integrate with each other, share data and increase connectivity across your organization.
Many applications have their own APIs, but these aren't always enough to create the integrations you want, scale effectively, or give you the data flexibility you need. Custom API solutions give you flexibility, simplifies IT systems design, and enables innovation when designing or managing tools and products.
Custom API development requires careful planning, which can be broken down into stages. Each stage represents a collection of actions and outputs:
| Actions | Outputs |
---|
Establish project plan | - Document opportunities
- Articulate business outcomes
- Validate API data sources and functionality
| - Create API Project Brief
- Collect data source samples
|
Align organization | - Review API Product Brief across organization
- Establish security and privacy requirements
| - Approved API Project Brief functional and non-functional requirements
|
API design | - Assemble API design team (incl. senior developers)
- Create API specification
| - API data access diagrams
- API specification with sample API responses
|
API development | - Assemble API implementation team
- Build custom APIs with experienced API developers
| - Well-structured API code
- Automated API testing
|
API Integration | - Verify API integration solutions
| |
What API development services do you offer?
At SoftKraft we are driven by 15+ years of experience providing custom API development and integration services to businesses of all sizes. Our team offers:
- API consulting - Whether you need assistance with API design, development, integration, or management — our API experts are ready to advise you on best practices and help usher your project from start to finish.
- Custom API development - Custom API development services can help you unlock the potential of API integrations that streamline your business operations and enhance customer experience. Our custom API development services are tailored to the needs of each client.
- API integration services - Leverage our third party API integration services. Expand your software capabilities with open-source or third-party tools, including payment gateways, web platforms, maps, and social networks.
- API testing automation - With the use of powerful testing platforms, our developers and QA engineers thoroughly check the API functionality, reliability, and security and ensure its high performance in production.
Not sure exactly what you need? Contact us to get personalized recommendations.
What are the advantages of using our API development services?
API development requires specific technical expertise and resources, which some businesses may not have in-house. Working with a company like ours who can provide API services on a project basis allows you to leverage the knowledge and skills of API development specialists to ensure the creation of robust, efficient, and secure APIs.
When you work with our team at SoftKraft, you can expect:
- Access to expert resources: SoftKraft is backed by a team of experienced developers who are proficient in a range of programming languages and understand the nuances of API development. We can create APIs to meet a wide range of business requirements.
- Cost savings: Building an in-house team to handle API development can be expensive, particularly when you factor in costs such as recruitment, training, salaries, and benefits. Our team based in Poland offers a compelling price advantage, especially compared to API development and integration services in the US, Canada, and Western Europe.
- Focus on core business: By using our custom API integration and development services, you can focus on your core business operations. We are experts at project management and will guide your project from end-to-end, freeing up your resources to focus on strategic, revenue-generating activities.
- Rapid deployment: We understand the need to get your project completed quickly. Our experts are business-minded, efficient, and highly capable. With us, you can be confident your project will be completed fast.
Read More: Software Development in Poland - Hire Team in 4 Simple Steps
Do you have experience developing APIs for LLMs?
Yes, our team at SoftKraft has experience developing APIs for large language models (LLMs). APIs play a crucial role in AI software development by providing a means to interact with large language models (LLMs). For instance, a company may develop an AI model to perform image recognition. Through an API, other software applications can send images to this model and receive identified objects back from the model.
APIs can also be used to integrate AI services provided by third-party vendors. For example, many cloud providers offer AI and machine learning services that can be accessed and used via APIs. This means companies can leverage sophisticated AI capabilities without the need to develop these complex systems from scratch. One LLM that has been getting a lot of news coverage is OpenAI GPT3, which can be leveraged via API. Learn more about how businesses are leveraging OpenAI GPT3’s API - 7 Proven Ways SaaS Startups Can Leverage GPT3 OpenAI API.
Whether you’re looking for broader AI development services or looking to develop an API to leverage LLMs, our team can help.
What is your API development process?
Our development team follows a structured approach when developing APIst to ensure they are flexible, extensible, and meet the needs of your business:
- Develop API strategy to deliver business value: Our team initiates every API project by aligning it with your key business objectives. We work with you to identify the core benefits you are seeking from the API, such as revenue growth, enhanced customer value, operational efficiency improvements, or the creation of new premium services.
- Define data sources: At this stage we work with you to identify your data sources and understand their structure. We use this information to determine how the new API will interact with these data sources, and what the API's functions will be.
- Evaluate existing tech stack: After reviewing the data sources, we look at the broader tech stack that this new API will live within. We clearly identify the role the API will play in this ecosystem.
- Define API requirements: At this stage, we have all of the information we need to define a robust set of API requirements - both functional (what the API does) and non-functional (how the API should behave, performance, security, etc.). We work with your team to ensure these requirements meet your expectations before we proceed with any custom API development work.
- Choose API data architecture: With the requirements defined, our technical team will choose the most appropriate technology for creating your API, such as REST APIs, Google APIs, GraphQL, or gRPC, based on your specific needs.
- Choose API authentication: Our team will review the sensitivity of the data being exchanged and the parties involved in the exchange of data to decide on the most secure and appropriate authentication method.
- Create API specification: We use tools like Swagger or RAML to create and maintain your API specifications. These tools help us build easily maintainable APIs by generating up-to-date API documentation as your API evolves.
- Develop and deploy API: We implement best practices for API development and use tools like CI/CD for efficient deployment of the custom software.
We believe in working closely with our clients at every step, keeping them fully informed and involved throughout the API development process.
Read More: API Development – 10-Step Proven API Project Planning Process
What to look for when hiring an API development company?
The stakes are high when you’re investing significant capital, resources, and time into hiring an offshore software development team to handle your API integration project. You want to choose the right vendor, but with over 23,000 companies offering software outsourcing services on Clutch.co alone, the sheer number of options can be overwhelming.
To help narrow down the options, we recommend that you hire a dedicated development team that has a few core characteristics:
- Focus on your success: The API development team should be clearly focused on your business needs, requirements, and long-term goals. With this focus, the API development team will be able to purposefully guide you through the entire software development process end-to-end.
- Experienced engineering leader: Look for a team of API developers with a comprehensive portfolio that displays their proficiency and experience in providing API development and integration services across a wide range of projects.
- Process excellence: Choose a partner that has a clear software development team structure and that has an agile software development process, based on adaptive planning, early delivery, and project updates. This will ensure you are up to date with what's happening at any stage of project development.
- Effective communication skills: Strong communication abilities are essential to ensure seamless collaboration and successful project execution. The software development company’s in-house project manager should be prepared to provide the level of communication you desire. When in doubt, ask detailed questions about the level, type, and frequency of communication that they can provide.
By considering these factors, you'll be better equipped to hire a dedicated team of API developers that can not only meet your needs but also contribute to the overall success of your business.
Read More: How to Hire the Best Outsourced Development Team
How much does API development cost?
The precise cost to hire an API development team is determined by skills, experience level, and number of staff you need. Acknowledging the importance of a well-defined project scope and budget, we offer our clients the following as part of our API services:
- Detailed budget forecasts: We equip our clients with detailed cost predictions, enabling accurate financial planning for their software development projects.
- Experienced project management: Drawing on our extensive project management experience, we provide clients with essential budgeting tools and management tactics to ensure their software development project remains on course and within budget.
- Value-driven investment: At SoftKraft, we pledge to deliver maximum return on your investment. Every developer on our team gauges their success by your level of satisfaction.
Ultimately, our objective is to deliver top-tier, scalable APIs that align with our clients' needs and budget constraints, meeting their technical and business requirements - all within budget. We invite you to reach out to us for a detailed cost estimate based on your needs.
Read More: 6 Steps to Accurately Estimate Software Development Costs