Decoding the Differences between Embedded iPaaS and Unified APIs

Our digital lives, whether as individuals or as employees of a business, are increasingly dominated by software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms. These provide solutions for anything from human resource management, sales management, finance and accounting, and communications. In this environment, there is an increasing trend for organizations to buy products that easily integrate with others, which in turn is resulting in an ever-increasing interconnectedness of platforms. The 2023 Gartner Global Software Buying Trends report points to integration potential being the third most important factor in software purchasing decisions.

Our integration needs are therefore greater than ever and the choice of how to integrate to multiple SaaS platforms from the applications we build is increasingly important. Two integration styles have become significant in this context: Embedded iPaaS and Unified APIs.

What is Embedded iPaaS?

Embedded iPaaS is a variant of integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS), which has become popular alongside the general growth of cloud-based platforms. iPaaS offers a cloud-based, centralized mechanism for executing integration workflows that makes for a flexible infrastructure, rapidly integrating with SaaS solutions through pre-built "connectors". Embedded iPaaS offers this same functionality, but allows customers to build complex, multi-step workflows that can be bundled with applications and used by their end users. Application users can therefore authorize access to their data, providing an abstraction that makes workflows reusable across the user base. Examples of Embedded iPaaS vendors include vendors such as Paragon, Workato, and Tray.

What are Unified APIs?

Unified APIs provide the same integration features as Embedded iPaaS, but through an alternative architectural style. While Embedded iPaaS offers connectors for each supported SaaS platform, Unified APIs provide a single API instead, which allows access to many SaaS providers through connectors hosted by the Unified API provider. The interface is normalized, so all requests and responses use the same properties. Users of Unified APIs then integrate through one API to any SaaS platform supported by the Unified API provider, with API operations grouped by the type of SaaS platform.

Differences Between Embedded iPaaS and Unified APIs

Embedded iPaaS and Unified APIs solve the same integration needs, but typically in different ways.

An Embedded iPaaS typically provides a visual integration builder that offers a low-code or no-code development environment to create multi-step workflows. Standardized connectors are provided to access SaaS solutions, which are configured by a developer and then "wired" to other actions that initiate a given workflow. The workflow can be initialized on-demand or in reaction to a given event. Integrating with the platform and your workflows is undertaken using an SDK or an API, depending on your programming language of choice. The abstraction feature is typically supported through white-label UI components that support authentication and authorization at the target SaaS platforms. This allows an end user to authorize access to their data by the workflow using a specific set of credentials.

In comparison, integrating with Unified APIs is much closer to the experience of working with "normal" APIs. While products like the Apideck Unify platform offer some configuration through a user interface, most of the integration takes place in code. Developers create or reuse API clients to call a single consistent interface that provides access to many platforms. For example, the Apideck HRIS API provides access to approximately 50 providers, with examples including popular SaaS providers like BambooHR, Workday, and Zoho People and corporate cloud-based solutions like Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Google Workplace. Developers can call atomic operations through one API and then orchestrate their workflow in code as they see fit, either writing native code or using their workflow framework of choice.

Your Software Stack

One criterion for choosing between Embedded iPaaS and Unified APIs is your software stack. Both approaches provide support to meet your goals through integration features based on pre-built connectors that accelerate delivery.

Using Embedded iPaaS, however, may be alien to how you develop applications in your organization, both in using a visual integration builder, which "traditional" developers can sometimes struggle with, and how you provide the means to authenticate end users at the target SaaS platforms, using UI components that can sometimes feel "basic" due to the fact they are white-labeled.

Conversely, Unified APIs, while providing a single connector across SaaS platforms, require technical skills that some organizations may not have. The visual integration builder can be an attractive feature in such cases.

How Your Organization Develops Applications

From a usability perspective one of the selling points of Embedded iPaaS is the visual integration builder, which allows complex, multi-step workflows to be created by "non-developers" such as business or data analysts. Low-code and no-code features can be important for many organizations as they simplify the development process and widen the development team. However, this can also have an impact on the support model. It is unlikely that a business analyst can provide production support for a workflow they create based on their other skills and responsibilities. In such cases, the entire team will need to upskill, with the support model tailored to ensure workflows can be managed. Unified APIs are less likely to have this need. While knowledge sharing is still required amongst the team, the support model will be much simpler given the implementation is based on a regular API client.

Your Integration Needs

Another important consideration of using Embedded iPaaS and Unified APIs is obviously what your integration needs are. Both can help you engineer complex, multi-step workflows. However, the level of abstraction available is very different.

Embedded iPaaS gives you a workflow that can reused by end users of your application. With Unified APIs, you get centrally deployed and managed connectors with orchestration through a single API. The main consideration is whether abstracting your workflows to authorize access by every end user is a requirement. This is an important feature when you provide integration features for individual end users that rely on their authorization. However, you can typically also accomplish this using "service" accounts with privileged access. If end-user authorization is a must then Embedded iPaaS is likely to be the best fit, but if not then Unified APIs may fit your needs more closely.

You also may have already built UI components to handle end-user authorization. This feature of Embedded iPaaS will therefore not be required, unless it is significantly better than your implementation. If you can manage without this level of abstraction then your best option may be the simplicity of using a Unified API.

Coverage in Your Target Market

Finally, you also need to consider your market, both in terms of your customers and the availability of the SaaS platforms as connectors in either Embedded iPaaS or Unified API platforms. Having the connectors available is a must, and if they are not well represented in one approach or the other then this will lead to a natural choice.

Your customers will require the widest possible coverage, which will need to be reflected in your Embedded iPaaS or Unified API platform of choice. You also need to consider this from a geographical perspective by ensuring that the key connectors are available for your target market. If, for example, you are selling in the USA you must ensure that the most popular SaaS integrations in that market are available at your provider of choice. An Embedded iPaaS may have the most compelling workflow engine and software solution in the market, but without connectors to the APIs and providers you require - or at least not having them in their roadmap - your integration development is going to be more complex as a result.

The Right Choice for Your Use Cases

Choosing between Embedded iPaaS and Unified APIs is not, therefore, a simple case of comparing two solutions that meet the challenges of the same problem. Your integration needs, the need for reuse requirements by end users, your existing software stack, and the availability of connectors for your target market are all important factors. Your use cases must therefore be reflected in how you implement your integration needs. This will then drive your choice between Embedded iPaaS and Unified APIs.