Professional-level support and documentation now rival performance as the top criteria when evaluating what API to use, according to SmartBear’s recently published “State of the API 2019 Report.”
The report is based on a survey of over 3,000 API consumers and practitioners, with the sample dominated by users of Swagger or SOAPUI. The percentage of people saying “ease of use” and “accurate and detailed documentation” was one of the most important characteristics needed almost doubled in the 2019 survey as compared to when the same question was asked in 2016. Many other types of criteria also rose in importance as people are generally expecting more from the APIs they use. Asked specifically what they’re looking for in terms of documentation, 70% said “examples.”
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