This is an opinion piece
I think charging for APIs that allow clients to access THEIR data is wrong.
It’s becoming a trend – a bit like buying disparate businesses – companies desperate for revenue decide to charge for access to their APIs. We are seeing more and more of this these days.
APIs for those who don’t know are gateways into your data. They are used by multiple software businesses to connect your apps together.
BGL made a decision on Day 1 of our cloud products that we would not charge for our API. We have reasonably simple rules around who can use the API – but the determining factor of whether the access is available is decided by authorisation from our clients. We authorise the connection – the client authorises access.
I find it interesting however some software companies think they are entitled to a share of revenue earned by the business accessing their API. How ridiculous! The data belongs to the client. The client is being charged a fee for the service provided. And now the client is being asked (and in the end the client will pay for this) to pay for the same data twice. What a racket. It’s almost an exhortation!
So if you are in our industry and your supplier decides to charge your connections (auditors, document providers, other services) for access to their API, please come and talk to us. We are happy to convert your data for FREE and even give you 6 months free to move to our solutions.
