Best Developer Portals

In 2023, 57 developer portals were nominated across 11 categories: Best Served API Business Model, Best International and Localized DevPortal, Best New DX Innovation, Best Community Outreach and Support, Best Use of Analytics in a DevPortal, Best Visual Design, Best Accessible DevPortal, Best API Reference Documentation, Best Findability of Products in a DevPortal, Best Onboarding, and Best Interface Developer Portal.

Table of contents:

• Final results: first gala event
  • First Gala Recording
  • Best Served API Business Model
  • Best International and Localized DevPortal
  • Best New DX Innovation
  • Best Community Outreach and Support
  • Best Use of Analytics in a DevPortal
  • Best Visual Design
• Final results: second gala event
  • Second Gala Recording
  • Best Accessible Devportal
  • Best API Reference Documentation
  • Best Findability of Products in a Devportal
  • Best Onboarding
  • Best Interface Developer Portal
  • Best Overall Developer Portal - SME
  • Best Overall Developer Portal - Enterprise
• Interviews with the jury panel 

Final results: first gala event

After thorough consideration, the jury panel announced the awarded portals and runners-up in each category. We are happy to share the results, and hopefully, the jury’s remarks will give a better understanding of the state-of-the-art of developer experience, operational excellence, and business alignment.

First Gala Recording

Best Served API Business Model

Mature developer experience begins before the user writes a code or generates an API key: it is essential to establish a clear relationship between the developer and the vendor.

Awarded devportal: MasterCard Developers

MasterCard Developers has to consider the complexity of their target audiences, from existing partners to established fintechs and early-stage startups: they have to serve many needs on the same portal with a broad scope of products.

As Andrew Cataldo (Manager of Product Development and Innovation, API) highlighted, ‘being a company as big as MasterCard, we are almost playing an internal service provider to the many products that live within MasterCard.’

Finalist: NatWest Bank of APIs

The jury panel highlighted NatWest Bank of APIs’ value proposition and product context, and specifically called out the choice of URL (‘bankofapis.com’). According to the jurors, breaking from ‘developer.[YOUR CORPORATION NAME HERE].com’ worked well. The portal also provides the right content for the right audience.

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Best International and Localized DevPortal

The jury panel underlined that ‘our technical world still expects a good grasp of the English language to collaborate with others. So even if your technical skills are excellent, you may feel at a disadvantage if you cannot engage with a developer portal in your country’s language. We were happy to see the entrants in this category and encourage portal owners and portal fans to consider submitting their favorites in this category. That said, it was difficult to choose a winner.‘

Awarded devportal: Bank Negara Indonesia API Portal

The total number of non-Bahasa-speaking visitors to the developer portal is a little less than 20%, so BNI’s decision to localize their developer portal to English is remarkable. The initiative demonstrates BNI’s dedication to better serve the international developer audience and to cater to the needs of developers in a language they’re more familiar with.

This achievement showcases BNI’s commitment to encouraging inclusivity and nurturing user satisfaction.

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Best New DX Innovation

The jurors had to ask themselves what innovation means and how to evaluate products that offer very different developer experiences fairly. In 2023, two nominees were awarded. Both presented similarly innovative solutions for interactive code samples, with different audiences and goals, each deserving recognition for the outstanding level of execution and integration with their docs.

Awarded devportals: Miro Developer Platform and React.dev

• Miro Developer Platform

Miro Developer Platform added interactive code snippets that seamlessly integrate with their documentation and their products, offering unparalleled levels of interactivity and experimentation.

As Mira Balani (Staff Technical Writer) shared with the audience, their developer portal ‘provides both web SDK and REST APIs, which empowers developers to create powerful apps, that in turn, again, empowers their users to collaborate and create the next best thing.’

• React.dev

React.dev does an impressive job at demonstrating the features of the language using the language itself while providing users with a sandbox they can download, fork, and reset at will.

React.dev - as they highlighted on their nomination page - introduced interactive example code at a scale previously unseen in documentation in the frontend library space using CodeSandbox.

All 600+ code examples are manipulable, and in each section’s "code challenges," learners are encouraged to fix broken examples by following clues left by the core team.

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Best Community Outreach and Support

Developer portals in this category use creative solutions or initiatives to show developers that their work is appreciated. In the downstream developer journey, community and engagement are very important – this is where one helps developers troubleshoot, provide and find solutions, share knowledge and build connections.

Awarded devportal: RingCentral Developers

RingCentral Developers’ community site presents an engaging and easy-to-navigate experience. The “Community” menu option provides developers with several different ways to engage with the community. In addition, RingCentral Developers’ “Game Changers” program rewards top contributors with reputation points and encourages new contributors to participate through challenges that reward accomplishments. They also offer a way to earn prizes.

‘Just building a platform is one thing, but it really depends upon you infusing it with all of that content to keep people engaged’ - Byrne Reese (Product and Platform Specialist).

Special call-out: Miro Developer Platform

The jurors gave Miro’s community site a special mention for linking their product roadmap directly from the developer portal. They appreciated and admired the commitment to transparency that this demonstrates.

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Best Use of Analytics in a DevPortal

This category showcases developer portals that provide dashboards or analytics to enhance the developer experience or business value of operating with the documented APIs. Some examples of metrics are a measure of performance, time to first API call, uptime/availability, usability, calls made to the API, issues logged/resolved, number of subscribers/accounts, monetization, and usage statistics.

Awarded devportal: PandaDoc for Developers

PandaDoc boasts a robust feature set for data analysis that sets it apart from its competitors. While it is integrated with the dashboard and not the portal, the analytics use cases are clearly explained in both the support and learning material for PandaDoc with clear annotated screenshots.

Customization helped this Developer Dashboard stand out since it enabled resizing the dashboard and the ability to remove columns to make for a simpler data display. A CSV export function lets you go beyond what is provided by the built-in dashboards and further analyze your data. The chart with Status transition time provides ways to look for efficiencies in the system on both the sender’s processes and the receiver’s time spent signing a document. The data itself aided the jurors’ understanding of the value proposition of the platform.

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Best Visual Design

Excellent visual design is more than the platform’s aesthetics: one needs to consider how every aspect of it – design elements, content, navigation – is structured for clarity, usability, and centers support for a great user experience.

Awarded devportal: Viam Documentation Developer Portal

The pages are well organized and consistent in layout and with clear, intuitive navigation. The jurors also noted that the 404 page was very elaborate and actionable in helping guide users back to the catalog.

This award celebrates the intentionality, design effort, vision, and execution in giving developers a smoothly guided journey around the portal. The Viam DevPortal stands out with this. The jurors are sure that it was done with lots of love for Viam’s developers.

Finalist: VTEX Developer Portal

In the case of VTEX, the jurors found the portal's simple, smooth, and clean design to be very elegant and commendable. They also liked the progressive disclosure of the visual journey.

Special call-outs: Spotify for Developers, React.dev, Cloudinary Docs

• Spotify for Developers

The jurors enjoyed and found very pleasant the colorful visuals and playfulness of Spotify for Developers.

• React.dev

The jury panel commend the developer portal’s interactivity and community focus. They highlighted that it is perfect for the target audience.

• Cloudinary Docs

As the jurors underlined, Cloudinary Docs deserves a special call out for its well-structured and detailed guides.

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Final results: second gala event

At the second gala, we revealed the finalists and the awarded developer portals in the remaining seven categories, including the two Best Overall awards: SME and Enterprise.

Second Gala Recording

Best Accessible Devportal

An accessible developer portal follows specific, rigorous guidelines and practices in order to cater to all users, with consideration for permanent and situational limitations. The best way to reach this level of inclusivity is to permeate accessibility design principles through every element of the developer portal, instead of treating it as an afterthought.

Awarded devportal: Spotify for Developers

Spotify has a dedicated internal accessibility team, and the DevRel team running the devportal has their integral assistance. When the existing developer portal was revamped, this a11y team helped to improve the user experience. The team behind Spotify for Developers also collaborated with makeitfable.com: the service helps connect to people living with permanent disabilities to engage them to run tests on the developer portal, mimic real-life scenarios, and remark if something needs to be changed.

Spotify for Developers’ accessibility statement is much more than a list of requirements, it is clearly a mindset.

Finalist: Nationwide Partner Portal

As the jurors highlighted, the Nationwide Partner Portal team clearly has an ambition to be accessible, and this is particularly seen in the extra effort on visual feedback for keyboard users.

Special call-out: Chase Developer Portal

In the case of Chase Developer Portal, the demo pages are excellent examples of multimodality - they use a combination of illustrations, instructions and code to communicate efficiently with users with a wide variety of abilities.

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Best API Reference Documentation

Success in this category means that a user is experiencing no obstacles when integrating, finding extras to speed up their work, learning how to find support if needed, and figuring out how to maintain an API integration.

These developer portals serve their audience well with an engaging design, reference topics, and being creative in making the API reference documentation journey easy and discoverable. Evaluation includes navigation, appearance, utility, how easy to use, and completeness.

Awarded devportal: React.dev

Combining clarity, strong examples, and a confident leading of the reader along most likely paths, this is both a great site to use, and impressively slick. It teaches well, and doesn’t fall down by getting in the way: snags have been rounded off all along the user journey.

Individual mentions could be made of the “Get Started” section - with its nicely-paced intro, interactive tutorial, and well-considered “Thinking in React” sections; of the well laid out reference, covering use cases, troubleshooting, and clear demonstrations of various UI elements; and the quality of the explanations - but it is the completeness of the package that puts React’s portal ahead in a very strong field.

Special call-out: Spotify for Developers

The jurors praised Spotify for Developers for the quick intro tutorial: users click to run the code sample pre-populated with authorized access to their account, and see their top 5 songs.

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Best Findability of Products in a Devportal

In assessing the nominees for Best Findability of Products, the jurors were looking for developer portals which found a way to provide technical depth without compromising the ease of navigation to finding the right product, considering technical and business users.

Awarded devportal: FactSet Developer

FactSet’s developer portal provides a comprehensive experience to discover and find the right product. The jurors believe there is no one golden pathway: users should have the option of multiple navigation paths to find the right outcome.

FactSet embodied that really well with great extra features like connecting solution pages to specific APIs and recipes, along with calling out trending APIs, and having a strong product catalog with filtering and searching.

‘We developed the idea of showcasing the APIs and the context of large solutions, and workflows, making it easy for users to navigate and discover the right product’ - Veni Paladagu (Digital Infrastructure & API Product Manager).

Finalist: Mercedes-Benz / developers

The jurors liked Mercedes-Benz for their strong findability of product across their developer portal. The site is very clean and the product catalog does a great job of displaying the product suite. Not only is the filtering easy to understand, it’s very performant and allows for filtering based on payment packages. Inspiration pages also link nicely to specific APIs, alongside tailored content for developers vs business audiences.

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Best Onboarding

Good onboarding in a developer portal gets started with transparent steps to registration and granting access that show what the APIs are about, how they work, how developers can start integrating, and where they can find additional resources. It is important to give just the right amount of information as this is the first impression the users experience.

Awarded devportal: Miro Developer Platform

Miro Developer Platform went above and beyond with an onboarding flow that is clear, simple, and fun. The experience matches the Miro brand and sense of collaboration quite aptly.

When first arriving at the developer portal, they offer a clear path to the initial tutorials. These tutorials are bite-size in scope and require no local setup. There’s a sandbox embedded in the tutorial page itself. The pre-written sample code can be executed with a single click but it can also be modified, allowing experimentation with a rapid feedback loop.

The platform tracks the individual progress as one completes each tutorial, including a tasteful celebratory animation. By completing tutorials, users can earn a series of badges, recognizing the progress on the platform.

Special call-out: Viam Documentation Developer Portal

Viam Documentation Developer Portal received a special mention for providing a robot that could be controlled by a new user within minutes. This is a great example of a low barrier to entry and this can be very attractive to customers who want to try before they commit.

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Best Interface Developer Portal

This year, we merged the Best Devportal Beyond REST Platforms & Best Devportal for Citizen Developers categories.

Interface portals are external (business) developer portals that broker a cooperative AND competitive value exchange between an organization and the communities they interact with. Where possible they help developers use technology assets that provide shortcuts around custom API integration (e.g. SDK, app, widget, QR code).

Awarded devportal: VTEX Developer Portal

VTEX Developer Portal packed in a lot of information without compromising whitespace. The site has many areas to explore but does not feel cramped or claustrophobic. They effectively use icons on the left overarching menu to categorize site use cases. Search is a delight to use, which is especially important with so much information.

VTEX delighted the jurors with the human touch: names and profile pictures of the contributors are visible to each page (via GitHub). The pencil icon on each page invites editors to contribute.

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Best Overall Developer Portal - SME

Awarded portal: Viam Documentation Developer Portal

The jurors particularly like the aesthetics of this site, in the words of one juror, ‘It reminds me of my early days of programming in the 90's, of terminals where everything was all about the information.’ It's not just about being flashy, but more about presentation.

In a world dominated by pure software products, it’s unique and refreshing to encounter a developer portal bridging the gap to robotics.

It’s one thing to change a few pixels on the screen or a value in some database, it’s another thing entirely to use software to interact with the physical world. The ability to remotely control a robot within minutes of signing-up is undeniably cool.

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Best Overall Developer Portal - Enterprise

Awarded devportal: React.dev

The jury put additional emphasis on the following aspects: ‘the cleanness and ease of navigation, of finding information. The portal shows the result of good–and hard to make–decisions on what to present to developers and what to leave out.’

The portal has no login, which of course comes with the territory of the React framework being documented, nevertheless the jury panel celebrates how this instant access contributes to the ease of use.

The "Learn" section being part of the top menu, where new users can get to "hello world!" examples and then build upon that. The makers did a tremendous job in tailoring to audiences at different starting points, breaking down the barriers to early success.

The portal has very good substance, and is built in a way that it is also easy for artificial intelligence to consume.

Most importantly, the jurors' decided to award the Best Enterprise Developer Portal Award to React.dev, because beyond all these aspects, the content is technically very well-written. The jury commented on how the level of technical writing craftsmanship carried this portal to the leading edge, and they would like to see more of such excellent writing in the future. Technical writing is a craft that should be taken seriously.

Special call-out: Miro Developer Platform

The Miro Developer Platform executes on a very high difficulty score with a great design and an outstanding developer experience component. After onboarding, the user immediately gets the in-the-workspace experience–see the SaaS tool in action on one of their own boards. This embedded interactive experience, which the jurors believe was technically very hard to pull off, was done brilliantly.

The tutorials offer excellent gamification, creating a fun, rewarding experience that builds on itself. The Mironeer community is a holistic proposition with changelog, roadmap, testing out features, going way beyond the basics.

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We are deeply thankful to the Jurors for their enthusiastic support and contribution to the community! Their remarks can be an indicator of 2023’s state-of-the-art.

DevPortal Awards seeks to recognize the most outstanding solutions available today and push the boundaries of what we believe to be the key components of a developer portal for tomorrow. Subscribe to the DevPortal Awards Newsletter to get notifications about nomination, voting, gala event details, and DevPortal Awards winners.

 

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Go back to the Best Developer Portals article 

All Pronovix publications are the fruit of a team effort, enabled by the research and collective knowledge of the entire Pronovix team. Our ideas and experiences are greatly shaped by our clients and the communities we participate in.

The 2021 DevPortal Awards saw 49 independent developer portals nominated for 18 award categories. Here are the winners, runners-up and notable mentions for 2021!

For more information on the process behind the jury’s selection for each category, please check out DevPortal Awards 2021 jury interview.

2021 DevPortal Award Winners

Focus on Developer Experience

• Best International & Localized Devportal
• Best New DX Innovation
• Best Accessible Devportal
• Best Community Spotlight & Outreach
• Best Developer Dashboard
• Best Onboarding
• Best Findability of Products in a Devportal
• Best API Reference Documentation & Support
• Best Design

Focus on Operational Excellence

• Best Developer Portal for Alternatives to REST-APIs
• Best Use of Monetization
• Best Use of API Gateway Integration
• Best Editorial Experience in a Devportal

Focus on Business Alignment

• Best Internal Devportal
• Best API Business Model

Results of the Public Vote

• DevPortal Awards 2021 Community Prize

Best Overall Developer Portal

• Final Selection for Best Overall Developer Portal 2021
• Best Overall SME Developer Portal of 2021
• Best Overall Enterprise Developer Portal of 2021

More Information about the DevPortal Awards 2021

• About the DevPortal Awards
• Demo/Q&A with some nominees
• Full List of DevPortal Awards Nominees for 2021

Best International & Localized Devportal

An international & localized developer portal addresses audiences — in various regions — with specific expectations. They pay special attention to cultural diversity, language capabilities, local legal requirements, and regional expectations, all in order to drive engagement.

In 2021, there were 3 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.For precise details of what goes into a great international & localized developer portal check out the Jury interview. As a quick summary:

• Is there an option to switch languages? Do localized versions kick in automatically?
• What is not translated, is it in plain English, easy to use and understand?
• Is the payment method or API available in my region? Can I filter the available options to my locale?
• What has been done differently to prevent misunderstandings during translation?

Winner of Best International & Localized Devportal for 2021

Xsolla Developer Documentation was selected for its easy (automatic) adaptation of the portal to the visitor’s context/locale and the sheer number of supported languages. The language supported by context was also for user guides. The jury noted they even found a partial API reference in Chinese. The 6 supported languages have a professional translation (“natural read’). As each Juror was located in a different region, they were able to see how quickly Xsolla adapted (for example, to German).

For more information, Olga Baybakova, Documentation & Localization Engineer, from Xsolla presented at APIdays LIVE Paris 2021 on Localizing OpenAPI Specification.

Runner-up for Best International & Localized Devportal for 2021

BNI API Digital Services supported a relatively complete translation of their portal in Indonesian.

Best New DX Innovation

Developer experience (DX) is the inverse of API friction. In the eyes of your users, the value of your API(s) will grow if they experience as few obstacles as possible from start to finish.

In 2021, there were 7 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

Paraphrased from the Jury interview:

• Selecting a candidate in this category was difficult because innovation is moving. What is innovative today will possibly be the standard tomorrow.
• This year the jurors often found innovation in the onboarding journey. As an example, where the onboarding journey automatically recognized a juror’s company address and details, with a background check. The judges also noticed innovation in e-learnings integrated into the developer portal.
• Innovation is lead by the interesting challenges, information needs, and different goals that your audience brings to your developer portal.

Winner of Best New DX Innovation for 2021

ThingWorx Developer Portal’s combination of an outstanding onboarding journey and very sophisticated e-learnings contributed to their success as winner this year.

Runner-up for New DX Innovation for 2021

Reonomy Technical Documentation is very easy to understand and well designed with information architecture. The drop-down fields to select use cases are easy to understand even as a first time visitor. The Demo feature was good however at the time of judging, at least one juror received an authorization issue in the response sandbox and could not find a way to enter credentials.

Best Accessible Devportal

Accessibility is the practice of making your websites usable by as many people as possible. We traditionally think of this as being about people with disabilities, but the practice of making sites accessible also benefits other groups such as those using mobile devices, or those with slow network connections.

In 2021, there were 12 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

“Many nominees understood the category to be about general findability, […] only some about a11y.’’ - 2021 DevPortal Awards Jury

Winner of Best Accessible DevPortal for 2021

Barclays API Exchange has a very structured approach (content is very easy to understand) and due to features such as dark mode or localisation selection, which show commitment to adapting to different groups of end users. Technical analysis with Google lighthouse, wave and achecker also showed great performance of the site in terms of contrast ratio etc.

Barclays API Exchange demo with Liam Gallagher (UX Design Lead) and Jake Eastham (Frontend Developer)

Runners-Up for Best Accessible DevPortal for 2021

Both of the runners-up also scored 100% for Accessibility on Google Lighthouse, and AChecker. This was a very close race between the winner, Barclays, and Platform OS.

PlatformOS has a clean and clear structure, uses a larger font than usual and a good balance of white space. Code examples were instantly attractive and welcoming.

SmartCar received great results from a11y checkers and with screen readers. They could improve on their rendered pictures but the annotations were well done to the benefit of some disability groups.

Best Community Spotlight & Outreach

Community Spotlight & Outreach in a developer portal builds trust and engages users to find solutions, share knowledge & build connections.

In 2021, there were 5 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

Candidates in this category presented many interesting and inspirational ideas that benefit many in the developer portal space.

Winner of Best Community Spotlight & Outreach for 2021

Twitter Developer Platform was chosen for the sheer number of community features such as labs, local communities, and the encouragement of people to create their own self-organizing communities. The developer portal experience went above and beyond regular best practices for blogs. Community engagement is driven from the bottom up and seeks to connect people and make it easier to meet and exchange ideas via local developer groups. Twitter being a globally adopted company makes it easier to have local communities. Early adopter initiative of the Twitter lab was also impressive. This is definitely an example of a company having a wide and successful developer reach.

Runner-up for Best Community Spotlight & Outreach for 2021

Ringcentral performed well with nicely structured communities, integration of stackoverflow, and an incentives program for developers that goes beyond just implementation. Ringcentral showcases expertise and gamifies the collection of points and allows these points to be redeemed. Community offerings according to goals have an active and nurtured community on stack overflow. The jury liked how separate items can be found on the mega menu (e.g. if you want to talk).

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Best Developer Dashboard

In this category, we are looking for the additional resources, analytics, and experience that developer portals provide for registered and logged in users.

In 2021, there were 2 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

Winner of Best Developer Dashboard for 2021

Tink Console is celebrated for their professional and attractive UI. Their dashboard integrates with an abundance of help content. Tink Console provides a clear starting point, clean navigation structure, a detailed description of configuration, a clear separation of account and app settings, and a useful checklist.

Runner-up for Best Developer Dashboard for 2021

Plaid’s Developer Portal and Documentation dashboard has a seamless UI, good navigation, and use of whitespace. Plaid provides a clear starting point and excellent process and conceptual information. An example of this is the differences between free and other plans, and the sandbox/dev account paths.

Best Onboarding

For this category, developer portals show the transparent steps to registration and granting access while providing information on what their APIs are about, how they work, how developers can start integrating and where to find additional resources.

In 2021, there were 19 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

Winner of Best Onboarding for 2021

platformOS Documentation takes the award for delivery of getting started tutorials that have sufficient detail to be instructive while also helping users become familiar with PlatformOS’s products. A prominent Try Now button leads to a clear page with video instruction and well-explained options for getting started. Signup is simple and straightforward, with a well-defined user journey. Example apps allow for working in code at a variety of levels.

platformOS Developer Portal demo and Q&A with Diana Lakatos (Director of Documentation) and Adam Broadway (CEO)

Runner-up for Best Onboarding for 2021

Smartcar starts with a clear value proposition on their home page and then connects users with good tutorials for various scenarios and languages. The signup process is minimal and various SDKs are available for users to get started in their preferred language. A checklist-style dashboard for getting credentials and testing API requests is provided. Getting started seems relatively painless, and there are clear steps to follow with more progressive detail if needed.

Best Findability of Products in a Devportal

A landing page with entry points for the main audiences, a catalog, a basic search, a faceted search, and suggestive discoverability are all examples of ways in which an API consumer can find your APIs.

In 2021, there were 22 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

“We had a lot of candidates in this category and some really raised the bar. Even though a few portals had only one API, they made sure you could easily find the ins and outs of that one. However, as this category is on findability of products, we as a jury decided to focus on portals with more than one API. We looked for a good and easy search, filtering options, relevant categorization and an easy entry point to a top notch service catalog. And of course, it’s always nice when it’s visually appealing as well. A few portals charmed all the jury members.” - From the 2021 Jury notes on Best Findability of Products in a DevPortal category

Winner of Best Findability of Products in a Devportal for 2021

Finastra’s FusionCreator Developer Portal sets itself apart through its consistency. Wherever you are on the portal, the frame of reference they use makes sure you get information in the same way. The site looks as though it was developed with a strong UX designer on board. The flow visualized on the home page is aimed at quickly and easily finding what you need. Of greatest value to a visitor is that you can easily re-find something with their consistent framework: browsing back- and forth, even coming back the next day or week, it is easy to find your way back to something you previously found when you want to find it again.

Runners-up for Best Findability of Products in a Devportal for 2021

There were two runners-up for this category, Algolia and Barclays API Exchange.

Algolia Developer Platform receives special mention for showing thoughtfulness and focus on the developer audience with every aspect of onboarding. Their nurture campaign is not too salesy but instead also focuses on the developer’s experience. Once you find what you’re looking for, the experience is great.

Barclays API Exchange utilizes SEO optimization that helps for findability.

Best API Reference Documentation & Support

Success in this category means that a user is experiencing no obstacles when integrating, finding extras to speed up their work, learning how to find support if needed, and figuring out how to maintain an API integration.

In 2021, there were 26 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

Winner of Best API Reference Documentation & Support for 2021

Plaid’s Developer Portal and Documentation was clear and well structured. Visually the site makes good use of white space. Content is easy to quickly understand in great part due to many code examples. The site performs smoothly with an interactive navigation model contributing to a seamless experience of content delivery.

Runners-up for Best API Reference Documentation & Support for 2021

There were two runners-up for this category, ABN Amro Developer Portal and RingCentral Developers. Of note is the Codat Portal. All of these developer portals were able to manage the complexity of their content well.

The ABN Amro Developer Portal is a clear and well structured portal with lots of examples. The integration between the reference and conceptual topics is seamless. Reference topics provide a good blend of marketing and technical content.

RingCentral Developers is noteworthy for its attractive visual design and extensive collection of sample code.

The Codat Portal is also noteworthy for their cross-linking between conceptual and reference topics.

Best Design

The award for Best Design is given to the developer portal that inspires trust while presenting every aspect of the APIs in a well-structured and understandable way.

In 2021, there were 21 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

It was a very close race between 4 excellent devportal finalists. - 2021 DevPortal Awards Jury

Winner of Best Design for 2021

Plaid’s Developer Portal and Documentation showed strong consistency and clarity of its UI and design. This was also consistent with their corporate website. The information necessary for implementing their APIs were easy to access. Information architecture, version control, and API key provisioning was all easy to follow. The design supports the processes. Functional design elements such as tables were also well executed. Content, choice of words, contributed to getting tasks as a developer done. First question asked is “What is this API about” and answered as a developer or as any visitor with examples.

Runners-up for Best Design for 2021

There were three runners-up in this category: Twitter Developer Platform, FusionCreator Developer Portal, and ThingWorx Developer Portal. As this was a very close race it came down to a side-by-side comparison between the four finalists. Focus was on consistency of experience for a new user encountering and registering to the site for the first time.

• Twitter Developer Platform
• Finastra’s FusionCreator Developer Portal
• ThingWorx Developer Portal

Best Developer Portal for Alternatives to REST-APIs

This award looks at the application of good documentation practices to non-Rest-API integrations.

In 2021, there were 3 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

Winner of Best Developer Portal for Alternatives to REST-APIs for 2021

This year there was a tie win for this award between KBC Developer Portal and platformOS Developer Portal.

KBC Developer Portal was selected for providing use cases such as QR code, SDK, and widget. All APIs are REST based but they look at ‘alternatives to rest API’s’ from a partner/business perspective to accommodate the less tech-savvy customers who don’t want to do an investment right away. They provide business solutions: flyers with QR codes, widgets, the KBC Partner Hub (of which a demo is available). They provide solutions to their partners that fit the distribution channel (digital, physical, or a combination). From a developer perspective, developers can use Postman, Insomnia, or SoapUI to send requests to the Sandbox given that the developer attached the signed certificate and private key with all API requests. KBC provides simulations and customization capability/OEM. Sandbox environment uses Postman collections. Builds trust with mutual SSL for shared responsibility.

KBC Developer Portal demo and Q&A with Katrien Van Gijsel (Team Lead) and Machteld Swillen (Product Owner)

platformOS was awarded for their extensive documentation with videos and tutorials with several scenarios for GraphQL and CLI. On the other hand, it has a very steep learning curve. PlatformOS explains how to try out their product according to the developer’s level of technical expertise and setting proper expectations about different deployment methods. 1-Click / no code install is still dependent on being able to set up the staging environment, current npm, and other dependencies. They provide several clear implementation examples including migration from major eCommerce platforms that require more robust content, community, and marketplace capability. Kudos to platformOS for reaching front end developers in addition to back end integrators.

platformOS Developer Portal demo and Q&A with Diana Lakatos (Director of Documentation) and Adam Broadway (CEO)

Best Use of Monetization

In this category, the jury evaluated developer portals that use their developer portal for generating revenue through direct monetization of their APIs.

In 2021, there were 3 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

Winner of Best Use of Monetization for 2021

Algolia’s open pricing models do not require a login to access. They have a “Subscribe for free, pay based on your usage” transparency and recommendations to help developers choose. At the time when Algolia was evaluated, there was a simulator that allowed prospective customers to have clear expectations and a flexible configuration. Pricing and usage of visualizations, paired with the detailed Pricing FAQ page, makes it easy to help better understand everything included in their usage packages.

Runner-up for Best Use of Monetization for 2021

BT API Developer Portal mentions their pricing however pricing is only visible to BT customers or account managers. Login is required to see promotions and pricing. This may be due to the types of pricing packages BT has available such as sport packages, mobile, broadband, landline, etc. The jury noted BT’s countdown feature for promotions and calling out whether or not the offer is available for the app. For example, a great deal is app only: £25 a month with Rolling contract | No upfront fee compared to others that require a longer commitment. The score is based on the variety of packages available and the granularity of controls that BT has to accommodate both self-service AND high touch sales. Integrations with NOW, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, BritBox and many other media platforms. Calls to sign up to and create an account to learn more about pricing could be more explicit.

Best Use of API Gateway Integration

Not all developer portals require gateway integration or management. This award goes to developer portals that have a clever or unique way of integrating that hides complexity, provides a clean onboarding journey, mature controls, and dashboards.

In 2021, there were 14 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

Winner of Best Use of API Gateway Integration for 2021

Ably Developer Platform was selected on the basis of “their relentless focus” on developer experience. The use of the tools & seamless gateway integration is as a means to an end for contributing to the focus on the customer’s journey. Ably appears to be API-type agnostic. The developer portal seems automated, keys are available immediately and examples work. There is no difference between sandbox or production. One is using the production environment from the start — providing for an amazing experience as a developer user. Ably claims to be able to accommodate an unlimited number of users. Their system is scalable, real-time, and rest-based.

Runners-up for Best Use of API Gateway Integration for 2021

There were two runners-up for this award category: Deutsche Boerse Digital Business Platform and BT API Developer Portal.

Deutsche Boerse Digital Business Platform provides access to a variety of gateways that can be deployed locally. All integration and support for the different gateways is managed centrally via the developer portal. The complexity of this integration is exponential but within the developer portal is seamless. Expectations are managed upfront — to overcome shortcomings — contributing to a decent developer experience.

BT API Developer Portal manages multiple business units behind one developer portal. A single login and user interface hides the complexity of a multitude of backend systems including internal, external (revenue earning), external usage, retail, & wholesale distribution. The developer portal serves a function for sales as a lead generation tool and CRM system.

Best Editorial Experience in a Devportal

In this category, developer portals were evaluated for the easy or frictionless experience provided to upstream developers, documentarians, and editorial reviewers for adding, documenting, and maintaining content within the developer portal.

In 2021, there were 7 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

Winner of Best Editorial Experience in a Devportal for 2021

platformOS takes this year’s award for excellence having built an outstanding docs-as-code workflow that leverages Git repositories to collaborate on content and manage and track changes. Their publishing process includes automated testing of the documentation. On top of that, they have documented their process well and provide style guides and clear instructions to their writers.

platformOS Developer Portal demo and Q&A with Diana Lakatos (Director of Documentation) and Adam Broadway (CEO)

Runner-up for Best Editorial Experience in a Devportal for 2021

Mercedes Benz Developers uses a content management system with templates and highly structured content types for their documentation to enforce consistency. Through the CMS editor, they cater to the needs of less technical contributors. At the same time, they allow developer teams to plug into the portal via an API to automate documentation steps.

Best Internal Devportal

Internal developer portals seek to engage developers behind the corporate firewall. While there is a lot of information about publicly available developer portals, many of the best practices of public developer portals also apply to internal developer portals.

In 2021, there were 7 developer portals nominated. Additional information to help in the jury evaluation was collected — but not limited by — voluntary response to a questionnaire and participation in the API The Docs Showcase your devportal series. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

Winner of Best Internal Devportal for 2021

BT API Developer Portal has a complete and well-organized developer portal that covers their internal and external API products and has everything expected for a great developer portal, such as sample code and sandbox features. The portal also contains an abundance of useful information for internal developers. BT has a streamlined process to approve API access internally.

BT API Developer Portal demo and Q&A with John Daffern (API Platform Senior Product Manager), Abhijit Dasgupta (Principal Solution Architect APIs and Microservices) and Sunin Shah (Solution Design and Documentation Standards Specialist)

Runner-up for Best Internal Devportal for 2021

Equinix has a combined portal that showcases both external and internal APIs based on user rights. All API products have thorough documentation and they’re searchable through their API catalog.

Best API Business Model

This award celebrates excellence in how clearly a business model is expressed within a developer portal. Developer portals are more than just a documentation portal. Customers can perceive the real intent your business has towards them through the value they receive from your developer portal.

In 2021, there were 13 developer portals nominated for this DevPortal Award category. Read more about the criteria and see past winners.

Winner of Best API Business Model for 2021

Ably Developer Platform delivered the best developer portal business model for 2021. The platform has clear pricing plans, feature charts, and illustrates the advantages of joining Ably. They provide analytics data to show how responsive they are as a business providing to customer needs (3m Messages per month, 100 Peak Connections, 100 Peak Channels). Sandbox and production documentation are not just low level fields. They even offer all types of documentation from overviews, guides, tutorials, and documentation to understand concepts and patterns including implementation, SDK, client library, MQTT, Server-Sent Events.

Runners-up for Best API Business Model for 2021

There were two runners-up for this category: Codat Portal and Smartcar. Of note is the Bol.com Developer Portal.

Codat Portal is very accessible to new users through its offer of a free trial and a test environment. Once logged in, besides legal language that is helpful, there are also Vimeo videos and primers for non-technical users. Codat Portal has three pricing tiers and promotes that it makes >22M API calls/mo and takes one day to get started.

Smartcar presents a clear business model and great data visualization to showcase what’s in each plan.

Noteworthy: Bol.com Developer portal makes it much easier to automate adding products, manage fulfillment, and manage the commerce life cycle by using their developer portal, its APIs, and documentation. Documentation spans key concepts and common workflows to detailed documentation for an eCommerce scenario.

DevPortal Awards 2021 Community Prize

All nominated developer portals are eligible to be considered for the community prize. Public voting for this year’s prize took place between the 1st of September and the 7th of November.

The results of the community vote are a tribute to how a developer portal can be recognized through its reach even outside the developer community — visibility to the wider customer community, social media influence, family members, and friends. Not every nominee advertised themselves for the public vote but for the ones that did there was an incredible turnout of votes with a total of 10,506 votes cast for 49 developer portals in 2021.

Winner of the DevPortal Awards 2021 Community Prize

BNI API Digital Services takes home the prize for the 2nd year in a row! They received a record 5895 votes.

Runners-up for the DevPortal Awards 2021 Community Prize

The top five community voted developer portals for 2021 were:

• BNI API Digital Services,
• BRI API Developer Portal,
• Wathq Developer Portal,
• Amadeus for Developers, and
• KBC Developer Portal.

Finalist Selection for Best Overall Developer Portal 2021

The temptation is to award the developer portal with the most wins or runner-up status for Best Overall. However, developer portals should be considered for their overall ability to meet the criteria of as many of the best-in-class criteria independent of the number of awards won — nominees could only officially nominate themselves to a limited number of (4) award categories. The jury considered a shortlist of developer portals with at least one Best-In-Class win —independently— of the total number of wins or status as runner-up.

Criteria used to select the final winner

• Evaluation based on juror’s background expertise (e.g. API reference documentation, design, business alignment, onboarding, information architecture, discoverability, and more);
• Intuitive, cohesive, look & feel, ability to rapidly evaluate APIs and developer portal;
• Jurors were asked to compare these mature and successful sites into a score or ordered ranking;
• Decision made by consensus of the jury on the respective winners.

To learn more about the Jury’s expertise and process for evaluating developer portals, see the Interview with the Jury 2021.

Best Overall SME Developer Portal for 2021

The final shortlist of candidates for the Best Overall SME award were:

• Ably Developer Platform,
• Algolia Developer Platform,
• Plaid’s Developer Portal and Documentation,
• platformOS Developer Portal,
• Twitter Developer Platform, and
• Xsolla Developers.

Winner of Best Overall SME Developer Portal for 2021

The jury chose Ably Developer Platform as the winner for Best Overall SME Developer Portal in 2021.

Ably Developer Platform is overall a simple site, easy to understand what they have and how to use it. The onboarding process is a good starting point with API key and code samples in different languages, test environments. The onboarding flow was the best: they provide good explanations in writing and a good balance between visuals and detail to understand the product and grab your attention. The site does not assume that the visitor/user knows all the details. They didn’t just jump into the technical details of the product. Last year they were a runner-up and returning jurors were able to recognize the improvements that have built up over the years with this developer portal. Overall, they have a relentless focus on developer experience and have tried to do everything possible to create a superior developer experience. They are customer/developer-centric. Discovery within the site is beautiful, proactive, and easy. The jury found a talking point in the right sidebar which is considered non-standard but does not get in the way of anyone’s experience.

Best Overall Enterprise Developer Portal for 2021

The final shortlist of candidates for the Best Overall SME award were:

• Barclays API Exchange,
• BT API Developer Portal,
• Finastra FusionCreator Developer Portal,
• KBC Developer Portal,
• ThingWorx Developer Portal, and
• Tink Console.

Winner of Best Overall Enterprise Developer Portal for 2021

The jury chose Finastra’s FusionCreator Developer Portal as the winner for Best Overall Enterprise Developer Portal in 2021.

Fusion Creator Developer Portal offers a lot of video content on the site, detailed reference documentation, good getting started tutorial, how to use the portal and how to get started with APIs. The information provided was consistently structured with many products, high complexity, and fit a structure that built predictability into the UX. Design-wise the developer portal follows the same color palette in all diagrams and is consistent. Finastra handles challenges well with managing many product APIs. The navigation with filtration experience is great. Icons are used and there is a good semantic structure. It is, however, one of the slower sites to load. They offer users to use their design system which they use. Finastra manages complexity in a way that makes it simple for a new site visitor to understand what it’s about and find something that appeals to them. They can click and try. Finastra offers three different types of navigation, API, solution and dataset by tags. There are lots of ways to whittle down the information. They also bundle their APIs into premade solutions to make it easier to understand (e.g. loan management). With so much complexity it’s a good use of bundled APIs. Starting documentation and all the videos, sections to get started and example videos so it’s easy to approach such a complex environment. Jurors were interested in how they may use taxonomy behind the scenes to build their data hierarchy.

About the DevPortal Awards

• Nominations were open from May 10th through July 30th with public voting for the community prize from Sept 1st to November 7th.
• Each nominee was limited to run for a total of four award categories.
• The winners of the 2021 DevPortal Awards were announced in 2 separate Gala events held November 10th and December 15th.
• Learn more about the DevPortal Awards.

Demo/Q&A with some nominees

During the Showcase Your DevPortal Series at the API the Docs Virtual for 2021, several nominated teams gave us a public look inside their devportals, shared challenges they faced, and showcased their solutions. The links below are to the demo/Q&A.

• FourKites Developer Portal
• Wultra Developer Portal
• Yoti Developer Portal
• RingCentral Developers
• KBC Developer Portal
• Euler Hermes Developer Portal
• Amadeus for Developers
• Reonomy Technical Documentation
• ABN AMRO Developer Portal
• G+D Convego® Connect APIs
• platformOS Developer Portal
• Onfido Developer Portal
• BT API Developer Portal
• Barclays API Exchange
• Codat Portal
• Smartcar Developer Platform

Full List of DevPortal Awards Nominees for 2021

Finally, as organizers we would like to give a massive thank you to all the nominees and participants of the 2021 DevPortal Awards. These participants were involved in answering initial questionnaires that contributed to juror knowledge & understanding in the context of the award category, some demonstrated their developer portal (see links above), and also responded to jurors’ specific questions during deliberations (via email). All of these developer portals are examples built with a dedication to developer experience, operational excellence, and business alignment.

• Ably
• ABN AMRO Developer Portal
• Accor Developer Portal
• Algolia
• Amadeus for Developers
• Barclays API Exchange
• BNI API Digital Services
• Bol.com Development Center
• BRIAPI
• BT API Developer Portal
• Charles Schwab Developer Portal
• Codat Portal via Code Connect
• Code Connect
• Deutsche Bank
• Developer Engine
• Developer Portal by VTB
• Digital Business Platform
• Equinix Developer Platform
• Euler Hermes developer portal
• FactSet Developer Portal
• FourKites Developer Portal
• FusionCreator
• G+D Convego® Connect APIs
• Hazelcast documentation
• KBC Developer Portal
• Mercedes-Benz /developers
• Onfido Developer Hub
• Plaid’s developer documentation
• platformOS Developer Portal
• R3 Developers
• Rapyd Developer Portal
• Reonomy Technical Documentation
• RingCentral Developers
• SEON Docs
• Sikka ONE API
• Smartcar
• Tapix Developers portal
• TCS Cubo Marketplace
• ThingWorx Developer Portal
• Tink Console
• Tokopedia Seller API
• Twitter Developer Platform
• UnifyID (Acquired by Prove) Developer Portal
• Wathq
• Worldpay Developer
• Wultra Developer Portal
• Xsolla Developers
• Yoti developer documentation
• YTS API Portal

If you have reached the end of this long article, please be sure to nominate your developer portal in 2022 when the DevPortal Awards return for its next season. Stay tuned for the call for nominations in May 2022.

More on accessibility

• Best Accessible Devportal
• Digital Accessibility for Developer Portals
• Designing Developer Portals for Digital Accessibility
• Cognitive accessibility for developer portals
• Cognitive Accessibility For Developer Portals: Accessible Content For Every User

Go back to the Best Developer Portals article 

All Pronovix publications are the fruit of a team effort, enabled by the research and collective knowledge of the entire Pronovix team. Our ideas and experiences are greatly shaped by our clients and the communities we participate in.

Check 2020's categories and winners on the DevPortal Awards website »  

Go back to the Best Developer Portals article 

What makes your API references good? How can you boost developer experience? What docs do decision makers need? What ensures accessibility?

A handful of leaders in the API space are developing DX innovations for their API products and developer portals, but it is difficult to see clear trends in the API docs space. With the DevPortal Awards, Pronovix aims at creating an opportunity to celebrate the best developer portals, their API documentation components and inclusive characteristics, so that the API industry as a whole can accelerate its own learning.

This year, the DevPortal Awards counted 11 categories. Nominated portals automatically ran for the Best Overall DevPortal. The jury (Bob Watson, Anne Gentle and Lukas Rosenstock) chose the finalists and winners in each category. Furthermore, the community also casted votes for the Best Overall DevPortal. Two categories (Best Policies & Terms of Use; Best Localized & International DevPortal) only counted one nominee each —the jury decided to withdraw the respective prizes this year.

Best API Business Model: TomTom for Developers

In the “API business model” category we were looking for portals that have innovative business models, such as API pricing model innovations and new ways to monetize APIs. In addition, we were looking for portals that have found an efficient way to present these.

The jury found that Postman provided a unique offering of APIs with well explained pricing models that are accessible for a large audience. While TomTom created a very well-explained and easily understandable pay-as-you-grow model. The jury also mentioned that a nice-to-have feature was the popup feedback widget which asks if the pricing model is clear to the user.

Best API Reference Documentation: Adyen API Explorer

In the “API reference documentation” category we were looking for portals that improve on API reference documentation.

This means how they integrate with “try it out”, and sandbox functionality: the heart of developer experience.

A few extras that were appreciated are highlighted code, ability to comment, copy buttons, collapsible columns, a programming language selector, interactive links, and easy switching between testing and production.

This was the toughest category for the Jury. The jury members pointed out that it’s difficult to “differentiate among the best because “best” is pretty broad and product-specific […..] while bad is objectively bad, good is very subjective and context-specific.”

The DevPortal Awards Jury acknowledged Mercedes-Benz / developers for their easy-to-read and easy-to-find reference docs.

The jury valued Shutterstock’s references because they are easily reachable, well-written and explanatory with different language examples.

The Adyen docs were praised for being innovative, and interactive. They are easy to use and easy to navigate, and support multiple API versions.

Best New DX Innovation: NBG Technology Hub

In the “Developer Experience Innovation” category we were looking for portals that lead the way in boosting developer experience through Developer eXperience innovations or well executed existing technologies.

Among the criteria we can mention various tools for user engagement, such as pay for work, innovative testing, API explorer, and visuals.

The jury highlighted NBG’s try-it-out and take-the-tour functions and recognized Adyen for its dropdown list with actual use cases that show corresponding examples that are editable and runnable.

Best Design: Mercedes-Benz / developers

In the “Design” category we were looking for portals that found the perfect harmony of usability, content and aesthetics and present every aspect of the APIs in a well-structured, understandable way. In short: developer portals that inspire trust through superior production quality.

In all four cases, the jury highlighted the words clean, consistent and usable.

ABN Amro was celebrated for its matching aesthetics and attention to detail, Deutsche Bank for its dark-light mode function and its modern and unique design.

The jury praised Aevi for the meaningful illustrations on the home page, and Mercedes-Benz / developers for keeping up UI design expectations throughout the whole portal.

Best Onboarding: Nexmo Developer

In the “Best onboarding” category we were looking for portals that clearly show what their APIs are about, how they work, and how developers can start integrating and where they can find resources.

The jury liked Nexmo Developer’s narrative tutorials, step-by-step guide, error documentation and clear use cases.

ThingWorx was appreciated for its clear Getting Started guide and its transparent onboarding process.

While Amadeus was applauded for its straightforwardness, and self-service instructions.

Best Decision Maker Documentation: Adyen documentation

In the “Decision maker documentation” category we were looking for portals that could increase the perceived value of their API through spot-on and clear business descriptions.

Adyen is all about APIs, and dedicated their homepage to decision makers that would like to evaluate what the company offers.

The jury therefore recommends Adyen as a model for their use cases and case studies.

Best Community Spotlight & Outreach: Visa Developer Center

In the “Community spotlight and outreach” category we were looking for portals with creative solutions or initiatives to show developers that their work is appreciated.

These are the Portals with great community sections where developers can share knowledge and build connections.

Postman’s strong points were its Community Showcase, Jobs Board and Events Board, plus the many examples on the forum and the case studies available on the blog.

Visa’s partner showcase features lots of use cases. Furthermore, the jury mentioned the monthly developer spotlights and community newsletter.

Regarding ThingWorx, the jury pointed out that the company praises authors and blog posts.

Best Post-Integration & Maintenance Support: Nexmo Developer

In the “Post-integration and maintenance support” category we were looking for portals that do an exceptional job in creating trust towards their APIs by clearly, yet innovatively indicating their availability and reliability.

Portals that make it easy to maintain an API integration through great release notes and other maintenance support.

The jury highlighted Amadeus’s FAQ and changelog, and Nexmo’s comprehensive status page, active community, and support knowledge base.

Best Accessible DevPortal: Barclays API Exhange

In this category, we were looking for devportals that take the initiative to make their APIs and documentation accessible to all possible users, regardless of disability type or severity of impairment.

The jury praised Barclays for having an accessible site without losing interface or interaction quality.

Best Overall DevPortal, Jury Prize: TomTom for Developers

In this category, the jury selected four finalists: TomTom for Developers, HERE, Genesys and ThingWorx.

TomTom won because, according to the jury, they (1) scored very well in more than one category, and (2) made huge progress compared to last year.

Best Overall DevPortal, Community Prize: Visa Developer Center

On a total of 2213 votes in August and September 2019, Visa received 366!

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What are the world’s best devportals? What do they do differently? Are there any best practices that everybody could and/or should be doing? Our primary aim with the Devportal Awards was to answer these questions - or at least trigger a discussion about them.

For three years now Pronovix has been researching what makes a devportal tick and to get analytical insights about the different aspects of portals. We’ve seen that there are a handful of leaders in the API space who are developing Developer eXperience innovations for their API products and developer portals, but we haven’t seen any coordination between these efforts, and it is difficult to see clear trends in the API docs space.

We created nine categories for the award, and if a portal was nominated in any of these, it was automatically in race for the Best Overall Developer Portal Jury and Community Prize. Our aim with these categories is to expand the vocabulary the industry uses to talk about DX, so that the conversation becomes about actual experiences instead of brand recognition.

Our main goal is to create an opportunity to celebrate the best developer portals and their API documentation components, so that this could become a learning tool for the API industry.

Great names from the field of developer portals and documentation agreed to form the jury of the Awards and make sure that the best nominees win in the nine categories and the Best Overall Developer Portal Jury Prize. Thank you Anne Gentle, Michael Meng, Lukas Rosenstock, Ashley Hathaway and Jenny Wanger.

Also big thank you to the community, everyone who voted for the Best Overall Developer Portal Community Prize.

The very first DevPortal Awards Gala, where we announced the winners of the categories was held on 9th of November in London. The API the Docs Conference set the perfect atmosphere for celebrating the teams behind the best portals.

Let’s see now the winners and finalists of each category with a short summary of the jury’s justification.

Best New DX Innovation: Cisco DevNet

In this category we were looking for portals that lead the way in boosting developer experience through DX innovations or well executed existing technologies. Among the criteria we can mention various tools for user engagement, such as pay for work, innovative testing, API explorer, visuals.

Erste was praised for the visuals and animation while in the case of Cisco the jury highlighted the fact that they strive to address developers with different aims and they also offer a variety of tools - testing options, tool integration and a strong community focus.

Best API Business Model: Shopify Developers

In this category we were looking for portals that have innovative business models, such as API pricing model innovations and new ways to monetize APIs, and that have found an efficient way to present these.

TomTom has a very well-explained and easily understandable pay-as-you-grow model and some useful extras such as the possibility to compare prices in US dollars and euros. Shopify offers two possibilities for developers to make money: app development and custom development, which means multiple opportunities for developers to make money. There are clear explanations and charts to help users decide.

Best API Reference Documentation: Nexmo Developer

In this category we were looking for portals that improve on API reference documentation and how they integrate with “try it out”, and sandbox functionality: the heart of developer experience. Little extras that were appreciated are highlighted code, commenting possibility, copy buttons, collapsible columns, programming language selector, interactive links, easy switch between testing and production.

In this category the race was very close. According to the DevPortal Awards Jury Nexmo’s reference docs are a good example to follow for the numerous explanations it offers, the great structure, layout and texts. KPN’s reference docs were praised for being code centered but still containing lots of descriptive information and offering a try out option.

Best Design: Mapbox

In this category we were looking for portals that found the perfect harmony of usability, content and aesthetics and present every aspect of the APIs in a well-structured, understandable way. Developer portals that inspire trust through superior production quality.

The two adjectives that were most often used by the jury to describe all of the finalists were clean and consistent, which can be understood as synonyms of good design. In case of Mapbox the jury emphasized as a positive feature that the portal feels spacious, and it is very easy to navigate. Typeform was praised for the way it uses colors consistently throughout the sections. The jury also liked the way Cisco uses the colors, and the portal was also celebrated for its clear structure.

Best Post-integration & Maintenance Support: Nexmo Developer

In this category we were looking for portals that do an exceptional job in creating trust towards their APIs by clearly, yet innovatively indicating their availability and reliability. Portals that make it easy to maintain an API integration through great release notes and other maintenance support.

The jury highlighted that Orange is very active both in its blog and Twitter. From its blog, Twitter and the latest news Dailymotion also seems to be actively monitoring what’s going on. They have many channels for support and use them actively. Nexmo was pointed out for its separate status page and also for its active Stack Overflow page and blog and for the fact that the team regularly attends conferences, which also shows that they care.

Best Onboarding: Nexmo Developer

In this category we were looking for portals that clearly show what their APIs are about, how they work, how developers can start integrating and where they can find resources.

The jury liked Nexmo’s tutorials a lot - they are numerous and understandable. SendGrid was praised for highlighting its Get started documentation, which also has a nice, and easy to follow step-by-step structure.

Best Community Spotlight & Outreach: Cisco DevNet

In this category we were looking for portals with creative solutions or initiatives to show developers that their work is appreciated. Portals with great community sections where developers can share knowledge and build connections.

Shopify’s main strength in this category was that they seem to pay great attention to events and webinars, which shows that education is very important for them. The jury found that Cisco provides a great example of an engaging landing page, and it manages to give a taste of everything that might be important for community building: blogs, code intent, access to repositories, learning events, etc.

Best Devportal Policies & Terms of Use: Ticketmaster Developer Portal

In this category we were looking for portals that build trust through a genuine approach even in the seemingly unglamorous topic of policies and terms of use. These dry and boring texts can be made more consumable by giving a human friendly summary or by highlighting the most recent changes.

The jury found the terms on KPN’s portal well-structured and easy to scan with a reasonable length. Ticketmaster was also praised for using a clear language with headings to make scanning easier. They also liked that Ticketmaster created separate terms for partner APIs and the way it emphasizes what users shall and shall not do.

Best Decision Maker Documentation: Deutsche Bank Developer Portal

In this category we were looking for portals that could increase the perceived value of their API through spot-on and clear business descriptions.

The jury liked that Orange provides clear and detailed product descriptions that are targeted at non technical audiences. Deutsche Bank was also praised for having a marketing focused API overview and providing entry points for decision makers with short teasers which then lead to detailed descriptions. The jury found Shopify’s main strength in the use cases it offers and how it describes different opportunities for different developers.

Best Overall Developer Portal Jury Prize: Cisco DevNet

The race was very close for the Best Overall developer Portal Jury price. The decisive argument for Cisco DevNet was that they had an unbelievably complex problem to solve with their numerous products and content types, and they could meet this challenge in a truly convincing way.

Best Overall Developer Portal Community Prize: Dailymotion Developer Portal

The community voting opened on 20th September and closed on 31st October. The winner got an amazing 1060 votes. 

Congratulations to the winners! 

Read our interviews with the winning teams about their experience with the award and their plans.

Read the article »