Here’s why you shouldn’t be charged for API access to your own data

Software as a service is great in many ways, ranging from very fast onboarding to automatic upgrades and unlimited scalability. It stops being great when your service provider actively works to trap you into their system.

An application programming interface, API, is a part of a software that makes it accessible from other software. This comes in particularly handy if you do not want to put all your eggs in one basket or even if you want to move away from one service provider to another. Having access to an API makes it possible for your new software provider, or even your own team members, to create a small application that takes away the headache of manually migrating from one software to another. You can achieve a ‘one click migration’ that saves you both time and money.

There are 3 reasons why your current service provider may choose to not give you access to their API:

• They do not have one.
• They are afraid you will move on to a better service provider.
• They are worried you might break their platform by using their API.

This last reason does have a little merit to it, yet it can easily be addressed with a concept known as ‘Rate Limiting’. This allows the service provider to protect from any potential damage that may come from API abuse.

I strongly believe that APIs should be part and parcel of the core service provided by any cloud-based software. In fact it should be a key consideration when you are in the process of evaluating potential service providers. I also believe that if I am paying a software licence to use any cloud software, then I should be able to easily access my data without any additional fees.

This is why with Talexio, our HR and Payroll software, we make sure that our APIs are free and available to all our customers. Instant migrations are possible with Talexio.

We believe that our customers will choose to continue using our software because they love what it can do for them, rather than because they are forced to stay. If a customer chooses to move on to other software, we will help them even in their offboarding process. Through such interactions we will inevitably learn from any feedback we can get and more importantly we will rest easy knowing we upheld our commitment to good service all the way until the end.