Traceable Review: Overview, Features, and Pricing

The need for security over the internet keeps growing over the years. People now do most of their transactions over the internet, uploading personal details and credit card information in the process. The challenge is that malicious players are always looking for loopholes to attack. Traceable is helping businesses spot and block costly security threats over the internet.

Imagine this scenario. You walk into a restaurant. But instead of going to the kitchen to tell the chef what you want, you sit and order from the menu. That is what APIs do in software development. Application programming interfaces (APIs) are used to communicate between software programs. Like the menu in that restaurant, APIs are rules and instructions that allow one program to ask another for something.

However, what happens if someone could easily exchange the menu or claim your order as theirs? You would probably never eat there again. Similarly, APIs are constantly faced with threats that disrupt the smooth running of the application. To avoid this, the API security platform Traceable discovers, tests, and protects APIs from attacks. This article thoroughly reviews Traceable’s features and their benefits to modern-day systems.

Traceable Overview

Traceable is an API security platform that identifies and protects APIs from threats. APIs have become essential in today’s software development process. That is because cloud-native apps use them to request, transfer, process, and store data regardless of the industry. 

For instance, an e-commerce platform integrates with a payment app. However, the integrated API is the factor that allows the payment process to run smoothly. Traceable discovers these APIs, including those you didn’t know existed on your app. Simultaneously, it detects and eliminates breaches and gathers insights to make APIs more secure.

Founded in 2018 by Jyoti Bansal and Sanjay Nagaraj, Traceable has developed into a context-aware API security platform. In other words, it can render security solutions and insights highly tailored to your software’s APIs.

While at AppDynamics, Jyoti and Sanjay witnessed cloud-native computing become more popular. A rise in cloud-native apps only meant a rise in the use of APIs. That led them to create a platform that could protect APIs from future attacks.

In adherence to its mission to protect every innovation, Traceable has recently added another security solution to its platform. The Zero Trust API Access (ZTAA) solution reduces or eliminates persistent trust for APIs. 

As such, Traceable will keep demanding authentication to use an API until the user is verified as trustworthy. As you’ll learn later in the article, this feature actively reduces breaches from the user’s end.

Over the years, Traceable’s value proposition has attracted tremendous funding. In 2020, it had gotten $20 million in Series A and thrice the amount in its 2022 Series B. Recently, the API security platform was valued at $450 million in its latest series B. As developers and security leaders continue to adopt the platform, more funding may be on the way for Traceable.

• Established: 2018
• Founders: Jyoti Bansal and Sanjay Nagaraj
• Offices: 548 Market Street PMB 83903, San Francisco (Headquarters)

5 Core Features of Traceable

Expert Opinion

Rating: 4.7/5

Traceable is an intelligent API security platform for cloud-native apps to maintain complete control over their APIs.

Traceable’s several features have earned it a place among the most sought-after API security platforms today. Its API catalog feature that allows it to hunt for recognized and hiding APIs is one of the most beloved. That can help customers avoid zombie APIs. That is, APIs that are not needed but still have access to data. And by giving software developers complete visibility over API endpoints, they can make more informed decisions.

Another factor that endears us to this platform is its ease of onboarding. Depending on the complexity of the environment, the deployment time takes barely a week. And the support team is there to aid the process actively. Traceable’s team also responds promptly and follows up to ensure you’re having a seamless experience. 

Still, there is room for improvement, especially with its documentation. Covering more use cases will reduce the time customers spend on contacting support. It will also make integration with other tools more accessible.

Traceable provides excellent threat analytics, providing valuable insights. However, providing more extensive reports will be even more helpful. Developers will benefit from access to their past data when considering app upgrades.

Exploring the software, we appreciated the simple interface. However, we experienced a slight inconvenience with the UI. For instance, you constantly have to hide one column to see another. Another excellent addition the company can consider would be a comment feature so teams can easily communicate while they work on a threat factor.

Regardless, we’ve seen the platform evolve over the years. That shows that the Traceable team listens to its customers. Traceable remains an excellent tool for security teams, developers, and risk managers to evaluate APIs’ role in their apps.

Notable Features Of Traceable

Traceable employs machine learning protocols such as distributed tracing in its security delivery. The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) has seven layers for managing communication between applications. And unlike many security platforms that only protect up to layer 7 of your applications, it goes deeper. Here are the features Traceable uses to accomplish that.

1. API Catalog

Traceable API Catalog helps discover APIs and risk posture management. There are several APIs in cloud-native or API-based apps. Some of them may be orphaned or even shadowed. As a result, the developer may be unaware of their presence. 

However, the API catalog calls them out and makes an inventory of them. With this, security teams can avoid API sprawl, a term for having numerous APIs in software that can lead to forgetting them.

Every API has security risks, which are determined by how you built it and the specific use case. The API catalog gives each API’s risk scores, allowing you to see its vulnerabilities. It also helps you protect sensitive data by detecting which APIs lack proper authentication.

2. API Protection

Of what use is a security tool if it can only detect and not prevent anomalies? With this threat protection feature, Traceable monitors communications between your API endpoints. It is also able to stop known and unknown API attacks. Exploring API vulnerabilities, such as business logic abuse attacks, helps you block them before hackers reach them.

Another thing the threat protection feature does is to use software bugs and CVEs to audit access to APIs. CVEs, short for common vulnerabilities and exposures, are directories for identified vulnerabilities. Many DevOps and security teams use them to evaluate the risk of a vulnerability.

Through this feature, Traceable can detect and stop the theft of sensitive data in real time. It achieves this through machine-learning models that provide a baseline of normal API operations. Therefore, if an action goes against the algorithm’s processes, it is flagged as a breach.

3. API Management

Apart from identifying and fighting real-time attacks, Traceable can also forecast threats. As your APIs respond to their calls, Traceable follows them and analyzes their end-to-end path trace. It then channels the data gathered into a database.

The database also contains data analyzed from user-attributed transactions and the API traffic history. Your security operation centers can use this database to fish out indicators of compromise. They can also use it to conduct forensic reviews and security analysis after a security incident.

As security teams do this, Traceable also carries out its behavioral analysis. Its investigation and enhanced troubleshooting allow it to provide more relevant data in the future. And by doing so, it simplifies the audit process for risk assessors.

4. Zero Trust API Access

Traceable launched its Zero Trust API Access (ZTAA) in April earlier this year. As mentioned earlier, this feature eliminates persistent trust. The ZTAA follows one primary rule. It assumes all users to be strangers until they’re authenticated.

The ZTAA provides your app with dynamic data access, allowing you to decide which users can access specific data types. You can also segment access by location and time by setting data access policies. 

To ensure advanced data protection, the ZTAA enforces adaptive trust for APIs at the edge, third-party apps, and internal services. It ensures that users can respond to risk signals based on the context. That, in turn, secures sensitive business and customer data.

Traceable Integration

Traceable is relatively easy to integrate into other software applications. During your onboarding, the support team will provide you with Traceable’s document that covers several use cases. They’ll walk you hand-in-hand through the process, especially if you’re deploying into a complex environment. And also assist you with your third-party integrations if you use any. Traceable’s onboarding time is between days and weeks, depending on the software.

Traceable Pricing and Plans

Traceable’s pricing follows a quotation-based model. A quotation is a fixed price offer the seller and buyer agree on.  Due to its API catalog and other features, pricing by endpoint alone may not suffice. Therefore, Traceable considers your software type, APIs, industry, use cases, and several factors to determine the pricing that works for you.

Traceable does not offer a free trial. However, it allows you to request a demo on its website. You can also schedule a meeting with the team to learn how the platform can help your business. Regardless of the pricing, the table in the next section features the basics Traceable offers.

Key Features Table

Traceable Terms and Policies

Traceable has a long list of terms and policies guiding users’ interaction with the platform. As a rule of thumb, you must be of legal age to form a binding contract before using the SaaS. Traceable also adds that it will not solicit information from children younger than 16 years.

Apart from this basic rule, the API security platform emphasizes how it handles customer data. Its privacy policy document states the type of data it collects. This includes identifiers, commercial and payment information, and visual information. It also relays how it uses the collected data.
Traceable provides a Master Subscription Agreement (MSA) for its enterprise customers. This agreement describes the rights and protections available to all Traceable’s customers. It includes information on support, warranty, indemnity, and termination. You can read the full document here.

Customer Support

Quick customer support is one of the services you get once you’ve completed your Traceable onboarding. Enterprise customers can reach out to the support team as the need arises. Apart from this, customers can get quicker answers to their queries through the customer support page.

Traceable’s customer support page is similar to a directory. You can search for the topics you’re curious about or browse through the listed sections. If you’re considering the platform, you can also book a call with the team. To reach them on social media, follow these links:

• X (formerly Twitter): @traceableai
• LinkedIn: Traceable

Conclusion

APIs are unavoidable in today’s applications. They are either incorporated during development or while integrating other apps. However, with the massive adoption of APIs come more threats to personal and organizational data. Now more than ever, consumers are doubting the safety of their data with companies. 

Therefore, developers and organizations must continually fortify their apps with API security tools. That is the only way they can ascertain the integrity of the data exchanged among their APIs.
If you want to see how Traceable works, you can request a demo on their website. However, if you’re going to get straight to business, schedule a call with the team through this link. And while you’re here, do explore our bank of reviews. You just might find another helpful SaaS tool.

Contributors: Adenike Omope (Technical Writer); John Ayanfe (Graphics Designer)