Contents

09/24/2026

Buy Software That Has an API

Part of No Login Required, a series about running a business by talking to your systems instead of clicking through them. The series opener on belchamber.us sets out the idea. This piece turns it into a buying rule.

Two software boxes on a shelf, one sealed and one with a connector already plugged in

Here is the rule, up front: when you choose your next piece of business software, ask whether it has an API before you ask what features it has.

An API (application programming interface) is a documented way for software to talk to other software. For years it was a question for your developer, if you had one. That has changed.

An AI assistant can now do routine work in your tools for you, in plain language, but only in the tools it can reach. A vendor without an API is a vendor you'll be logging in to by hand for as long as you keep it.

Why the API question now outranks the feature list

Feature lists converge. Within a year or two, the tool you didn't pick usually catches up on the feature you picked yours for.

What doesn't converge is how you get the work done. The companion piece on the login tax prices what admin screens cost an owner. Enterprise Platforms Without the Guided Tour shows the same approach working on some of the heaviest software there is. Every one of those cases worked for the same reason: the tool could be reached without its screens.

So the API is no longer a technical footnote. It decides whether a tool can join the way you'll be working in three years, or stays a separate chore with its own login.

What "has an API" really means

"Yes, we have an API" is the start of the answer, not the end. Here's what an owner should actually look for.

Coverage of what you actually do

An API that reads your reports but can't change a setting only covers half the job. Take the list of tasks you do in the tool ("add a user", "update a record", "pull last month's numbers") and check each against the vendor's documentation.

The Google Search Console API, for example, covers search analytics, your verified sites and your sitemaps. That happens to be most of what a small business opens Search Console for.

Permission scoping

A good API lets you hand out a key that can do only what's needed. DreamHost's API lets you tick the exact functions a key may use. The key my assistant uses for DNS can list records and add them, and I deliberately left "remove" unticked. Stripe's restricted API keys do the same for payments.

Stripe goes a step further. Its API keys documentation now lets you tag a key as belonging to an AI agent, and a tagged key's sensitive actions, such as refunds and payouts, wait for a person to approve them. A well-scoped API isn't only a convenience. It's a safety feature.

Rate limits

Every API caps how often you can call it. GitHub's REST API rate limits show what clear documentation looks like: 5,000 requests an hour for a signed-in user, 60 for anonymous ones. You don't need to understand the numbers, only that the vendor publishes them.

Plan-tier gating

This is the one that surprises people. Sometimes the API exists, but not on the plan you're buying.

Salesforce is candid about it. Its help article on Salesforce editions with API access says API access is included in Enterprise, Unlimited, Developer and Performance editions, is a paid add-on in Professional Edition, and is not available at all in Group or Essentials. None of that is hidden. It's just easy to miss if you only read the pricing page.

Data export

Can you get all of your data out, in a format another tool can read? WordPress sets a decent baseline. Its Tools Export screen writes your posts, pages, comments, categories, tags and users to one XML file, and the WordPress REST API exposes the same content to other software as JSON.

An export is your exit door. Check that it opens before you move in.

Webhooks

An API lets you ask a tool questions. A webhook lets the tool tell you when something happens. Stripe's webhook documentation describes pushing an event to your systems when, for example, a customer's bank confirms a payment or a recurring payment succeeds. Without webhooks, your automation has to keep asking "anything new?" like a kid in the back seat.

Documentation quality

Every link in this section is a vendor's own public documentation. If you can't find the API docs without talking to sales, that tells you something.

Tools that talk, and tools that make you do the talking

From my own work, a few that talk well:

  • Search Console, which I query from a chat window through a service account (a login that belongs to software rather than a person).
  • DreamHost for DNS.
  • WordPress, through its REST API.
  • On the enterprise side, Jira's REST API, New Relic's NerdGraph API and the Dynatrace API. All are publicly documented, which is much of why managing those platforms by conversation works.

The ones that make you do the talking come in three kinds:

  1. No API at all. Plenty of small, niche tools still work this way. Everything you do in them, you do by hand.
  2. An API behind a plan you don't have. Salesforce's Group and Essentials editions, per its own help article above.
  3. An API with a door you have to open by hand first. My own example is Google Analytics. It has a well-documented API, but when I tried to reach it through Google's command-line tool, Google refused that tool's shared sign-in outright. The working route needs a one-time access grant made inside Google Analytics itself, which is also what Google's Analytics Data API quickstart tells you to do first. As of late September 2026, that grant is still on my list. It's the mildest of the three, but worth knowing about before you count on the API.

The buying rule at a glance

A public, documented API that covers your tasks
The tool can be reached without its screens. Check scoping, limits and export next.
An API behind a plan you don't have
Check the edition, not just the pricing page.
An API with a door you open by hand first
Plan on a one-time grant inside the product.
No API at all
Everything you do in it, you do by hand.
No API, but rarely used, best at your core job, or easy to leave
It can still earn its login. Make that a decision, not a surprise.

Ask the API question first. The answer tells you whether a tool can join the way you work, or stays a separate chore with its own login.

Questions to ask a vendor before you sign

Copy these into your next demo:

  1. Is there a public API, and where is its documentation?
  2. Is the API included in the plan we're buying, or is it an add-on? Does the price change if our usage grows?
  3. Can the API do each of these tasks? (Bring your own list.)
  4. Can we create a key that is limited to specific actions, such as read-only, or add but not delete?
  5. What are the rate limits, and what happens when we hit them?
  6. Can we export all of our data, and in what format?
  7. Do you offer webhooks for the events we care about?
  8. How much notice do you give before changing or retiring part of the API?

A vendor that answers these quickly, with links, is a vendor that expects to be connected to things. One that needs to "get back to you" on question 1 has answered it.

When a no-API tool is still the right call

This is a rule of thumb, not a commandment. A tool without an API can still be the right choice when one of these is true.

  • You use it rarely

    If you open it twice a year, there's little to automate and little tax to pay.

  • It's the best at the one thing that matters

    A specialist tool that does your core work far better than the alternatives can earn its login.

  • It's easy to leave

    A clean data export softens the missing API, because you can walk away when something better arrives.

  • The job is judgment, not routine

    Some work should stay hands-on, and a missing API doesn't cost you much there.

What matters is making it a decision rather than a surprise.

And whatever connects your assistant to your tools is itself software, often written with AI help. Review that code as thoroughly as your goals and time allow; automated checks are welcome, in addition to that review rather than instead of it.

The takeaway

Software choices are among the most expensive decisions to reverse in a small business: the data piles up inside them, and switching costs grow every month. That's exactly the kind of call a business growth consultant is for.

So the next time a renewal notice or a demo invitation lands, ask the API question first. The feature list will still be there. So, if you choose badly, will the login screen.

More in No Login Required

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