When should you retire an API?

As a general rule, you should put an API out of service whenever the costs of maintaining it are too high compared to what you can gain by keeping it running. There are, however, a few events that can trigger the decision to retire an API. The first one is related to the technology that powers your API. Technology evolves and, sometimes, the one you used to build your API is no longer maintained. When that happens, keeping your API running is risky. If you have an issue, there’s no way to obtain support from software that has no maintainers. Additionally, the technology maintainer is no longer available to provide security updates. Keeping the obsolete technology and using it to power your API can become a huge cost for you the longer you postpone getting rid of it. So, it’s only natural that you decide to retire that API and build one that replaces it using new technology.

Another reason that makes you ponder if you should retire your...