Mobile point-of-sale platform
- 10,000+
- transactions in the first 3 months
REST API Development
An API that third-party developers can't use without calling your dev team is an API that hasn't finished being built.
RESTful APIs are the standard interface between systems: between your mobile app and backend, between your product and third-party integrations, between your data layer and the services that consume it. A well-designed REST API has consistent patterns, predictable error responses, clear versioning, and documentation that lets a developer integrate without support. A poorly designed one accumulates workarounds in every client that touches it.
RaftLabs builds RESTful APIs designed as products, not as internal plumbing that happens to be externally accessible. Resource modeling, HTTP verb discipline, authentication (OAuth 2.0, JWT, API keys), rate limiting, versioning, error response standards, and OpenAPI 3.0 documentation generated from the code. Fixed cost agreed before development starts.
Resource-oriented design with consistent URL patterns, HTTP verbs, and response structures across all endpoints
OAuth 2.0 and JWT authentication with scoped permissions and token refresh
Rate limiting, pagination, and error responses standardized across every endpoint, not per-developer convention
OpenAPI 3.0 documentation generated from the codebase, not written separately and left to drift
Recent outcomes
Voice AI · Research
6× deeper insights
Text-based interviews converted to automated phone calls
AI Automation · Ops
20k+ txns day one
Manual invoice OCR across 40+ gas stations
Loyalty · Retail
1,062 users in 4 weeks
SuperValu & Centra loyalty platform with receipt validation
SaaS · Logistics
2,000+ shipments yr 1
Multi-carrier shipping hub for Indonesian eCommerce
4.9
on ClutchThe problem
Sound familiar?
Are third-party developers or mobile teams spending more time reading your API's inconsistencies than integrating with its capabilities?
When your API returns an error, does the response tell the consuming developer what went wrong and what to do about it, or just an HTTP status code?
Short answer
RaftLabs builds REST APIs as products: resource-oriented design, OAuth 2.0 and JWT authentication, idempotency keys for safe retries, cursor pagination, rate limiting, versioning, RFC 9457 error responses, and OpenAPI 3.0 docs generated from the code. A first API covering one resource domain, CRUD, and docs starts around $20,000 to $50,000 and ships a validated v1 in 6 to 14 weeks, then grows from there.
Key takeaways
- RaftLabs designs REST APIs as products with resource-oriented URL patterns, consistent HTTP verb discipline, and standardized error responses across all endpoints.
- Authentication is implemented using OAuth 2.0 and JWT with scoped permissions, token refresh, and support for mobile, web, and machine-to-machine flows.
- OpenAPI 3.0 documentation is generated from the codebase so it never drifts from the actual implementation.
- Rate limiting, pagination, and versioning are standardized across every endpoint from the start, not added later as workarounds.
- Idempotency keys make state-changing requests safe to retry, so a dropped connection never creates a duplicate order or double charge.
- A first REST API covering one resource domain, authentication, CRUD, and OpenAPI docs starts around $20,000 to $50,000 and ships a validated v1 in 6 to 14 weeks; a multi-domain platform API with OAuth 2.0 flows and webhooks grows to $50,000 to $120,000 over time.
- All projects are scoped to a fixed cost agreed before development starts.
Trusted by
A REST API is the standard interface between your systems: between mobile and backend, between your product and its integrations, between data services and the applications that consume them. Most APIs get built as an afterthought and documented later. The result is inconsistent patterns, ambiguous errors, and integration friction that compounds as more clients connect.
A well-built REST API behaves like a well-built product: a clear contract, predictable behavior, failures that tell the consumer what went wrong, and docs that match the running code. RaftLabs settles the contract before writing a line of business logic. Resource naming, endpoint shape, auth model, error format, versioning, pagination, and idempotency rules all land in an OpenAPI 3.0 spec first. That spec becomes the single source of truth for both the build and the docs.
Undocumented APIs are the norm, not the exception, and they are what turn a two-day integration into a two-week support thread.
Why the API contract is the product
- 1,800
- APIs the average large enterprise runs
- Forrester Research, 2024
- 58%
- of those APIs are formally documented or cataloged
- Forrester Research, 2024
- 62%
- of companies now generate revenue directly from APIs
- Postman State of the API, 2024 (5,600+ respondents)
For any team exposing an API to partners or third-party developers, every missing endpoint detail becomes a support ticket, and every ambiguous error becomes a debugging call. The fix is not more documentation after the fact. It is a contract that clients can read, test, and trust before they write a single line against it.
Capabilities
What we build
- 01Resource-oriented API design
URL structure and HTTP verb discipline applied consistently across all endpoints, with noun-based resource paths and a single response envelope so clients write one handler, not per-endpoint parsing. The OpenAPI 3.0 spec is written contract-first, and code generation derives server validation and TypeScript types from it.
- Built with
- HTTP verbs · OpenAPI 3.0 · TypeScript
- 02Authentication and authorization
OAuth 2.0 with the right flow per integration type, authorization code with PKCE for web and mobile, client credentials for machine-to-machine, device code for CLI. JWT with asymmetric signing enables stateless validation with no central session store, refresh token rotation detects stolen tokens, and a Redis-backed denylist revokes compromised tokens immediately.
- Built with
- OAuth 2.0 · PKCE · JWT · JWKS · Redis
- 03Rate limiting and throttling
Per-client rate limits that protect the API from abuse without blocking legitimate high-volume consumers, enforced at the gateway or application middleware. The token bucket algorithm allows bursts, standard headers let clients back off before hitting 429, and Redis-backed counters keep limits consistent across instances.
- Built with
- Kong · AWS API Gateway · Token bucket · Redis
- 04Idempotency and safe retries
A network timeout makes the client retry, and a retried POST must never create a second order or a double charge. Every state-changing endpoint accepts an Idempotency-Key header. The server records the key with the first response and replays that exact result on any retry inside the window. Webhook consumers get the same contract, so at-least-once delivery never doubles a downstream side effect.
- Built with
- Idempotency-Key · Redis · at-least-once delivery
- 05Versioning and backwards compatibility
API versioning strategy designed upfront, not retrofitted at the first breaking change. URI versioning for public APIs, header versioning for controlled internal clients, and additive changes that never bump the version. Deprecated endpoints carry machine-readable deadlines, and breaking bumps get a minimum 12 months of parallel support plus a migration guide.
- Built with
- URI versioning · Sunset headers
- 06Error handling and response standards
Consistent error responses following RFC 9457 Problem Details across all endpoints, type, title, status, detail, and per-field validation, so clients show specific messages without parsing free text. HTTP status codes are used correctly throughout, and correlation IDs trace every error to the exact server log entry.
- Built with
- RFC 9457 Problem Details · HTTP status codes · Correlation IDs
- 07OpenAPI documentation and developer experience
An OpenAPI 3.0 spec that stays in sync with the implementation by construction, generated from annotations or code-first schemas so it never drifts. Interactive docs support one-click authenticated testing, SDK generation produces typed client libraries for Node.js, Python, and Java, and webhooks ship documented with payloads, retries, and HMAC verification.
- Built with
- OpenAPI 3.0 · Swagger UI · Redoc · openapi-generator · Node.js
Have an API project?
Tell us what the API needs to do, who will consume it, and what's broken about the current setup. We'll scope the design and build and give you a fixed cost.
Related API development services
API Development Services, full API development capability overview
GraphQL Development, GraphQL APIs for flexible data fetching across multiple client types
Third-Party API Integration, connecting your systems to external APIs
API Gateway Development, API gateway and management layer for multiple backend services
What clients say
What our clients say
Three-year average engagement. Founders and operators describing the work in their own words. No marketing varnish.
Charles E.
USAEntrepreneur at Aggie Technologies
All of the sprints were completed on schedule and on budget. We highly recommend RaftLabs!
01 / 02
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Read moreFrequently asked questions
REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style defined by six constraints: client-server separation, statelessness, cacheability, uniform interface, layered system, and optional code on demand. RESTful means conforming to these constraints. In practice, most APIs described as REST are HTTP APIs that use URL-based resources and HTTP verbs but don't fully conform to all REST constraints. The meaningful distinction is between well-designed HTTP APIs, consistent patterns, correct status codes, proper error responses, and HTTP APIs that use URLs without design discipline.
A stateless API means every request from the client contains all information the server needs to fulfill it, the server doesn't store client session state between requests. Authentication state is passed with every request (as a Bearer token in the Authorization header) rather than maintained server-side as a session. Stateless APIs are easier to scale horizontally because any server instance can handle any request, there's no session affinity required. In practice this means JWT tokens for authentication rather than server-side sessions, and request parameters for filtering and pagination rather than cursor state maintained server-side.
The standard approach for most REST APIs is cursor-based pagination rather than offset-based. Offset pagination (?page=3&limit=20) breaks when records are inserted or deleted during pagination, records are skipped or repeated. Cursor-based pagination (?after=cursor_value&limit=20) uses a stable reference point in the dataset that doesn't shift when the underlying data changes. The response includes a next_cursor value when more results are available and null when the end is reached. For analytics endpoints where total counts matter, offset pagination with a total count header is the right trade-off.
Start small and grow. A first REST API covering a single resource domain with authentication, standard CRUD operations, and OpenAPI documentation typically runs $20,000 to $50,000 and ships a validated v1 in 6 to 14 weeks. From there it expands: multiple resource domains, OAuth 2.0 flows, webhook delivery, rate-limit tiers, and a developer portal push a full platform API to $50,000 to $120,000 over time. Fixed cost agreed before each phase starts.
Work with us
Tell us what you need. We'll tell you what it would take.
We scope REST API Development in 30 minutes. You walk away with a clear cost, timeline, and approach. No commitment required.
- Scope and cost agreed before work starts. No surprises. No obligation.
- Working prototype within 3 weeks of kickoff.
- Pay by milestone. You see progress before each invoice.
- 60-day post-launch warranty. Bug fixes, UI tweaks, and deployment support. No retainer.
- All conversations are NDA-protected.