When I first started working with APIs, "Swagger" was almost synonymous with API documentation.
If someone asked where the API docs were, the answer was usually "check Swagger." If someone wanted to understand an endpoint, they opened Swagger UI. Even today, many developers still refer to any OpenAPI-based documentation as "Swagger."
But API development has changed a lot over the last few years.
Writing an OpenAPI specification is only one part of the workflow. Modern development teams also need automated testing, mock servers, environment management, collaboration, CI/CD integration, version control, and increasingly, AI-assisted development.
Because of that, many developers eventually begin looking for alternatives. Not because Swagger has become obsolete, but because their projects have outgrown a documentation-first workflow.
