What is API orchestration? | Zapier

I used to sell commercial insurance, which is as thrilling as it sounds. And closing a policy kicked off a multi-step gauntlet: I’d close a sale and bind a policy in the underwriting portal, then email the insured with the policy information, then add the new account in our policy management system, then notify the account manager on Slack, then update the deal record in the CRM, then add the new business on my weekly Microsoft Word report.

It wasn’t just annoying; it was a massive drain on time, not to mention a perfect recipe for errors. This is where API orchestration would’ve been nice. Instead of a tedious six-step process, I could’ve had apps working together to complete each step automatically.

Here’s how API orchestration can help your team and how you can start applying it in minutes with Zapier.

Table of contents:

What is API orchestration and how does it work?

API orchestration is a coordination layer that runs a sequence of automated API calls after a single trigger. It coordinates apps to pass data between each other, manage conditions and retries, and log results as a multi-step workflow.

Instead of a dozen disconnected automations firing off in chaos, orchestration makes sure everything happens in sync. It manages different moving parts (in this case, apps) to come together for a single process (a workflow). All the behind-the-scenes work is completed through data integration tools, workflow logic, and a central control layer to ensure every step happens in the right sequence, and data flows from one service to the next.

Let’s make it less abstract. Say someone fills out a contact form on your site. With Zapier acting as your API orchestration layer, that one event could:

1. Create a new contact in your CRM (like HubSpot).

2. Add a follow-up task for a rep in your project tool (like monday.com).

3. Send a personalized welcome email from your marketing platform (like Mailchimp).

4. Post in a dedicated Slack channel to let Sales know they’ve got a fresh lead.

There was one lead submission, but four separate, dependent actions happened automatically. That’s the beauty of orchestrating multiple API integrations.

What are common tools and approaches to API orchestration?

There are a few common ways to handle API orchestration. Some are more complex and require developer knowledge, while others are no-code and user-friendly:

• No-code orchestration: These visual, step-by-step workflow builders (like Zapier) let non-developers connect apps and automate multi-step processes using triggers and actions. These tools typically come with prebuilt connectors, logic options (filters/branches), and managed infrastructure—great for business-led automation across a tech stack without writing code.

• iPaaS (integration platform as a service): These cloud-based platforms are great brokers between apps and data flows. They’re a popular choice for building orchestrated workflows because you can manage integrations all in one place and don’t need to manage your own infrastructure.

• Serverless orchestration: This approach uses cloud functions (like AWS Step Functions or Azure Durable Functions) to coordinate event-driven, serverless tasks. You only pay for the compute time you use, so it’s great for large, complex workflows where economies of scale come into play.

• API gateways: These API orchestration tools give you one entry point for all requests. While gateways can handle basic orchestration, their primary strength lies in security (like authentication, rate-limiting, protecting your backend services, etc.) and traffic management (like load balancing and logging) to help apps run better.

• GraphQL servers: GraphQL lets a client ask for the exact data it needs from multiple sources in a single request. In this case, the server is the orchestrator, fetching data from various backend services and combining it into one response.

Many orchestration approaches can’t be done by an everyday user. That’s what makes Zapier special: it lets you orchestrate APIs across your entire tech stack without needing high technical or coding knowledge.

How can API orchestration improve operations?

Beyond the technical stuff, API orchestration has some very real everyday perks. Here’s how it makes day-to-day operations smoother:

• Brings apps together to automate and synchronize: When your CRM, email platform, and project tools are all synced up, teams stop operating with conflicting information. Everyone can work out of the same playbook and automate those repetitive, tedious tasks because apps can talk to one another.

• Optimizes performance, cuts down the digital chatter: Instead of one central app making dozens of API calls (which slows everything down), orchestration connects APIs in a chain with preset rules. And because it reduces the number of workflow round-trips to the client, it’s able to cut latency and make interfaces responsive.

• Creates resilience in your favorite apps: What happens if one service in your workflow is temporarily down? Without orchestration, the whole process could fail, particularly if one app were running all the API calls. Orchestration, however, sets up flows that route around problems and manage API retries; business processes stay reliable and can recover without grinding everything to a halt.

• Gives you granular control over security and access: API orchestrators offer a checkpoint for data moving between apps. You can enforce security policies, manage authorization, and track anomalies occurring within information flows. With this central control, you can “lock down” in one place instead of cutting dozens of individual connections.

Use cases for API orchestration

So, where does the API orchestration layer actually help in day-to-day work? Let’s map it to some common uses.

RevOps

RevOps brings together sales, marketing, and customer service functions, which means a disconnected tech stack is the enemy of RevOps. But API orchestration unifies this revenue engine by letting the applications that are used by each of those teams work in concert from lead acquisition through conversion and support.

Imagine you’re trying to track offline sales conversions across multiple marketing tools. Here’s what it could look like with orchestration helping out.

The trigger: A deal is marked “Closed-Won” in your Salesforce CRM.

The orchestrated actions:

1. Conversion data (like purchase value, customer ID, and the original ad campaign) is formatted into the specific structure required by each ad platform.

2. The conversion event is sent to Facebook’s Conversions API to optimize Meta Ads via the most valuable customer data.

3. The same conversion is uploaded to Google Ads, using the Offline Conversions API to accurately attribute the sale back to the original click.

4. The conversion is synced to LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager, so you can see which sponsored content generates revenue.

5. A record of the sync gets logged in your preferred reporting mechanism so you can track every automated action.

Zapier makes this exact workflow possible. Use this template to automatically sync your Salesforce conversions to Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn ad platforms.

IT

Answering the same questions over and over stymies IT’s productivity. And nobody wants to wait for support when a bot can handle it. API orchestration lets the triage of help desk apps process information so employees instantly get questions answered and issues resolved.

Here’s what it could look like with orchestration helping out.

The trigger: An employee submits a ticket in the Jira Service Management help desk system with the category “password reset.”

The orchestrated actions:

1. A password reset email is triggered from the identity management platform Okta, and the employee is sent a secure link to create a new password.

2. A notification is posted in a dedicated IT Slack channel and gets logged as an event for security auditing that doesn’t require immediate action.

3. The original Jira ticket is updated with a note that Okta initiated the automated reset flow.

4. (If the reset fails) A ticket is re-opened in Jira, gets assigned to an IT agent, and gets added with a high priority tag so the staff can respond quickly. 

Automate your IT support operations with this Zapier template. It handles common helpdesk requests automatically, escalating only when human intervention is needed.

Marketing

Your team needs to stay ahead of industry developments and trends and figure out how you can apply thought leadership to your content and campaigns. But manually tracking dozens of relevant podcasts is nearly impossible. At least it is without API orchestration making different apps communicate. 

Here’s what it could look like to monitor key industry podcasts for competitive intelligence.

The trigger: A new episode gets published on a monitored podcast (via its RSS feed).

The orchestrated actions:

1. Audio is transcribed in OpenAI’s Whisper, converting the speech into searchable text.

2. The transcripts are sent to ChatGPT, which runs a preset prompt to extract key takeaways, competitive mentions, and emerging trends.

3. An AI summary report is formatted and posted directly into a dedicated Microsoft Teams channel.

4. The full transcript and summary get saved into a central knowledge base in Google Docs, which your team can scrape for ideas to apply to its next campaign.

Turn any podcast into actionable insights with this template. It automatically transcribes episodes, extracts key points with AI, and shares summaries with your team.

Sales

When you’ve got sales targets to hit, every minute and lead conversation counts. API orchestration eliminates the friction in internal processes, like getting quote approvals from management. This lets reps close deals faster instead of constantly chasing down leadership for answers.

Here’s what API orchestration looks like when a sales rep has to customize a quote for a unique prospect and therefore needs approval from their manager before sending it over.

The trigger: A sales rep creates a new quote that contains a discount exceeding their authority in Salesforce CPQ.

The orchestrated actions:

1. An approval task is automatically created in monday.com and assigned to the sales director.

2. A corresponding Slack message is sent to the sales director with the quote details and a quick-approve button option via Slack’s workflows.

3. (Once approved) The quote status gets updated in Salesforce to “Approved,” and the rep is informed.

4. A finalized PDF quote is generated and emailed directly to the prospect from the rep’s email client (such as Gmail).

Speed up your quote approval process with this template. It routes requests through your approval chain and automatically delivers approved quotes to prospects.

Customer support

API orchestration acts as your own reputation manager that can handle routine feedback and smartly escalate issues that need extra handholding.

Here’s an API orchestration example for auto-responding to new Google reviews.

The trigger: A new review gets posted on your Google Business Profile.

The orchestrated actions:

1. The review is analyzed using Gemini to gain sentiment details and see if it’s positive, negative, or neutral.

2. If the review is positive (4-5 stars), a “thank you” response is automatically posted from the business, personalized with the customer’s name.

3. If the review is negative (1-3 stars), a new ticket gets created in Zendesk, tagged as “high priority,” and the support lead is alerted in Slack with the review details.

4. All reviews and actions get logged into a Google Sheets file so the manager can evaluate them weekly.

Manage your online reputation automatically with this Zapier template. It responds to positive reviews instantly and escalates negative ones to your support team.

API orchestration vs. related concepts

API is often thrown in with other data terms that mean different things. Let’s clear up the confusion.

API orchestration vs. aggregation

Aggregation pulls data from multiple sources into one place. API orchestration can do that too, but it goes further by coordinating workflows. Aggregation alone can’t orchestrate.

Orchestration is about coordinating multiple calls, workflows, and services. And aggregation is often part of that process.

API orchestration vs. choreography

This is a classic centralization vs. decentralization debate. Both sort of do the same thing, just using a different approach.

Orchestration is more centralized. You command various other services via a command center, like Zapier.

In choreography, each service acts independently. They listen for events that trigger the next workflow. Because of this contrast, orchestration is easier to monitor and debug (since it’s in one place).

API orchestration vs. integration

API integration is connecting two apps so they can talk to each other (like connecting your calendar to your video conferencing app). So it’s part of the API orchestration framework because orchestration is what you build with those integrations—bigger workflows that accomplish a larger business goal.

API orchestration vs. gateway

An API gateway is one way to implement orchestration. It can route requests, enforce security protocols, and perform basic data transformation from a single point.

Orchestration, on the other hand, is the larger umbrella of creating multi-step workflows between apps. It can use a gateway to manage a workflow. But it could also use another solution for more complex flows.

API orchestration vs. composition

API composition is a technique of combining multiple APIs to create a brand new, composite API, service, or response.

API orchestration is more about existing processes and services. It’s how you manage the execution of automated workflows between apps. Think of the difference as creating a new product (composition) vs. automating a business process (orchestration). Composition provides the new, united interface, while orchestration directs the flow of work and data between existing interfaces.   

Orchestrate APIs with Zapier

You’ve already built your dream tech stack. Now it’s time to make it work together.

API orchestration isn’t about more tools. It’s about getting your existing ones to pull their weight. And with Zapier, anyone across an enterprise can do it without writing a single line of code. Select the apps you want to connect, define the triggers and actions, add in AI steps for extra intelligence, and watch Zapier become your central orchestrator, keeping data and tasks flowing seamlessly across the entire tech stack.

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