What is Apideck Unify and How Does It Work?

New to Apideck Unify? This article explains the core concepts you need to understand before getting started.

• What Apideck Unify does

• Key concepts: Unified APIs, Connectors, Consumers, and Vault

• How a typical integration works

• How this help center is organized

Apideck Unify lets you integrate with hundreds of SaaS platforms - CRM, Accounting, HRIS, File Storage, E-commerce, and many more, through a single, normalized API. Instead of building and maintaining individual integrations with Salesforce, QuickBooks, BambooHR, and every other tool your customers use, you make one API call to Apideck and it handles the rest.

This approach is called a Unified API. Apideck maps the data models of each provider to a common schema, so a "contact" looks the same whether it comes from Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive. All API calls are processed in real time and Apideck does not store your data.

Before you dive in, here are the terms you'll encounter throughout our docs and help center:

A Unified API is a single API endpoint that covers an entire software category. For example, the CRM Unified API lets you read and write contacts, companies, leads, and deals across all supported CRM platforms. Apideck currently offers Unified APIs for Accounting, CRM, HRIS, File Storage, E-commerce, and Issue Tracking.

You enable the Unified APIs you need from the Configuration page in your dashboard.

A connector is an individual integration within a Unified API. For example, Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive are all connectors within the CRM Unified API. When you enable a Unified API, you choose which connectors to activate. Each connector maps the provider's native API to Apideck's normalized data model.

Not all connectors support the same fields and operations - to understand what's available for each one, see Understanding Connector Coverage and Limitations.

A consumer represents one of your end users or accounts. Each consumer has a unique ID that you define, typically the user or account ID from your own system (for example, account:12345). Each consumer has their own set of connections, so credentials are fully isolated between users.

For more detail on how consumer IDs work in practice, see Understanding API Headers, Consumers, and Service IDs.

Vault is Apideck's authentication layer. It handles OAuth flows, API keys, and token management for all of your consumers' connections. Your users interact with Vault to authorize their integrations, you never need to handle or store their credentials directly.

This help center has a dedicated Vault section with articles on token management, custom fields, CORS issues, and more. For a conceptual overview, see Understanding Vault and Authentication.

For advanced use cases where the Unified API doesn't cover a specific endpoint, the Proxy API lets you make direct API calls to a provider while still using Apideck for authentication. See the Proxy API section for guides and examples.

Here's the flow at a high level:

1. You enable a Unified API and its connectors in your Apideck dashboard.

2. Your user connects their account (e.g., QuickBooks) through Vault.

3. Your app makes API calls to Apideck's Unified API endpoints (e.g., GET /accounting/invoices).

4. Apideck translates the request, calls the provider's API, normalizes the response, and returns it to your app.

This help center is organized around the features and APIs of Apideck Unify:

• Getting Started (you are here) - Conceptual overviews and onboarding guides to get you up and running.

• Account Management - Managing your Apideck account: API keys, billing, environments, logs, and usage counting.

• Vault - Detailed articles on authentication, token management, custom fields, and connection troubleshooting.

• Webhooks - Setting up and managing real-time event notifications.

• Field Mappings - Extending the Unified API data model with provider-specific fields.

• Proxy API - Making direct calls to provider APIs through Apideck.

• Accounting, CRM, HRIS, File Storage, Ecommerce - Connector-specific guides, use cases, and known limitations per API domain.

If you're also interested in Apideck's standalone integrations marketplace product, see the Apideck Ecosystem section.

Ready to start building? Head to Getting Started: Your First API Call to set up your account and make your first request in under 10 minutes.

Related resources:

• Developer documentation: Get Started

• What is a Unified API? (blog)

• API Coverage overview