Notes

Keap is ending support for the API a lot of integrations run on

Nathan Householder4 min read

If you run your business on Keap, you may have seen an email about something called the XML-RPC API, and decided it was a problem for someone more technical. It might be. But it’s worth ten minutes now, because the things that depend on it tend to be the things nobody remembers setting up.

What’s changing

Keap has two ways for other programs to talk to it. The older one, XML-RPC, goes back to the Infusionsoft days. The newer one is a REST API, which Keap calls v2.

Keap had planned to shut the old one off at the end of 2026. It has since changed course: starting March 15, 2027, XML-RPC is deprecated “without warranty or support.”

In plain English:

  • It doesn’t switch off on March 15. Things built on it keep running.
  • Keap stops updating or patching it.
  • Keap stops answering support tickets about it, including when it has an outage.

So nothing breaks that day. What changes is that when something built on it does break, there’s nobody at Keap to call.

What usually depends on it

Anything that’s been connected to Keap for a few years is worth checking:

  • An online store that sends orders into Keap.
  • Form, survey, quiz and scheduling tools that create or tag contacts.
  • Plugins on your website that talk to Keap.
  • Custom scripts or small apps a developer built for you. These are the most likely to still be on the old API, and the least likely to have someone around who remembers how they work.

How to tell if you’re affected

  1. Make a list of everything connected to your Keap account, including anything a past employee or freelancer set up.
  2. For each one, write down who built it, and whether it came from a company that sells it or was built just for you.
  3. For the ones from companies, ask whether they’ve moved to Keap’s newer API. Most established tools have, or are about to.
  4. For the custom ones, assume they’re on the old API until someone checks.

If you end up with one or two custom connections and no idea who built them, you’re in good company.

What to do about it

There are three reasonable options, and the right one depends on how much you like Keap:

  • Move the connection to the newer API. Usually the cheapest fix if Keap is working for you otherwise.
  • Replace it with a tool that already uses the newer API.
  • Use this as the moment to move off Keap, if that’s already been on your mind. Better to do it on your schedule than in a hurry.

Whichever you pick, do it before something breaks. A connection that fails quietly on a busy Tuesday, with nobody at Keap to call, costs more than one you move calmly ahead of time.

The check-up includes a dated list of everything you have that depends on the old API, and one fixed price to move it. If you’d rather just ask a question first, write to me.