IBM API Connect vs. WSO2 API Manager

IBM Connect is well suited for enterprises with enhanced security requirements and compliance monitoring for access. In our financial domain, we can centralize connectivity and monitoring and thus reduce our workload. It works great across our hybrid cloud deployment. However, it may not work that well for smaller firms, as the initial setup and maintenance costs may outweigh the benefits of using a central tool.

Incentivized

It's free! No argument can win a fight with that! And it's the only reason I gave it a 5. If you have no money to spend, and a simple environment you'll have a nice product. But free does come with a price. After 5 years we're still struggling with ports, and analytics (it just won't work without any errors caused by some configuration somewhere). An API Manager should work out of the box. The only configuration expertise that any developer wants to invest in, is the configuration of API's. Not the product itself... Anyone who've seen the training material, just for installing this thing will agree that this is not the way to go. Of all the API Managers out there (we've tried 4), WSO2 is the only one were you need to know how this dragon of a java application works internally. Did I already mention the humongous amount of config files?

Incentivized

• Security. I would say creating and applying scopes to each operation is intuitive and clear.
• Managing multiple path at the same time. Creating new path and operation is straightforward.
• The analytics tab is good to see what APIs have trouble with errors

Incentivized

• Authentication based on OAuth 2.0 and HTTP Basic Authentication.
• Rate Limiting applied at different levels like Subscriber, API, Resource and Backend.
• Monitoring by exporting the metrics in Prometheus and traces in Jaeger.
• Mediation to perform transformation, orchestration etc.

Incentivized

• One thing that could be improved is that it requires heavy hardware support. So making it less dependent on the hardware could free up the resources.
• The hardware comes at a high cost which easily cross your budget if you try to scale the business through it.
• It is quite time consuming and complex to setup and requires a technical person to set it up which again can increase the overall cost.

Incentivized

• Better QA testing prior to releases rollout
• Better support needed

Incentivized

It is an extremely easy platform to manipulate and productively develop. The IBM API Connect features and dashboard are very easy to access, and the navigation strategy is also cost-effective. IBM API Connect offers some capabilities that simplify the entire development operations while providing the most accurate and profitable data results, and the development project management is amazing.

Incentivized

IBM API Connect and Apigee are both robust API management platforms. IBM API Connect was selected for its strong integration capabilities, hybrid cloud deployment options, and comprehensive analytics. It aligns well with organizations seeking flexibility and control over their API ecosystems, especially when dealing with complex integration scenarios across diverse environments.

Incentivized

Providing better capabilities comparing the overall API lifecycle management, especially the availability of API Integration layer and a strong identity layer of their own which provides an end-to-end API ecosystem that would be advantageous in terms of a large software development initiative.

Incentivized

• I consider IBM API Connect as a business capability enabler - the ROI level is practically secondary.
• With this platform at the core, associated architectural framework and guardrails ensure that we can progress with distributed development and automation in autonomous teams - a key factor to deliver required time to market performance.
• At this time, security and trust is key. A flexible yet secure API manager layer is necessary to ensure our relationships with partners and customers.

Incentivized

• We've moved away from legacy SOAP services where nobody knew what services was used by who. WSO2 eliminated at least 90% of time spend on any service.
• Creating API's (or actually creating the API Management layer...) is so simple that new developers can get away with it in no time. Again, real time gainer.
• Since creating API's is so simple, developers are very fast in adopting a kind of "Domain thinking". In comparison with Azure API Manager: Azure does not demand knowledge of "how" the product works, but it's definitely more difficult to get an API up and running in Azure. And for some reason, azure does not promote clean domain driven architecture. Domain Driven architecture is the greatest time saver strategy possible. And WSO2 fits nicely in there.

Incentivized