Azure API Management vs. IBM API Connect

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure API Management
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's Azure API Management supports creation of API.
$0.04
per 10,000 calls
IBM API Connect
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
IBM API Connect is a scalable API solution that helps organizations implement a robust API strategy by creating, exposing, managing and monetizing an entire API ecosystem across multiple clouds. As businesses embrace their digital transformation journey, APIs become critical to unlock the value of business data and assets. With increasing adoption of APIs, consistency and governance are needed across the enterprise. API Connect aims to help businesses…N/A
Pricing
Azure API ManagementIBM API Connect
Editions & Modules
Consumption
0.042 per 10,000 calls
Lightweight and serverless version of API Management service, billed per execution
Developer
$48.04
per month Non-production use cases and evaluations
Basic
$147.17
per month Entry-level production use cases
Standard
$686.72
per month Medium-volume production use cases
Premium
$2,795.17
per month High-volume or enterprise production use cases
Isolated
TBA
per month Enterprise production use cases requiring high degree of isolation
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure API ManagementIBM API Connect
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure API ManagementIBM API Connect
Considered Both Products
Azure API Management

No answer on this topic

IBM API Connect
Chose IBM API Connect
IBM API Connect is more flexible and easy to use. It has a lot of features that differ in the market like API monetization & analytics.
Chose IBM API Connect
There are two main reasons for choosing IBM over others. 1) Pricing 2) The conversation during the sales stage. The team at IBM understood our requirements and acted as consultants instead of sales people. They genuinely focused on providing a solution to our pain points which …
Chose IBM API Connect
IBM APIC far and away blows the other two systems I've used out of the water. There really isn't any comparison, in my humble opinion. Ease of use, security, versioning, efficiency, accountability are basically 'forced' by APIC, which allows less burden on the users themselves.
Chose IBM API Connect
API Connect provides the most complete feature set out of all the above mentioned
Chose IBM API Connect
IBM API Connect is very mature and offers lot of flexibility for enterprise requirements, highlighted in the following key areas:
  1. Consumer management
  2. Workflow on product lifecycle
  3. Intuitive UI-based development options
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Azure API ManagementIBM API Connect
API Management
Comparison of API Management features of Product A and Product B
Azure API Management
8.0
4 Ratings
1% below category average
IBM API Connect
9.2
27 Ratings
13% above category average
API access control8.94 Ratings9.527 Ratings
Rate limits and usage policies5.44 Ratings9.622 Ratings
API usage data8.94 Ratings9.027 Ratings
API user onboarding9.03 Ratings9.327 Ratings
API versioning8.94 Ratings9.027 Ratings
Usage billing and payments5.23 Ratings8.819 Ratings
API monitoring and logging9.84 Ratings9.127 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Azure API ManagementIBM API Connect
Small Businesses
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure API ManagementIBM API Connect
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(4 ratings)
8.8
(27 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(19 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure API ManagementIBM API Connect
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
APIM is useful for the standard scenarios:
1) Securing your back-end APIs - If you have a legacy back-end web service that has a basic authentication scheme, you can add some additional security by placing APIM in front, and requiring subscription keys. Leverage your existing firewall to ensure only your APIM instance can communicate with your back-end API, and you've basically added a layer of protection.
2) Lift and shift - there are always going to be clients that don't want to update their clients to use a newer API; in some cases you can make a newer API look like an older one by implementing some complex policies in APIM. You can also do the opposite, making older APIs look new, such as making an XML back-end accept both JSON and XML.
3) Centralizing your APIs - if you've acquired another company and want to make their API set look as if it's a part of the larger whole, APIM is an easy way to provide a consistent front-end interface for developers.
Read full review
IBM
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.
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • Easy commissioning of APIs.
  • Great policies to control access.
  • Easy mock services for testing.
Read full review
IBM
  • 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
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • Lack of robustness is a bit of an issue. Several other providers offer more options and capabilities, but then, they are lacking in interface ease.
  • As with anything Azure, pricing is really hard to stay on top of. I always find that you really don’t know what you’re paying for until you get the bill. Having an excellent Azure Administrator can help resolve that.
  • Integrating with app services outside of Azure can be a challenge, or at least much more challenging than just using Azure App Services.
Read full review
IBM
  • 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.
Read full review
Usability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
IBM
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.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Azure APIM vs Amazon API Gateway:
1) Azure APIM was a complete package that included a developer portal.
2) We are very Microsoft centric - so the Microsoft product suite aligned very well with our business needs.
3) It was faster and easier to stand up Azure APIM for testing than it was for the Amazon API Gateway.
Read full review
IBM
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.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • We can always think of positive ROI impact on business
  • It helps to easily facilitate the design, deployment, and maintenance of our APIs
Read full review
IBM
  • 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.
Read full review
ScreenShots