Amazon Web Services vs. IBM Digital Commerce

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Amazon Web Services
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing services. With over 165 services offered, AWS services can provide users with a comprehensive suite of infrastructure and computing building blocks and tools.
$100
per month
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
IBM Digital Commerce is an e-commerce platform that is designed to deliver omni-channel shopping experiences, including mobile, social, and in-store. In June 2019, IBM Digital Commerce was acquired by HCL Technologies.N/A
Pricing
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Digital Commerce
Editions & Modules
Free Tier
$0
per month
Basic Environment
$100 - $200
per month
Intermediate Environment
$250 - $600
per month
Advanced Environment
$600-$2500
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Digital Commerce
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAWS allows a “save when you commit” option that offers lower prices when you sign up for a 1- or 3- year term that includes an AWS service or category of services.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Digital Commerce
Considered Both Products
Amazon Web Services

No answer on this topic

IBM Digital Commerce
Chose IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce was a lot more customizable and had a good engine for us to make enhancements. We were not locked down to certain integrations and we were able to utilize a lot of the features outside of the box vs using a prescribed set of features and functionality that …
Features
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Digital Commerce
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
8.4
78 Ratings
2% above category average
IBM Digital Commerce
-
Ratings
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime9.172 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic scaling8.873 Ratings00 Ratings
Elastic load balancing9.369 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-configured templates7.166 Ratings00 Ratings
Monitoring tools8.473 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-defined machine images8.366 Ratings00 Ratings
Operating system support7.972 Ratings00 Ratings
Security controls8.674 Ratings00 Ratings
Automation8.325 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
-
Ratings
IBM Digital Commerce
7.6
3 Ratings
2% below category average
Product catalog & listings00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Product management00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Bulk product upload00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Branding00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Mobile storefront00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Product variations00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Website integration00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Visual customization00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
CMS00 Ratings4.02 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
-
Ratings
IBM Digital Commerce
6.0
3 Ratings
24% below category average
Abandoned cart recovery00 Ratings6.02 Ratings
Checkout user experience00 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Online Payment System
Comparison of Online Payment System features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
-
Ratings
IBM Digital Commerce
6.0
3 Ratings
32% below category average
eCommerce security00 Ratings6.03 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
-
Ratings
IBM Digital Commerce
7.0
3 Ratings
9% below category average
Promotions & discounts00 Ratings7.03 Ratings
Personalized recommendations00 Ratings7.03 Ratings
SEO00 Ratings7.03 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
-
Ratings
IBM Digital Commerce
6.2
3 Ratings
25% below category average
Multi-site management00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Order processing00 Ratings5.03 Ratings
Inventory management00 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Shipping00 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Custom functionality00 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Digital Commerce
Small Businesses
DigitalOcean Droplets
DigitalOcean Droplets
Score 9.4 out of 10
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
Kentico Xperience
Kentico Xperience
Score 7.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Digital Commerce
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(90 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.4
(10 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
7.8
(21 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.2
(24 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Digital Commerce
Likelihood to Recommend
Amazon AWS
This is something that is actually common across most cloud providers. A comprehensive understanding of one's use cases, constraints and future directions is key to determining if you even need a cloud solution. If you are a 2-person startup developing something with a best-scenario audience of 1k DAU in a year, you would very likely best served by a dirt-cheap dedicated Linux server somewhere (and your options to graduate to a cloud solution will still be open). If, however, you are a bigger fish, and/or you are actively considering build-vs-buy decisions for complicated, highly-loaded, six-figure requests per minute systems, global loadbalancing, extreme growth projections - then MAYBE you solve all or part of it with a cloud provider. And depending on your taste for risk, reliability, flexibility, track record - it might be AWS.
Read full review
IBM
I think WebSphere Commerce is well suited for customers looking to sell products online that need robustness and scalability as a priority. It provides a complete order cycle out of the box, or you can integrate with your existing order fulfillment. Online shopping models like digital subscriptions or a marketplace are not well suited as it requires a lot of customization
Read full review
Pros
Amazon AWS
  • During the month-end, we experience high resource utilization; however, with AWS's scalability, we can effectively tackle the peak load.
  • With AWS IAM, we don't need to set up complete infrastructure for identity and access management, as AWS provides end-to-end IAM services.
  • With AWS, development has become very easy as it's very quick to spin up and destroy the environment, which saves costs.
Read full review
IBM
  • Websphere commerce provides efficient contract based pricing. Contract based pricing greatly helps in handling prices for different business
  • Catalog filtering is one other strength of websphere commerce, as it helps to filter the show only those products that the customer is entitled to
  • Extended site model is one other strength of WCS as it greatly helps in having multiple e-commerce sites for different demographics, for branding etc
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Cons
Amazon AWS
  • When there is any misconfiguration of EC2 related to SSM Connect. It doesn't clearly states that what particular configuration is missing.
  • Debugging networking related issues could be improved.
  • From the security group page, it's difficult to determine which resource a security group is associated with.
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IBM
  • The e-Marketing spots contain content associated with marketing activities to target customer segment - needs some improvement. The algorithm to set up the priority of each of the Web Activity with in eMarketing spot is little bit confusing.
  • The catalog load can be simplified.
  • WebSphere Commerce is a huge application - someone needs to spend at least 5-6 years to learn about the whole application.
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Likelihood to Renew
Amazon AWS
We are almost entirely satisfied with the service. In order to move off it, we'd have to build for ourselves many of the services that AWS provides and the cost would be prohibitive. Although there are cost savings and security benefits to returning to the colo facility, we could never afford to do it, and we'd hate to give up the innovation and constant cycle of new features that AWS gives us.
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IBM
The scalability and various configurations of the product allows for a wide range of e-commerce site features. It provides a storefront to begin with so it helps with speeding up development.
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Usability
Amazon AWS
AWS offers a wide range of powerful services that cater to various business needs which is significant strength. The ability to scale resources on-demand is a major advantage making it suitable for businesses of all sizes. The sheer volume of options and configurations can be overwhelming for new users leading to a steep learning curve. While functional the AWS management console can feel cluttered and less intuitive compared to some competitors which can hinder navigation. Although some documentation lacks clarity and practical examples which can frustrate users trying to implement specific solutions.
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IBM
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Amazon AWS
Availability is very good, with the exception of occasional spectacular outages.
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IBM
No answers on this topic
Performance
Amazon AWS
AWS does not provide the raw performance that you can get by building your own custom infrastructure. However, it is often the case that the benefits of specialized, high-performance hardware do not necessarily outweigh the significant extra cost and risk. Performance as perceived by the user is very different from raw throughput.
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IBM
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Amazon AWS
The customer support of Amazon Web Services are quick in their responses. I appreciate its entire team, which works amazingly, and provides professional support. AWS is a great tool, indeed, to provide customers a suitable way to
immediately search for their compatible software's and also to guide them in a
good direction. Moreover, this product is a good suggestion for every type of
company because of its affordability and ease of use.
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IBM
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Amazon AWS
The API's were very well documented and was Janova's main point of entry into the services.
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IBM
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Amazon AWS
Amazon Web Services fits best for all levels of organisations like startup, mid level or enterprise. The services are easy to use and doesn't require a high level of understanding as you can learn via blogs or youtube videos. AWS is Reasonable in cost as the plan is pay as you use.
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IBM
IBM Digital Commerce was a lot more customizable and had a good engine for us to make enhancements. We were not locked down to certain integrations and we were able to utilize a lot of the features outside of the box vs using a prescribed set of features and functionality that other tools would force us to use
Read full review
Return on Investment
Amazon AWS
  • Using Amazon Web Services has allowed us to develop and deploy new SAAS solutions quicker than we did when we used traditional web hosting. This has allowed us to grow our service offerings to clients and also add more value to our existing services.
  • Having AWS deployed has also allowed our development team to focus on delivering high-quality software without worrying about whether our servers will be able to handle the demand. Since AWS allows you to adjust your server needs based on demand, we can easily assign a faster server instance to ease and improve service without the client even knowing what we did.
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IBM
  • For our clients in the apparel industry, the flexibility that WCS provides to scale up really helped their online business to grow tremendously.
  • Our client in the restaurant industry can't quite leverage what WCS has to offer though as it doesn't really fit their shopping model.
  • Another positive impact is that it allows our clients to streamline their commerce system in interacting with their backend.
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ScreenShots