Azure API Management vs. IBM API Connect

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure API Management
Score 8.4 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
2% below category average
IBM API Connect
9.2
27 Ratings
12% 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 Ratings8.820 Ratings
API monitoring and logging9.84 Ratings9.127 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Azure API ManagementIBM API Connect
Small Businesses
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.0 out of 10
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.0 out of 10
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.0 out of 10
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.0 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
I love the IBM API Connect features, performance, and security level for all our business data. The workload balancing and integration with other third-party products are very simple. The data migration speed is beneficial, especially for time management, and creating process reports through IBM API Connect is incredible.
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • Easy commissioning of APIs.
  • Great policies to control access.
  • Easy mock services for testing.
Read full review
IBM
  • High security with multiple types of authentication so no need to worry about security.
  • API creation, automation and management all can be done form a single interface which guarantees security and increases efficiency.
  • Highly rated among it's competitors which proves it has given a good service over the years.
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
  • Though it is easy to operate, at the beginning, it might be hard to configure if you're new to it.
  • More video tutorials are required as it is hard to follow text documentation.
  • Sometimes, support takes a number of days to reply to your query.
Read full review
Usability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
IBM
IBM API Connect may be less appropriate for small-scale projects with minimal API management requirements, where simpler and more cost-effective solutions suffice. Organizations lacking the necessary technical expertise or resources to harness its full potential may face implementation challenges. In static environments with infrequent API changes or limited developer engagement, the platform's comprehensive features may be excessive for the task at hand.
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
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 reflected during the implementation and continued after go-live in the form of technical support
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