Azure API Management vs. IBM App Connect

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure API Management
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's Azure API Management supports creation of API.
$0.04
per 10,000 calls
IBM App Connect
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
IBM’s App Connect is a cloud-based data integration platform with data mapping and transformation capabilities within connectors between high-volume systems. App Connect also offers near-real time data synchronization and an API builder that is adaptable to the user’s coding skill level.N/A
Pricing
Azure API ManagementIBM App 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 App 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 App Connect
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Azure API ManagementIBM App Connect
API Management
Comparison of API Management features of Product A and Product B
Azure API Management
8.0
4 Ratings
4% below category average
IBM App Connect
-
Ratings
API access control8.94 Ratings00 Ratings
Rate limits and usage policies5.44 Ratings00 Ratings
API usage data8.94 Ratings00 Ratings
API user onboarding9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
API versioning8.94 Ratings00 Ratings
Usage billing and payments5.23 Ratings00 Ratings
API monitoring and logging9.84 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud Data Integration
Comparison of Cloud Data Integration features of Product A and Product B
Azure API Management
-
Ratings
IBM App Connect
8.3
7 Ratings
3% above category average
Pre-built connectors00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
Connector modification00 Ratings8.26 Ratings
Support for real-time and batch integration00 Ratings8.67 Ratings
Data quality services00 Ratings8.67 Ratings
Data security features00 Ratings8.67 Ratings
Monitoring console00 Ratings6.97 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Azure API ManagementIBM App Connect
Small Businesses
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
Make
Make
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
Make
Make
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
Azure Logic Apps
Azure Logic Apps
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure API ManagementIBM App Connect
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(4 ratings)
8.6
(8 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure API ManagementIBM App 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.
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IBM
- great when you need to integrate applications without any message lost or duplicated and when transnationality is important - if you need the highest throughput possible and not much (or not at all) mapping is required, a system like Kafka is more appropriate
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Pros
Microsoft
  • Easy commissioning of APIs.
  • Great policies to control access.
  • Easy mock services for testing.
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IBM
  • Just the ability to display and consume data through a single dashboard makes this a great application for our business purposes.
  • With the ability to consume their exposed API, data validation and manipulation becomes a breeze.
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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.
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IBM
  • The development and the transformation capability is not so great. I believe IBM is looking to incorporate some of features of IBM APP Connect into API Connect.
  • The authentications features are no way close to CA API Management (f.k.a Laye r7).
  • The development experience is not as good as Apigee's.
  • The GUI should be improved. Maybe the product team should see the other API management tools in their offering.
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
IBM
It is the best on-premise application to cloud integration in the market. I guess IBM is planning to integrate IBM App Connect with the IBM API Connect solution.
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Usability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
IBM
You can do some really powerful things with this system. The overall design is an attempt to make configurable some of the routine tasks/common functionality, but allow for development/customization of the core of the application.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
IBM
Support is good, however it takes longer than expected to get responses. When bugs are reported they often seem to fall into a black hole.
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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.
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IBM
We did not select Cast Iron as our iPaaS solution, it was the weakest competitor in the field that we evaluated. Our experience was that it was not nearly as easy to learn, without in-depth training and guidance, and the developer UI was extremely buggy. We subjected each of the vendors to a battery of integrations, from simple to challenging, and it fell short on each one. One of the most simple integrations was grabbing a CSV file from an FTP source, parsing the data, doing a small amount of transformation, then inserting that data into an Azure MSSQL DB. After 2 hours on the phone with the Cast Iron support team, we were still unable to get this working.
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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
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IBM
  • I don't see any negative Impact .
  • I like using this tool to do my job.
  • I am comfortable using this tool.
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ScreenShots