Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cloudflare
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud is a unified platform of cloud-native services designed to help enterprises regain control over their IT environments. Powered by an intelligent, programmable global cloud network, it is built to offer security, performance, visibility, and reliability.
$20
per month
IBM API Connect
Score 8.8 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…
$83
per month
NGINX
Score 9.2 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
NGINX, a business unit of F5 Networks, powers over 65% of the world's busiest websites and web applications. NGINX started out as an open source web server and reverse proxy, built to be faster and more efficient than Apache. Over the years, NGINX has built a suite of infrastructure software products o tackle some of the biggest challenges in managing high-transaction applications. NGINX offers a suite of products to form the core of what organizations need to create…N/A
Pricing
CloudflareIBM API ConnectNGINX
Editions & Modules
Pro
$20
per month
Business
$200
per month
Free
Free
Enterprise
Contact sales team
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CloudflareIBM API ConnectNGINX
Free Trial
NoYesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
CloudflareIBM API ConnectNGINX
Considered Multiple Products
Cloudflare
Chose Cloudflare
Akamai and Edgecast/Verizon are way over-priced, and also require hassling sales people to negotiate prices, and cloudflare just has their prices posted, and don't require a multi-year contract, etc.
StackPath is a regular CDN provider, and is probably cheaper than Cloudflare …
IBM API Connect
Chose IBM API Connect
As we have already have deep work relationship with IBM, when it comes to API gateway, we start looking at the API service IBM provides. And that is when we found out IBM API connect. It is very reliable and convenient tool to manage our API. It works with our cloud agnostic …
NGINX

No answer on this topic

Features
CloudflareIBM API ConnectNGINX
API Management
Comparison of API Management features of Product A and Product B
Cloudflare
-
Ratings
IBM API Connect
8.4
57 Ratings
0% below category average
NGINX
-
Ratings
API access control00 Ratings8.957 Ratings00 Ratings
Rate limits and usage policies00 Ratings8.952 Ratings00 Ratings
API usage data00 Ratings8.755 Ratings00 Ratings
API user onboarding00 Ratings8.656 Ratings00 Ratings
API versioning00 Ratings8.356 Ratings00 Ratings
Usage billing and payments00 Ratings7.545 Ratings00 Ratings
API monitoring and logging00 Ratings8.156 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Servers
Comparison of Application Servers features of Product A and Product B
Cloudflare
-
Ratings
IBM API Connect
-
Ratings
NGINX
8.7
32 Ratings
9% above category average
IDE support00 Ratings00 Ratings7.617 Ratings
Security management00 Ratings00 Ratings8.627 Ratings
Administration and management00 Ratings00 Ratings8.827 Ratings
Application server performance00 Ratings00 Ratings9.327 Ratings
Installation00 Ratings00 Ratings8.929 Ratings
Open-source standards compliance00 Ratings00 Ratings9.025 Ratings
Best Alternatives
CloudflareIBM API ConnectNGINX
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.2 out of 10
Apache HTTP Server
Apache HTTP Server
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
IBM Cloud Internet Services
IBM Cloud Internet Services
Score 9.0 out of 10
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.2 out of 10
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Akamai App & API Protector
Akamai App & API Protector
Score 8.5 out of 10
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.2 out of 10
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
CloudflareIBM API ConnectNGINX
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(184 ratings)
8.8
(50 ratings)
8.9
(50 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.2
(4 ratings)
8.2
(4 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(8 ratings)
8.6
(43 ratings)
8.3
(3 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.8
(149 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(4 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
CloudflareIBM API ConnectNGINX
Likelihood to Recommend
Cloudflare
Cloudflare works well as security measure that gives peace of mind without needing to work too hard to get it functioning well. It provides great tools to customize the security experience as well. This is all the same for the caching tools as well. They have a lot of built in tools that make using the caching easy right out of the box, but they provide the customization options to get things just right for your site.
Read full review
IBM
Based on our experience, IBM API Connect clearly excels in large enterprises navigating complex B2B ecosystems, especially within the Fintech and Banking sectors. Its capabilities are particularly valuable for achieving Open Banking compliance, facilitating the monetization of data and services, and seamlessly operating in hybrid cloud environments. However, it's crucial to understand that IBM API Connect primarily functions as an API management and orchestration tool. This means that backend integrations with providers like databases are best handled by dedicated integration middleware, such as IBM App Connect, allowing API Connect to then securely and efficiently expose those functionalities to external entities.
Read full review
F5
Nginx is well-suited for any web server scenarios, such as web applications, backend or reverse proxy for both application and HTTP requests, and distribution. It is less appropriate for Windows-based applications that run directly on a Windows Server host. In any case, it is very easy to manage, through separate conf files for each application or site you want to host with it.
Read full review
Pros
Cloudflare
  • The best part is the content delivery network. Cloudflare has a large network of data centres around the world that helps cache and delivers content quickly to our customers.
  • Cloudflare offers us with a fast and reliable DNS service and with the world class features such as Cloudflare workers, SSL verification, certificate management and web application firewall. When all of these are combined together, it provides very strict security for our organization.
  • One of the most important feature that we use is the analytics and threat detection. It provides us with the real time insights of all the threats originating from multiple locations and landing on our websites.
Read full review
IBM
  • API discovery feature is very helpful to allow us to scope the work required before diving into things.
  • The ability to set permissions and rulesets at a user level is essential to restrict access to specific datasets.
  • Ability for external users (those from outside our organisation) to leverage the API in more restrictive manner.
Read full review
F5
  • Very low memory usage. Can handle many more connections than alternatives (like Apache HTTPD) due to low overhead. (event-based architecture).
  • Great at serving static content.
  • Scales very well. Easy to host multiple Nginx servers to promote high availability.
  • Open-Source (no cost)!
Read full review
Cons
Cloudflare
  • In some cases, using Cloudflare can actually lead to slower website speeds if the network is congested or if the website's traffic is particularly heavy.
  • Some website owners may find that the level of customization offered by Cloudflare is limited, especially in comparison to other solutions.
  • While Cloudflare is easy to set up and manage, it may be too complex for users who are not familiar with web technologies.
Read full review
IBM
  • Improvement can come in the interface of the tool, which is sometimes complex and requires a deep understanding of the tool.
  • Improving the different levels of access to the playroom could be helpful because product owners and developers need to see other information.
  • Publishing API and integration of API can be more straightforward.
Read full review
F5
  • Customer support can be strangely condescending, perhaps it's a language issue?
  • I find it a little weird how the release versions used for Nginx+ aren't the same as for open source version. It can be very confusing to determine the cross-compatibility of modules, etc., because of this.
  • It seems like some (most?) modules on their own site are ancient and no longer supported, so their documentation in this area needs work.
  • It's difficult to navigate between nginx.com commercial site and customer support. They need to be integrated together.
  • I'd love to see more work done on nginx+ monitoring without requiring logging every request. I understand that many statistics can only be derived from logs, but plenty should work without that. Logging is not an option in many environments.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Cloudflare
lower cost
Read full review
IBM
No answers on this topic
F5
Great value for the product
Read full review
Usability
Cloudflare
Everything is extremely concise and all settings apply immediately and take effect globally. There is no reason to explicitly plan/think in terms of individual regions as one would have to traditional cloud offerings (AWS, OCI, Azure). All Cloudflare products integrate seamless as part of a single pipeline that executes from request to response.
Read full review
IBM
I can honestly say that the availability of the platform has been incredible, with almost no disruptions during the two years of the implementation. Availability is provided through the distributed architecture that may be deployed in multiple zones. We have had almost no cases of unplanned outages, and most maintenance operations were done during planned downtimes.
Read full review
F5
This tool is really easy to use and configure. Consumes very less system resources. It is highly modular and configurable. You can easily use it with other tools like certbot for SSLs. You can configure basic security with configuration and headers
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Cloudflare
In 6+ years of relying on Cloudflare, I think we experienced one or two brief outages that were Cloudflare's fault.
Read full review
IBM
No answers on this topic
F5
No answers on this topic
Performance
Cloudflare
Their Argo for the global network is the core feature we love.
Read full review
IBM
No answers on this topic
F5
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cloudflare
Excellent product, Cloudflare is a true pioneer of the modern Internet, providing tools, services, and expertise that vastly improve the performance and security of web services. Any issues are resolved quickly with detailed RCA and follow-ups published publicly. I'm thankful to Cloudflare and use their services both at work and at home.
Read full review
IBM
No answers on this topic
F5
Community support is great, and they've also had a presence at conferences. Overall, there is no shortage of documentation and community support. We're currently using it to serve up some WordPress sites, and configuring NGINX for this purpose is well documented.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Cloudflare
Very well executed implementation where our team was able to handle the implementation with guidance.
Read full review
IBM
No answers on this topic
F5
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cloudflare
They have the most generous free offering, and after the free offering limit is reached - you're still getting plenty of value for the buck.
They have very good reputation.
They have an ever expanding list of tools that can support multiple scenarios under one roof.
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
F5
I have found that [NGINX] seems to perform better throughout the years with less issues although I've used Apache more. I would definitely recommend [NGINX] for any high volume site and I've seen this to usually be the case from most provided web hosts who will pick [NGINX] over alternatives
Read full review
Scalability
Cloudflare
They are built for scale and have the capacity to handle all the traffic we could ever expect to get.
Read full review
IBM
No answers on this topic
F5
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Cloudflare
  • Immediate ROI on Registrar and DNS hosting while giving a single plane of glass to managing both with domain registrations at cost, and no cost DNS hosting
  • WAF helped us move at risk servers/applications into a protected state allowing us to perform remediations at a measured pace and get them done right instead of band aide solutions.
  • CDN proxying increase the speed of our website while simultaneously reducing server load.
  • DMARC management and report interpretation allow use to identify weak points in our email systems, remediate and move to stricter policies without significantly increasing staff time spent managing it.
Read full review
IBM
  • Our company benefited from IBM API Connect's assistance in establishing cooperation with our outside providers and efficiently managing the API. As a result, we were able to expand our vendor ecosystem.
  • Additionally, creating APIs and implementing them on the goods was not too difficult. Additionally, we were able to ensure that only appropriate people could publish the APIs following evaluation by using role-based access control.
  • Our teams were able to reuse and share departmental APIs and services with each other thanks to the simple, self-service developer site.
Read full review
F5
  • By using Nginx, we can host multiple web services on a single server, keeping our infrastructure costs lower.
  • Nginx maintains our HTTPS connections, allowing us to keep our promise to our customers that their data is safe in transit.
  • Due to Nginx's extremely low failure rate, our web addresses always return something meaningful, even when individual services go down. In sense, this means we are "always online" and allows us to maintain brand and support our customers even in the face of catastrophe.
Read full review
ScreenShots

IBM API Connect Screenshots

Screenshot of API tests and insightsScreenshot of API Manager customization interfaceScreenshot of the API designer

NGINX Screenshots

Screenshot of Overview of the NGINX Application PlatformScreenshot of NGINX Controller - MonitoringScreenshot of NGINX Controller - Configuration