frends eiPaaS by HiQ vs. IBM App Connect

Hybrid Integrations: Organizations operating with a combination of on-premises and cloud applications will find frends particularly valuable. Its hybrid integration capabilities ensure seamless data flow between these diverse environments. Both for scheduled integrations that are triggered regularly or for event and API-based integrations. High volume of simple integrations: the pricing model is not tied to the number of integrations like in many competing products.

Incentivized

- 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

• It has been very stable and reliable over time
• The developer tools are simple to use
• It offers out of the box tasks/activities for typical routine tasks

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• The recently renewed user interface has not been as clear as the previous version
• Sometimes the performance or capacity has been at limits with more complex integrations

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

frends does not have as broad functionality but it's lightweight and easy to use and has enough features for most integration needs. For example the frends API Management exists but it does not offer lot of options. frends might not be the choice for the largest enterprises but for small and mid sized organizations it does everything you will probably need. They have also recently improved their training materials to help new developers get on board.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• Pricing model suites us very well as it is not tied to number of integrations or users. It's much more economic than most well-known competitors
• The stability of the service is crucial and has served as well. We run hundreds of processes on the platform daily and they are really important for other operations.

Incentivized

• I don't see any negative Impact .
• I like using this tool to do my job.
• I am comfortable using this tool.

Incentivized