IBM API Connect vs. NGINX

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
NGINX
Score 9.1 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
IBM API ConnectNGINX
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM API ConnectNGINX
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
IBM API ConnectNGINX
API Management
Comparison of API Management features of Product A and Product B
IBM API Connect
9.2
27 Ratings
13% above category average
NGINX
-
Ratings
API access control9.527 Ratings00 Ratings
Rate limits and usage policies9.622 Ratings00 Ratings
API usage data9.027 Ratings00 Ratings
API user onboarding9.327 Ratings00 Ratings
API versioning9.027 Ratings00 Ratings
Usage billing and payments8.819 Ratings00 Ratings
API monitoring and logging9.127 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Servers
Comparison of Application Servers features of Product A and Product B
IBM API Connect
-
Ratings
NGINX
8.2
21 Ratings
3% above category average
IDE support00 Ratings7.310 Ratings
Security management00 Ratings7.918 Ratings
Administration and management00 Ratings7.918 Ratings
Application server performance00 Ratings8.618 Ratings
Installation00 Ratings9.518 Ratings
Open-source standards compliance00 Ratings7.816 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IBM API ConnectNGINX
Small Businesses
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
Apache HTTP Server
Apache HTTP Server
Score 8.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat
Score 8.7 out of 10
Enterprises
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM API ConnectNGINX
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(27 ratings)
8.9
(48 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(2 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(19 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(4 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM API ConnectNGINX
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM
IBM Connect is well suited for enterprises with enhanced security requirements and compliance monitoring for access. In our financial domain, we can centralize connectivity and monitoring and thus reduce our workload. It works great across our hybrid cloud deployment. However, it may not work that well for smaller firms, as the initial setup and maintenance costs may outweigh the benefits of using a central tool.
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F5
[NGINX] is very well suited for high performance. I have seen it used on servers with 1k current connections with no issues. Despite seeing it used in many environments I've never seen software developers use it over apache, express, IIS in local dev environments so it may be more difficult to setup. I've also seen it used to load balance again without issues.
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Pros
IBM
  • Security. I would say creating and applying scopes to each operation is intuitive and clear.
  • Managing multiple path at the same time. Creating new path and operation is straightforward.
  • The analytics tab is good to see what APIs have trouble with errors
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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)!
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Cons
IBM
  • One thing that could be improved is that it requires heavy hardware support. So making it less dependent on the hardware could free up the resources.
  • The hardware comes at a high cost which easily cross your budget if you try to scale the business through it.
  • It is quite time consuming and complex to setup and requires a technical person to set it up which again can increase the overall cost.
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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.
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Likelihood to Renew
IBM
No answers on this topic
F5
Great value for the product
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Usability
IBM
It is an extremely easy platform to manipulate and productively develop. The IBM API Connect features and dashboard are very easy to access, and the navigation strategy is also cost-effective. IBM API Connect offers some capabilities that simplify the entire development operations while providing the most accurate and profitable data results, and the development project management is amazing.
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F5
Front end proxy and reverse proxy of Nginx is always useful. I always prefer to Nginx in overall usability when you have application server and database or multiple application servers and single database i.e. clustered application. Nginx provides really good features and flexibility which helps the system administrator in case of troubleshooting and also from the administration perspective. Also, Nginx doesn't delay any request because of internal performance issues.
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Support Rating
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.
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Alternatives Considered
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.
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F5
We have used Traffic, Apache, Google Cloud Load Balancing and other managed cloud-based load balancers. When it comes to scale and customization nothing beats Nginx. We selected Nginx over the others because
  • we have a large number of services and we can manage a single Nginx instance for all of them
  • we have high impact services and Nginx never breaks a sweat under load
  • individual services have special considerations and Nginx lets us configure each one uniquely
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Return on Investment
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.
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F5
  • Nginx has decreased the burden of web server administration and maintenance, and we are spending less time on server issues than when we were using Apache.
  • Nginx has allowed more people in our company to get involved with configuring things on the web server, so there's no longer a single point of failure ("the Apache guy").
  • Nginx has given us the ability to handle a larger number of requests without scaling up in hardware quite so quickly.
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ScreenShots

NGINX Screenshots

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