3scale API Management vs IBM API Connect comparison

Red Hat and IBM are both solutions in the API Management category. Red Hat is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.8, while IBM is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.1. Red Hat holds a 2.2% mindshare in APIM, compared to IBM’s 6.5% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Red Hat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of IBM users who would recommend it.

3scale API Management

Read 11 3scale API Management reviews

4,114 Views
3,000 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM API Connect

Read 75 IBM API Connect reviews

10,770 Views
8,108 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

3scale API Management

IBM API Connect

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between 3scale API Management and IBM API Connect based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two API Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed 3scale API Management vs. IBM API Connect Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

3scale API Management vs. IBM API Connect

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

3scale API Management

Ranking in API Management

13th

Average Rating

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IBM API Connect

Ranking in API Management

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the API Management category, the mindshare of 3scale API Management is 2.2%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM API Connect is 6.5%, up from 6.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management

Featured Reviews

Jose Luis Bonilla

CIO at Banco Pichincha España

Aug 15, 2024

Provides cost savings while maintaining the same functionality and capabilities

We have a microservices architecture or our public API managed through the 3scale The deployment process could be easier. I have been using 3scale API Management for two months. I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten. It fits our needs in terms of scalability. It aligns with our…

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Shanmugasundaram Shanmuganathan

Solutions Architect at Synechron

Jan 15, 2024

Offers basic API orchestration and provides robust security and governance features

While Azure API Management offers configurable scalability, IBM API Connect relies on Kubernetes clusters. This might seem manual and require defining cluster instances upfront, but it's completely customizable and not on-the-fly scaling. It's completely custom-driven, not on-the-fly scaling, which some may consider cumbersome. Overall, I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. Almost all applications we've been exposing lately go through this middleware, so it's used extensively. There are around sixty applications directly using it, but six Kubernetes clusters serve those applications. It's heavily used for integration, including system-to-system integration and product integrations. Our usage has been increasing year-on-year based on our needs.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It's good that they aren't adding a lot of features like ESP, etc. It's okay with just being a gateway."

"3scale API Management's best feature is API management."

"The most valuable features are the gateway and security features."

"The product is stable."

"The gateway is the most valuable feature because it makes it possible for us to gather all traffic into one proxy, which is a good thing."

"To me, the most valuable feature of 3scale API Management is that it lets you add a backend to the product. I also like that you can integrate it well with OpenShift clusters, making 3scale API Management a useful solution."

"The standard deployment is very simple."

"I like the API automation."

More 3scale API Management pros

"It acts as a central gateway for both external APIs and underlying systems. It's basically a central middleware for hosting APIs to the internet and consuming APIs from internal systems. It provides central governance for any APIs going outside the network, ensuring security and a common contract for API definitions."

"The solution provides a common place for all APIs, allowing for easy sharing and exchange of information between internal and external stakeholders."

"API Connect is a very good platform for the development of APIs."

"WSRR is a powerful component for getting the endpoints."

"This product is well integrated with other products. Its ability to interact with IBM Secure Gateway and other integration products is the core feature. Also, the lead time to put it into production is relatively short ."

"The developer portal has been the most useful feature."

"The main benefits of IBM API Connect for our API life cycle management are the core API functionalities, the developer's portal, and robust security capabilities. IBM API Connect's security protocols enhance our data protection strategies by offering end-to-end security, mechanisms to counter common attacks like DDoS, and the ability to define policies for API groups to control traffic and prevent unwanted access to our systems."

"This is a very easy to use solution."

More IBM API Connect pros

Cons

"What I'd like to improve in 3scale API Management is its route-limiting feature. Currently, I don't know how to do that effectively on the solution, but in Kong, I know how to do it, so I would love to see route-limiting being easily done on 3scale API Management. It would also be good if there was some authentication that you could do from 3scale API Management because Kong offers that functionality out of the box. What I'd love to see in the next release of 3scale API Management is the ability to integrate more plug-ins easily onto the platform, so you'll be able to extend it, and even do customs management. If Red Hat could offer that extension where it allows the internal organization where 3scale API Management is deployed on-premise to integrate its tools on top of 3scale API Management and provide an API for that, that will make the solution very powerful."

"The user experience could be better. The developer portal is too complex and hard to configure."

"It would be helpful to improve the customization features so that the customer can do it based on their own needs."

"I believe the CMS part of it has room for improvement though. That is where you write a couple of things if you want to publish your API. It's based on liquid scripting, which doesn't seem like the obvious ones to script with."

"We tried to use the portal, but we decided that it wasn't enough. The content management system (CMS) is not easy to use if you want to customize things, and it's hard to get someone who has the knowledge to work with the CMS."

"The product is not that flexible for developers. It's less flexible and rigid. It's not easy to make changes or customize it."

"What was suggested by Red Hat was a crucial part of the configuration, but when we started to ask about the supportability of this configuration, Red Hat said only some parts of the configuration would be supported."

"3scale API Management only supports restful APIs and doesn't support SOAP."

"It is expensive within this class of products."

"The developer portal could be easier to customize."

"The only disadvantage I can see is that it requires heavy hardware support."

"They seem to have left out a feature for microservices and also a certification module for OIDC."

"Automation for our Domino applications could be improved."

"The administration of the user interface and the technical documentation are areas of concern in the solution where improvements are required."

"The solution would be better if it had cloud functionalities."

"The integration of an API gateway that implements the sidecar pattern, which can be deployed in cloud applications, and expose the microservices directly in each pod, this can be more decentralized components."

More IBM API Connect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is affordable, it's cheap."

"The cost was around $45,000 per year."

"3scale API Management has reasonable pricing, judging from its competitor, Kong. My organization pays yearly for the 3scale API Management license, though I'm unable to give the exact figure because every single day there are new clusters deployed. I'm in charge of three to four clusters in my team, but give or take, it costs a few thousand lakhs."

"I don't think that 3scale is very expensive."

"I haven't seen anyone go from on-premise to the cloud. In fact, I am seeing people go from the cloud to on-premise because the costs can quickly grow on the cloud."

"It would be a good idea to bring down the pricing by at least 20 to 30 percent."

"It should be cheaper. It has a yearly licensing."

"It can be quite expensive. It's okay for large-scale usage but quite expensive for smaller-scale implementations."

"API Connect is quite pricey."

"IBM API Connect could be cheaper."

"This is a licensed product. If your company is looking to obtain a license, you have to work with IBM partners."

"API Connect is expensive - I'd rate their pricing five out of ten."

More IBM API Connect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

16%

Government

10%

Insurance Company

Educational Organization

20%

Financial Services Firm

19%

Insurance Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about 3scale API Management?

The product is stable.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for 3scale API Management?

I rate the product’s pricing as two out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with 3scale API Management?

The deployment process could be easier.

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM API Connect?

Publishers can easily identify, create, and publish APIs on the developer portal, defining plans, packages, and potentially billing rules.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM API Connect?

It is a pretty expensive tool. The tool is expensive if I consider how products like WSO2 are available in the market. You have pretty much many options in the open-source community, considering ho...

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What needs improvement with IBM API Connect?

The only downside where improvements are needed is probably on the licensing side. Scalability is an issue with IBM API Connect, making it an area where improvements are required.

See all answers

Comparisons

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs 3scale API Management

Compared 16% of the time

Apigee vs 3scale API Management

Compared 15% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs 3scale API Management

Compared 13% of the time

WSO2 API Manager vs 3scale API Management

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs 3scale API Management

Compared 9% of the time

More 3scale API Management Competitors

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Compared 24% of the time

Apigee vs IBM API Connect

Compared 23% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM API Connect

Compared 16% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs IBM API Connect

Compared 7% of the time

webMethods.io vs IBM API Connect

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM API Connect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

API Management

October 2024

Download 3scale API Management product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect

October 2024

Download IBM API Connect product report

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Red Hat

IBM

Overview

3scale is an API management platform that delivers flexible, highly scalable solutions to package, distribute, control, and monetize your APIs, giving you the power to make the most of your API program.

Share company data, content, or services through Web or mobile applications.
Provide an API to external organizations, internal teams, or both.
Avoid the hassle and constant maintenance of building a solution from scratch.

3scale delivers centralized API management features through a distributed, cloud-hosted layer. The platform includes built-in features to help you build a more successful API program, including access control, rate limits, payment gateway integration, and developer experience tools.

IBM API Connect facilitates API management and integration in the financial sector. Companies use it to expose, secure, and manage APIs for banking, insurance, and fintech, deploying it on-premises, in the cloud, or as a hybrid solution.

IBM API Connect focuses on creating and monetizing APIs while enabling seamless transactions and integration with third-party services. It is vital for compliance with regulations and enhances external communication among institutions. With deployment options suitable for different environments, it supports centralized gateway management, robust security features, and comprehensive API lifecycle management. Users benefit from powerful analytics, user-friendly interfaces, and high performance with capabilities in message transformation and efficient monitoring.

What are the most important features?

Centralized Gateway: Manages all APIs through a single entry point.
Robust Security: Ensures API protection with advanced security measures.
Comprehensive API Lifecycle Management: Covers creation, deployment, and retirement of APIs.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies API creation and management tasks.
Powerful Analytics: Provides insights into API usage and performance.
Seamless Integration: Connects easily with third-party services and internal systems.
Flexible Deployment Options: Supports on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
High Performance: Optimizes API performance and reduces latency.
Message Transformation: Manipulates and formats messages between different systems.
Visualization Tools: Enables clear and detailed views of API usage statistics.

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

API Monetization: Generates additional revenue streams from APIs.
Enhanced Compliance: Ensures adherence to industry regulations and standards.
Improved External Communication: Facilitates integration and communication among financial institutions.
Technical Support: Benefit from reliable customer support and easy configuration.
Deployment Flexibility: Choose from on-premises, cloud, or hybrid options.

IBM API Connect is extensively implemented in the financial sector, enabling banking, insurance, and fintech services to manage APIs efficiently. Companies use it to ensure secure transactions, integration with third-party services, and compliance with regulatory standards. Its deployment flexibility accommodates different infrastructure needs, making it suitable for a wide range of financial applications.

Sample Customers

Victor Ops, Coca Cola, The Telegraph, Skava, Orange, Typeform

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank

Buyer's Guide

3scale API Management vs. IBM API Connect

October 2024

Free Report: 3scale API Management vs. IBM API Connect

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