3scale API Management vs IBM API Connect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

3scale API Management
Ranking in API Management
14th
Average Rating
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM API Connect
Ranking in API Management
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
73
Ranking in other categories
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (7th)
 

Market share comparison

As of June 2024, in the API Management category, the market share of 3scale API Management is 2.2% and it decreased by 14.2% compared to the previous year. The market share of IBM API Connect is 7.1% and it increased by 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management
Unique Categories:
No other categories found
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
2.4%
 

Featured Reviews

KavitaChavan - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 1, 2023
Lightweight solution but less flexible customization features
This use case was for one of our Gulf clients, specifically in the ranking domain The solution is quite lightweight, and the installation is very easy. It's like a two-click installation. You install the operator, and then you simply create an API manager and boom, your environment is ready. The…
CS
Feb 28, 2024
Helps monitor and manage API services and measure the API performance
We use the solution to monitor, process, and manage API services We use the product to enforce standards to check and align things with the application design. The tool has enhanced our digital transformation efforts. With the adoption of the cloud, we deploy a lot of APIs on Lambda. We also have…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"3scale API Management's best feature is API management."
"I like the API automation."
"The standard deployment is very simple."
"The solution is quite lightweight, and the installation is very easy. It's like a two-click installation."
"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."
"It's good that they aren't adding a lot of features like ESP, etc. It's okay with just being a gateway."
"The product is stable."
"The most valuable features are the gateway and security features."
"The gateway is the most valuable aspect of this solution."
"The interface is very nice. It makes the solution easy to use and navigate."
"It gives a holistic environment for us to set up the APIs and that's the main value that it adds. It gives end to end for us."
"Its speed and performance are valuable."
"The solution offers a pretty good SLA."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"Easy to configure security and generate API keys."
"It is easy to use and stable."
 

Cons

"It would be helpful to improve the customization features so that the customer can do it based on their own needs."
"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."
"The user experience could be better. The developer portal is too complex and hard to configure."
"The product is not that flexible for developers. It's less flexible and rigid. It's not easy to make changes or customize it."
"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."
"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 installation process could use improvement. I hope that in the next release, the installation process is easier."
"Support for this platform could still be improved. It also needs to have more levels of versatility. Its compatibility and integration with different platforms also need improvement."
"Our main pain points are in these two areas: creating a better developer portal and improving stability in terms of synchronization and monetization."
"The integration of cloud-based services is where we're looking for improvement in this platform."
"The initial setup and installation could be easier."
"The installation was difficult with the IBM toolkit."
"The implementation of IBM API Connect is complex, as it's an enterprise solution with many components that require more than one person. It's not a single product that you work on, and this is an area for improvement, but normally, it's good. Having a more structured model for IBM API Connect support is also room for improvement that would help customers better."
"Like any typical IBM infrastructure setup, you need to learn to set it up yourself. It's not one of those simple zip files or an archive unzip and you're up and running in some few minutes. Knowledge to set it up is key."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't think that 3scale is very expensive."
"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."
"The cost was around $45,000 per year."
"The pricing is affordable, it's cheap."
"The price of the solution is expensive. However, there are a lot of customization capabilities."
"It is expensive when compared to other products in this class. There were no extra fees for add-ons or technical support."
"It is quite an expensive product."
"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."
"API Connect is quite pricey."
"IBM API Connect could be cheaper."
"It's an expensive product."
"It is an expensive solution. The licensing model is based on a per-subscription and per-subscriber end-user basis, meaning the price is determined by the end-users of the platform."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which API Management solutions are best for your needs.
787,061 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Educational Organization
18%
Computer Software Company
10%
Insurance Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for 3scale API Management?
The solution is affordable. I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap.
What needs improvement with 3scale API Management?
The tool can improve API management and UI.
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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM API Connect?
I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price.
What needs improvement with IBM API Connect?
The platform’s integration with the payment gateway needs enhancement. The setup process and support services could be improved.
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Victor Ops, Coca Cola, The Telegraph, Skava, Orange, Typeform
Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about 3scale API Management vs. IBM API Connect and other solutions. Updated: June 2024.
787,061 professionals have used our research since 2012.