IBM API Connect and Apigee are leading solutions in the API management category. IBM API Connect seems to have an advantage in security and integration with IBM products, while Apigee benefits from superior scalability and integration capabilities, especially with Google's ecosystem.
Features: IBM API Connect is known for its strong security measures, detailed analytics, and seamless integration with IBM products like DataPower, which enhances its gateway capabilities. It supports both REST and SOAP protocols, offering robust support for microservices and DevOps integration. Apigee, however, emphasizes analytics and comprehensive lifecycle management, with a focus on developer portals and monetization options. Its ease of integration and extensive policy management set it apart.
Room for Improvement: IBM API Connect can improve integration with Exchange Server and simplify its DataPower policy configurations. The setup is quite complex, and there’s a need for better hybrid cloud support. Apigee needs to address its complex deployment processes and improve integration with prominent backend systems. Expanding cache management and better integration with open-source components would be beneficial for Apigee.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM API Connect offers both on-premises and cloud deployment models but often involves complex implementation processes and technical expertise. Customer service is sometimes slow, and documentation is not always user-friendly. Apigee provides more flexible deployment options with public cloud and hybrid models, making it attractive for businesses seeking rapid integration; however, it requires dedicated technical resources for effective management.
Pricing and ROI: IBM's pricing model is complex and can be prohibitive for smaller firms, though larger enterprises find value in its substantial feature set, leading to potential ROI via enhanced security and integration. Apigee, similarly expensive, is suited for large enterprises, with licensing based on API calls, making it cost-effective depending on usage scenarios. Both solutions, despite significant upfront investments, promise long-term benefits in API management and security.
Reducing development hours from eighty to four for an API was possible due to reusing existing scripts from DataPower.
They are responsive and provide assistance even during production issues.
Support is excellent when it comes to APIC.
Adding extra Cassandra databases is complex.
With container versions, scaling up or down the gateways deployed into pods is a two to three-minute task for the operations team.
Apigee is stable, and we have had the system running on Apigee servers for more than four years without any stability issues.
The runtime engine for the APIC Gateway is still a DataPower component, which has been stable in the industry for about fifteen years.
Apigee only allows validation of transactions up to a four-hour period, which requires manual hovering over the date and time.
Analytics is one of the areas needing enhancement, specifically more visibility and control over traffic to improve capacity management and high availability.
Examples include the lack of connectivity to MQ.
Apigee is costlier compared to other solutions.
Apigee is perceived as slightly costly compared to other tools in the market.
Apigee is high-priced, suitable for large enterprises where the benefit aligns with the cost.
Pricing depends on how many instances run across environments.
We rely on Elasticsearch to monitor traffic, which provides high visibility and control and surpasses Apigee in certain features.
Apigee provides catalog management, onboarding of new customers, an API portal, and security features.
It offers significant development efficiency, reducing man-hours from eighty to four when creating APIs.
Apigee is a platform for developing and managing APIs. Apigee offers an interface for your core services by wrapping them with a proxy layer which is then accessed by other developers. With Apigee, you can design and build APIs and then securely share their services and data without exposing any code.
Because app developers make HTTP requests to an API proxy rather than directly to your services, your services are separated from the developers. All the developer needs to know is the URL of the API proxy endpoint, necessary query parameters, authorization credentials (if they exist), and the response data format.
The API proxy isolates the app developer from your backend service. Therefore, you are free to change the service implementation if the public API remains consistent. By maintaining a consistent frontend API, existing client apps will continue to work regardless of changes on the backend.
Key capabilities of the Apigee API management platform include:
Reviews from Real Users:
Apigee stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Several major ones are its rich developer portal, its advanced analytics, and its central monitoring system.
Carlos R., a software architect at Caja Los Andes writes, “The central monitoring feature is the most valuable. It also provides security for the APIs and high availability for our use cases. Apigee is the best product in the industry in comparison to other API management solutions. It helps in fast development, which is a top point. It also supports a lot of industry standards and has excellent documentation.”
An associate vice president at a tech services company notes, “The analytics function and the developer portal are the two valuable features of Apigee. The analytics part is very good, and the developer portal is quite rich in features. The authentication mechanisms are quite easily built into Apigee, which is something that most of the other products have also now started supporting.”
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?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.
We monitor all API Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.