IBM API Connect vs Tyk comparison

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IBM API Connect

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

IBM API Connect and Tyk are competing in the API management space. IBM API Connect leads in integration and enterprise-level support while Tyk surpasses in customization and developer experience.

Features: IBM API Connect offers comprehensive analytics, advanced security features, and extensive enterprise integration support, making it ideal for large-scale operations. Tyk features open-source architecture, flexible plugin support, and ease of customization, which benefit developer-centric environments.

Room for Improvement: IBM API Connect could improve in reducing initial setup complexity, expanding flexibility for smaller teams, and enhancing open-source capabilities. Tyk can enhance enterprise-level support, increase integration options with other enterprise solutions, and improve scalability for very large deployments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM API Connect uses a traditional deployment model with robust customer support suitable for large enterprises. Tyk supports cloud-native deployments, offering flexibility and drawing on ample community resources, catering to agile teams needing quick iterations.

Pricing and ROI: IBM API Connect typically has higher initial setup costs, justified by robust ROI through extensive features. Tyk's open-source options allow for lower upfront costs, appealing to smaller teams seeking cost efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM API Connect vs. Tyk Report (Updated: April 2025).

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IBM API Connect vs. Tyk

April 2025

Helped 847,862 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

IBM API Connect

Ranking in API Management

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (7th)

Tyk

Ranking in API Management

19th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 6.4%, up from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tyk is 2.0%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management

Featured Reviews

KavitaChavan

Associate Manager at Baariz

Quite flexible and provides excellent performance for API gateway

The only disadvantage I can see is that it requires heavy hardware support, which can be considered quite expensive. In terms of new functionality, I think the analytics can be improved in V10. The analytics feature was better in the older version, 2.18. But in V10, it's not as flexible. When exporting analytics as KSP or JSON, it's not well formatted. They can work on enhancing the analytics part. Additionally, they can focus on reducing the hardware cost.

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MarkDoherty

Founding Director at Point Group

Fastest to get up and running and fewer idiosyncrasies than competitors

In terms of our usage, the main area of concern is that they tend to build enhancements slightly ahead of the considerations for what those enhancements and extensions are. So it could be slightly better communication with the customer base that would be my main issue with them. But as a product, it's very difficult to find any major faults.

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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

"The most valuable feature for me is the ability to distribute work among our API developers, so we don't have to do all the work as IBM API Connect administrators and IBM DataPower administrators."

"Since it runs on top of Datapower, all Datapower based custom policies can be utilized and exported to API connect but its not straightforward/simple process."

"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."

"Using API Connect allows us to quickly create proxy APIs and saves time on end-to-end testing, which lets us deliver quickly to clients."

"The interface is very nice. It makes the solution easy to use and navigate."

"What's best about IBM API Connect is the excellent administration. The development tool that builds the API is also very simple, and user-friendly, and it doesn't consume too much time. Another valuable feature in IBM API Connect is its good reporting feature, particularly for operations, but the most valuable feature of the solution for the customer is security. IBM API Connect provides a DMZ and a security gateway between the external and internal environment, so you can publish your API safely. IBM API Connect can also integrate with any tool or middleware that works on open standards without the need for development or coding, so integration with the solution is easier."

"This solution is ready to scale and already supports our agile CICD."

"It is quite stable. We've not had any problem. It has made for a good buy because we are finding that other companies that have similar set ups go down maybe once a month."

More IBM API Connect pros

"You can set up workflows and write limited pieces of logic."

"The feature I find most valuable is that this solution allows us to manage our security."

"The scalability is very good. That was a key factor in the selection, like how it could be pushed to high volume and scalability, which seemed to be very good."

"The portal for developers that this solution provides has great functionality."

"The most valuable feature is the load balancing with the circuit-breaker function."

"It is a good product for API management."

Cons

"IBM info-center help documentation also needs improvement. Competitive product like Apigee provide out of the box policies to run Javascript, JAVA and better/flexible logging policies."

"Business applications could be exposed to users."

"The integration of cloud-based services is where we're looking for improvement in this platform."

"The new version is very unstable."

"Improving the documentation would be beneficial as it currently presents navigation challenges. Incorporating a step-by-step guide could facilitate the integration or migration of various systems, including databases. The existing documentation only comprises plain text, hence incorporating more interactive instructions could enhance its usefulness."

"API Connect's analytics subsystem could be improved to make it easier to render content from the analytics system and offload it to an external database."

"In the next version, I don't know if they've already been included it or not, but the designer and all the tools should be on the cloud. I don't want any external installation or local installation."

"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."

More IBM API Connect cons

"Sometimes when new features are released, they are not immediately stable."

"In terms of our usage, the main area of concern is that they tend to build enhancements slightly ahead of the considerations for what those enhancements and extensions are. So it could be slightly better communication with the customer base that would be my main issue with them."

"We ran it for a while, but then we decided to move away from Tyk, because Tyk's cloud version, the SaaS version, has a significant limitation of limited flexibility, so you can't program very much."

"We would like a better tool for generating documentation for the APIs to be developed."

"It is a young product and does not have the kind of brand recognition that would make it a more popular solution with our clients."

"I would like to see some additional features like having some extensions for .NET core because we use it for our back-end language."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is very expensive, it can turn many customers away."

"API Connect's license cost could be a little lower. But, unfortunately, there aren't many open-source API gateways. Ideally, some new developers could come up with a minimum-functionality open-source solution."

"It is expensive when compared to other products in this class. There were no extra fees for add-ons or technical support."

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

"The pricing is too expensive with IBM. Sometimes, we prefer to go with an open source or something more lightweight."

"It is a pretty expensive tool."

"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."

"The pricing is significantly high."

More IBM API Connect pricing and cost advice

"The price is low compared to other products of a similar type."

"We are using the open-source version of this product, so there are no licensing costs for its use."

"There are different versions and plans available depending on the requirements, so there is flexibility in terms of the pricing."

"The cost curve is far smoother, both in terms of volume and the number of calls it's running on, compared to most competitors. So it's a tad more expensive at the very low end, but the curve is nothing like Apigee or some of the others."

"It had a free version, which suited many of our needs, but not all, but we were happy to go ahead with the licensed version as well, which is the paid version."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

23%

Financial Services Firm

17%

Insurance Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

16%

Healthcare Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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?

Price depends on many factors like size of the deal, competitive factors, timing, customer profile or where the pricing for API Calls is very competitive comparing to any of the leader players.

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.

What do you like most about Tyk?

The scalability is very good. That was a key factor in the selection, like how it could be pushed to high volume and scalability, which seemed to be very good.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tyk?

The pricing is actually quite competitive. In Azure environments, it gets beaten by Microsoft API Gateway, but on the other hand, it offers some features that Microsoft lacks. So it really comes do...

What needs improvement with Tyk?

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Comparisons

Compared 26% of the time

Apigee vs IBM API Connect

Compared 20% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM API Connect

Compared 15% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Compared 6% of the time

Axway AMPLIFY API Management vs IBM API Connect

Compared 1% of the time

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Traefik Enterprise vs Tyk

Compared 16% of the time

Apache APISIX vs Tyk

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs Tyk

Compared 11% of the time

Apigee vs Tyk

Compared 10% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Tyk

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Download IBM API Connect product report

IBM API Connect

April 2025

Download Tyk product report

March 2025

Overview

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.

IBM

Tyk is an open source API Gateway that is fast and scalable, an API management platform featuring an API gateway, analytics, developer portal and dashboard. Available in three flavours to best suit your architecture and governance. We offer full cloud or on-premises options, and the best of both worlds with our unique hybrid model. www.tyk.io

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank

Trip Advisor, Juniper Networks, AT&T