IBM API Connect vs WSO2 API Manager comparison

IBM and WSO2 are both solutions in the API Management category. IBM is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.1, while WSO2 is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.7. IBM holds a 6.3% mindshare in APIM, compared to WSO2’s 4.6% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of WSO2 users who would recommend it.

IBM API Connect

Read 75 IBM API Connect reviews

9,160 Views
6,854 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

WSO2 API Manager

Read 40 WSO2 API Manager reviews

6,643 Views
4,719 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM API Connect

WSO2 API Manager

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

IBM API Connect and WSO2 API Manager compete in the API management category. IBM API Connect seems to have an upper hand due to its robust security and integration features.

Features: IBM API Connect offers extensive integration capabilities within IBM's ecosystem, significant security features like DataPower Gateway, and OAuth support. It also excels in securing and optimizing API access, and includes comprehensive analytics and a customizable developer portal. WSO2 API Manager is praised for its open-source nature and flexibility, offering seamless integration with various platforms, lifecycle management features, and ease of customization for its developer portal.

Room for Improvement: IBM API Connect could improve by enhancing integration with non-IBM platforms, simplifying complex user interfaces, and addressing setup difficulties. WSO2 API Manager needs to overcome installation challenges, enhance its user interface for better usability, and provide better documentation and support for non-Java platform integration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM API Connect is versatile in deployment options, suitable for on-premises and cloud environments, though some find its setup complex. Customer service is generally responsive, but documentation clarity needs improvement. WSO2 API Manager supports diverse deployment models and is cost-effective due to its open-source advantage. However, WSO2's technical support resources require enhancement.

Pricing and ROI: IBM API Connect is seen as costly with pricing based on PVU or consumption models, mainly benefiting larger enterprises with substantial integration needs. Its ROI emerges post extensive integration. WSO2 API Manager offers a cost-effective alternative being open source, with additional charges for enterprise support, aligning well with cost-conscious businesses.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM API Connect vs. WSO2 API Manager Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. WSO2 API Manager

March 2025

Download the complete report

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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)

WSO2 API Manager

Ranking in API Management

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 6.3%, up from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WSO2 API Manager is 4.6%, up from 4.0% 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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VishalSingh14

IT Engineer at Reliance Industries Ltd

Easy to deploy APIs and easy to manage CORS configuration

I have used WSO2 Store and WSO2 API Manager at the architecture level. I worked on two versions, namely WSO2 API Manager 2.6.0 and 5.7.0. I have also worked with WSO2 Identity Server versions 5.7 and 5.11. There are certain things that Apigee handles better than WSO2 API Manager. The user interface of WSO2 API Manager is much easier than that of Apigee. The scope of flexibility was much greater in Apigee. In WSO2 API Manager, we had little flexibility and were restricted to a specific software or tool. On the other hand, we had the scope of customization in Apigee.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ability for all of our web applications to share standard functions and documents easily is valuable."

"The solution is very scalable because it's on the cloud."

"One of the most valuable features is the easy-to-use web interface."

"IBM API Connect is a good product, and their technical support is excellent."

"The statistics component is easy to use."

"Scalable and stable API platform for creating and managing APIs."

"It offers enhanced security features to protect APIs, enforce access control, and secure sensitive data."

"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 ."

More IBM API Connect pros

"The solution is open-source."

"WSO2 API Manager's most valuable features are the simple interface that is easy to use and the APIs lifecycle."

"Functionality-wise, I like WSO2 API Manager - Publisher API and WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus."

"We use the vanilla version of the WSO2 API Manager and integrate additional features ourselves. The basic features of the API Manager, such as blacklisting and whitelisting, are very helpful. We also created dashboards."

"WSO2 API Manager provides OAuth2 token capabilities that our customers use to interact, onboard new customers, and provide approvals whenever a customer is onboarded."

"It's a good product."

"There are a lot of tools to help the manager. WSO2 is very easy to install. It has all the principal functionalities that you think about when you want to put up the management solution. It's a very friendly tool."

"The product is easy to use."

More WSO2 API Manager pros

Cons

"Extracting the data could be improved."

"The design time setup has a lot of customizable fields, but we need certain standard fields to be added, such as what all of the consuming systems are. This needs to be very clearly articulated during the design time."

"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."

"The product's setup phase and its setup for the users in different environments, along with DevOps integration, are areas of concern where there is a need for improvement."

"We have asked IBM for scalability and for some other features that we wanted. We had a dialogue with them and in the end, they have agreed to provide us with features related to API setup and security."

"It would be nice to have a SaaS solution that can be deployed into the cloud."

"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."

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

More IBM API Connect cons

"WSO2 API Manager can be improved a lot relating to usability"

"I would like to see improvements in the speed of the solution as it can be a bit slow compared to other platforms along with addressing memory issues would be beneficial."

"I think they could greatly improve the general UX with their solutions."

"The interface needs to be modernized and made more user friendly so the product continues to have a growing community of users."

"The solution’s interface should be more user-friendly."

"From a product perspective, the first thing is that although the documentation provided by WSO2 is good, it could be much better. We're in the middle of a complex migration, moving away from VMs to Kubernetes with the latest version of WSO2 and good documentation is essential to us right now."

"The user interface needs to improve, it is a bit outdated."

"WSO2 API Manager could increase their security compliance."

More WSO2 API Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay for the IBM API Connect monthly. We only need to pay the standard licensing fee."

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

"API Connect was highly expensive for us, but the decision to switch was made before I joined the company. It seems like the company bought it, but they didn't know how to use it. After two years, they decided to reevaluate and conduct some cost estimates."

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

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

"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."

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

"IBM API Connect could be cheaper."

More IBM API Connect pricing and cost advice

"For our projects, we found the pricing to be a little high."

"WSO2 API Manager is an open-source solution."

"There is a subscription-based pricing structure and also the open-sourced version available."

"WSO2 API Manager is a low-cost solution. It is one of the most affordable solutions."

"The challenge is the increasing pricing, which has led some customers to consider alternatives, like using Spring Boot solutions instead. The rising costs, especially as cores and usage increase, have been a concern, prompting some to migrate to other products."

"WSO2 API Manager is a costly solution, and its pricing is not competitive enough compared to other products."

"We have not opted for the paid version of WSO2 but we have implemented the free and open source WSO2 software to a great extent and it is working as per our expectation."

"We use the open-source version — the free version."

More WSO2 API Manager pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

23%

Financial Services Firm

18%

Insurance Company

10%

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

18%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

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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.

See all answers

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

What do you like most about WSO2 API Manager?

It is possible to scale up and scale down with the solution...I can say that I have not seen any issues related to scalability.

See all answers

What needs improvement with WSO2 API Manager?

One area for improvement is monitoring. Dashboards for application monitoring of the APIs would be beneficial, allowing us to check for faulty APIs.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WSO2 API Manager?

We use WSO2 API Manager for our microservices and our APIs, both internally and externally.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Compared 26% of the time

Apigee vs IBM API Connect

Compared 21% 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

SAP Cloud Platform vs IBM API Connect

Compared 1% of the time

More IBM API Connect Competitors

Apigee vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 24% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 16% of the time

Apache APISIX vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 15% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 13% of the time

webMethods.io vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 2% of the time

More WSO2 API Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect

March 2025

Download IBM API Connect product report

Buyer's Guide

WSO2 API Manager

March 2025

Download WSO2 API Manager product report

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

WSO2 API Manager is a comprehensive platform that allows organizations to design, publish, and manage APIs.

It provides a centralized interface for API governance, security, and analytics.

With features like API monetization and developer portal, it enables businesses to drive innovation and create new revenue streams.

WSO2

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank

1. eBay 2. StubHub 3. Cisco 4. Verizon 5. T-Mobile 6. Vodafone 7. Orange 8. BT Group 9. Telstra 10. Deutsche Telekom 11. Swisscom 12. AT&T 13. Sprint 14. Telefonica 15. O2 16. British Airways 17. Lufthansa 18. Emirates 19. Qatar Airways 20. Etihad Airways 21. Air France 22. KLM 23. American Express 24. Visa 25. Mastercard 26. PayPal 27. Western Union 28. Citibank 29. HSBC 30. Barclays 31. Santander 32. Goldman Sachs

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. WSO2 API Manager

March 2025

Free Report: IBM API Connect vs. WSO2 API Manager

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