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 8.2, while WSO2 is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.7. IBM holds a 6.4% mindshare in APIM, compared to WSO2’s 4.8% 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

8,910 Views
6,632 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

WSO2 API Manager

Read 41 WSO2 API Manager reviews

6,382 Views
4,570 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: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. WSO2 API Manager

April 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 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 WSO2 API Manager is 4.8%, up from 4.1% 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

"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."

"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."

"The most valuable feature is the security we get from this solution. I know of a bank that uses it to ensure that everything is secure. The second feature I like is the retail environment, where we actually want to be able to provide as many suppliers and consumers with APIs as possible. If you are well-trained in the writing of RESTful API's, you can actually publish an API in a matter of minutes, test it, and publish it."

"It has all of the tools that are needed for the specific mission."

"The gateway is the most valuable aspect of this solution."

"The most valuable features are stability and security."

"It's quite flexible and easy to deploy, especially for beginners. It has almost all the features that an API gateway should have."

"API Connect's data gateway is one of the strongest in the market."

More IBM API Connect pros

"WSO2 API Manager is a stable solution."

"WSO2 API Manager provides strong internal API security, including token-based authentication and HTTPS support for various formats like REST. However, the newer API security features that are emerging are not available yet. They might be in development, but for now, internal API security is well-covered."

"The solution is stable."

"Yes WSO2 API Manager is scalable"

"We could easily deploy APIs on WSO2 API Manager, and CORS configuration was easy to manage."

"The documentation is good."

"It's a good product."

"It's very scalable, which is one of the best features."

More WSO2 API Manager pros

Cons

"Due to bugs in integration, we have to look for workaround on fixing and using DataPower as gateway."

"Different versions of the same thing can mean unnecessary duplication."

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

"Extracting the data could be improved."

"The monetization of the API could be improved. The pricing for the consumer is also very important to improve this solution."

"The implementation process could benefit from improvements, as it may take some time to become accustomed to the deployment."

"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."

"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."

More IBM API Connect cons

"In WSO2 API Manager, we had little flexibility and were restricted to a specific software or tool."

"The solution could be more user friendly for engineers."

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

"WSO2 API Manager could improve the API approval system."

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

"From what I have experienced from the versions I have tried, they could improve on the multi-tenant environments to allow some kind of SSO single sign-on between tenant."

"We have encountered some concerns with concurrency. Our integrations do not handle high-volume transactions, and when benchmarking, some issues arose with concurrent testing."

"Providing easy configuration for email and SMS notifications, layout and customization of admin and developer landing pages."

More WSO2 API Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The pricing is significantly high."

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

"It is a pretty expensive tool."

"API Connect is quite pricey."

"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."

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

"The price of the solution is expensive. However, there are a lot of customization capabilities."

More IBM API Connect pricing and cost advice

"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 quite an expensive tool. I rate the product's pricing a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is low and ten is high."

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

"I am using the free version."

"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."

"I think the other competitors that are providing the same solution are quite expensive. WSO2 API Manager is quite cheap."

"It's not expensive, but it could be cheaper."

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

More WSO2 API Manager pricing and cost advice

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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

18%

Computer Software Company

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.

See all answers

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 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

SAP Cloud Platform vs IBM API Connect

Compared 1% of the time

More IBM API Connect Competitors

Apigee vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 23% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 17% 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

Layer7 API Management vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 2% of the time

More WSO2 API Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect

April 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

April 2025

Free Report: IBM API Connect vs. WSO2 API Manager

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