Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

IBM App Connect vs TIBCO BusinessWorks comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.2
IBM App Connect enhances efficiency and ROI with centralized integrations, requiring expertise for long-term success across various sectors.
Sentiment score
7.2
TIBCO BusinessWorks is valued for its flexibility and reliability, seen as a worthwhile investment despite ROI calculation challenges.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
IBM App Connect support is responsive and competent, but inconsistencies and delays exist, especially in non-urgent and local support.
Sentiment score
6.2
TIBCO BusinessWorks customer service is generally efficient but varies by region, with some users experiencing delays and expertise issues.
When opening a ticket with the global team, problems are resolved promptly and effectively.
Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
The technical support from IBM is good.
Developer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The technical support from TIBCO BusinessWorks is very good.
E2E Delivery Expert - Ignite Delivery & Technical Enablement at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
I rate TIBCO technical support as fantastic on a scale of one to ten.
Lead Solutions Architect at UNSW Australia
Customer service is very helpful.
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
IBM App Connect is praised for scalability in cloud and container environments, with suggestions for improved administration features.
Sentiment score
6.6
TIBCO BusinessWorks is seen as scalable, but cost, licensing, infrastructure, and specific limitations impact its effectiveness.
IBM App Connect demonstrates good scalability.
Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
I would rate the scalability of IBM App Connect as nine out of ten.
Developer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It is not like AWS where I can add memory or more servers.
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
IBM App Connect is stable, with high reliability, though occasional issues arise from environment, configuration, or resource management.
Sentiment score
7.4
TIBCO BusinessWorks is stable with minimal downtime, but newer versions face upgrade issues; version 5.14 is preferred.
IBM App Connect occasionally crashes for various reasons, requiring problem-solving intervention.
Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
TIBCO BusinessWorks is quite stable and scales very well, so we are happy.
Lead Solutions Architect at UNSW Australia
It is stable, however, every now and then, it just ends.
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
 

Room For Improvement

IBM App Connect users seek improved logging, interface enhancements, better community support, and simpler, more cost-effective version transitions.
TIBCO BusinessWorks needs cloud improvements, better integration, refined pricing, enhanced monitoring, and easier external tool integration for users.
I find it particularly good for on-premises and now cloud use.
Developer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Version 13 includes around 200 features with cloud platform compatibility.
Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
AI-driven features in TIBCO BusinessWorks would be beneficial, so that our business tech BA can do the development rather than needing programmers.
Lead Solutions Architect at UNSW Australia
They should ensure that what was working in the previous version must also work in the new version of BW six.
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
Performance and latency could be enhanced.
E2E Delivery Expert - Ignite Delivery & Technical Enablement at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

IBM App Connect's annual pricing varies by transactions and partnership, with complexities and flexibility in setup and licensing.
TIBCO BusinessWorks is costly, favoring larger enterprises, but price adjustments make it more accessible starting at €2000.
For insurance companies with simple JDBC connections, the process is straightforward.
Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
The current licensing cost for the product involves our resource sourcing team for negotiations.
E2E Delivery Expert - Ignite Delivery & Technical Enablement at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Pricing is for an enterprise application, so the company pays for it with a company license.
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
Because we have enterprise licenses, the pricing for TIBCO BusinessWorks is quite reasonable for us, so we do not see any issue.
Lead Solutions Architect at UNSW Australia
 

Valuable Features

IBM App Connect excels with robust integration, user-friendly design, scalability, and flexibility for seamless, secure, and complex integrations.
TIBCO BusinessWorks is renowned for its user-friendly GUI, scalability, robust integration, and real-time processing capabilities.
The features I find most valuable are message routing, message transformation, and protocol translation.
Developer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
File operations are simple to execute, and converting between XML to JSON formats is effortless with IBM App Connect.
Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
It's a great software application for the middleware use cases to connect the front channels to the back ends in a secure and safer way.
Senior Analyst at Etisalat
Drag and drop make it easier to build the service end to end.
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
TIBCO BusinessWorks' real-time data exchange capability has benefited our customers greatly; we conduct a lot of messaging with Superstream and external partners, so it works well for us.
Lead Solutions Architect at UNSW Australia
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM App Connect
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Integration (13th)
TIBCO BusinessWorks
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (18th)
 

Featured Reviews

Emirhan Guven - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
Transforms data efficiently and navigates licensing challenges with ease
The transition between version 12 and version 13 presents some challenges. While version 12 had approximately 10 features, version 13 includes around 200 features with cloud platform compatibility. The learning curve for developers moving from version 12 to 13 could be smoother. When using new components, better context explanations would be beneficial. In version 13, accessing new features requires connecting through a web browser, which can be challenging to understand. The explanation of new features could be more user-friendly.
CL
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
Drag and drop capabilities simplify service development for easy building
It is drag and drop. Drag and drop make it easier to build the service end to end. It is easier to build services with BusinessWorks. When I have an architecture designed to plug in the service itself with BW, it makes things much easier. It is easy to integrate, especially when the architecture is well-designed.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Data Integration solutions are best for your needs.
879,927 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Retailer
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise24
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM App Connect?
I like the adapters. The adapters help us achieve scalability. If you want to connect to SAP, there's an adapter. Salesforce? There's an adapter. You want to connect to another system? There's like...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM App Connect?
Configuration time varies by implementation. For insurance companies with simple JDBC connections, the process is straightforward. However, companies requiring multiple configurations for ODBC, JDB...
What is your primary use case for IBM App Connect?
I am a developer specializing in IBM App Connect. We have a customer interested in comparing ESB tools, such as webMethods, which was previously owned by Software AG company before IBM acquired the...
How does TIBCO BusinessWorks compare with Mule Anypoint Platform?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether TIBCO BusinessWorks or Mule Anypoint platform integration and connectivity software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Mule...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TIBCO BusinessWorks?
The current licensing cost for the product involves our resource sourcing team for negotiations. It depends on the type of licenses being used, whether perpetual or not. Sourcing manages these aspe...
What needs improvement with TIBCO BusinessWorks?
There could be improvement areas in TIBCO BusinessWorks because every area needs to improve as the industry is demanding and traffic is increasing. Performance and latency could be enhanced. Additi...
 

Also Known As

IBM Cast Iron
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

United Way of Allegheny County, Saint-Gobain CPS, Ricoh, SunTrust Banks Inc.
Euler Hermes, QSuper, Scandinavian Airlines
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM App Connect vs. TIBCO BusinessWorks and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,927 professionals have used our research since 2012.