IBM App Connect vs Zapier comparison

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IBM App Connect

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM App Connect and Zapier based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Cloud Data Integration solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM App Connect vs. Zapier Report (Updated: October 2024).

IBM App Connect vs. Zapier

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Helped 814,763 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

IBM App Connect

Ranking in Cloud Data Integration

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zapier

Ranking in Cloud Data Integration

9th

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Cloud Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM App Connect is 3.6%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zapier is 2.1%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Data Integration

Featured Reviews

Mehdi El Filahi

Co-Founder at tenekit

Apr 17, 2024

Offers flexible adapters, good scalability but logging can be difficult at times

There is room for improvement in the logging messages. Sometimes, if you put someone new into App Connect, they can abandon it the same day. The logging is really painful. However, IBM has made efforts to integrate with Elasticsearch for logging, so that's an improvement. Overall, the logging can be difficult at times. One more important point is that if IBM improves its CI/CD capabilities, it will make a big difference. Right now, I have to create my own CI/CD setup from scratch for every client, which is inefficient. Back in 2013, I worked with Sonic ESB, and even then, it had CI/CD with Maven. With App Connect, you need to build everything yourself when using tools like Jenkins, Bamboo, or CircleCI. IBM really needs to provide official support for this.

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Dimitris Goudis

Airtable developer - Tableau analyst at Freelance

May 16, 2023

A tool for automation purposes requiring an easy initial setup while offering a very helpful technical support team

Zapier is not able to set up different modules. When automation doesn't work, it's not that easy to find why it didn't work. So, it's not about the automation process but the triggers that trigger an automation to start running. Sometimes if you set up an automation trigger on a specific application, we wouldn't know if Zapier received data to start running. So we cannot understand whether the problem is in Zapier or the steps before. Branching scenarios is something I want to add to the solution to make my life easier. We want to apply a logical workflow with a yes or no condition. On Zapier, you can have a condition, but you can build the actions after one value on this condition. So, the question can be responded to with a yes-no option or not answered. In your scenario, you have only the actions after yes get chosen. A second scenario is needed for the answer, no, and a third one for not answered. While in Make, we create a diagram, according to which if the response is yes, then do follow this path, and if it's no, then follow another path.

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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

"I would say that the most valuable feature is the array of connectors and integration tools."

"There is a friendly interface for configuration, and integration is made easy."

"The solution is very fast-paced when it comes to making things right. We can quickly download what we need if we need any app migrations for our software business. We can download it plenty of times when we need to use it. It gives us very high speed for delivering any development."

"The most valuable feature is the security."

"Very scalable, flexible, and user-friendly."

"We use IBM App Connect for the integration between the applications."

"It's stable to use, connect with the cloud, and to deploy."

"It has different type of interfaces that can integrate with companies."

More IBM App Connect pros

"The initial setup is pretty easy to do."

"We find it effortless to set up. We really don't have to do anything other than finding the application in the Zapier catalog. And as long as the application has been re-integrated into Zapier, they're able to then just provide the connection details and hook it up."

"Webhooks are the most valuable feature of Zapier."

"There are a few valuable features, like the stability that it comes with and also the number of features that it offers. I've used other services like Pabbly, but they don't offer similar numbers of applications that Zapier has or allows to integrate with – it's maximum."

"Zapier’s most valuable feature is its ability to interconnect applications or devices."

"The ability to connect web applications to trigger actions in another app after having enriched, formatted, delayed, grouped, and filtered is really valuable for many businesses."

"Zapier handles everything under the sun that you would think you need in automation. It is the most mature integration platform and service on the market."

"The most valuable feature of Zapier is it saves me time doing repetitive tasks."

More Zapier pros

Cons

"IBM App Connect should improve security features."

"The setup time for App Connect could be improved."

"They reply in one or two hours at most, but they could be better."

"The interface could be better."

"One more important point is that if IBM improves its CI/CD capabilities, it will make a big difference. Right now, I have to create my own CI/CD setup from scratch for every client, which is inefficient."

"IBM App Connect is scalable. From the administration side, they need to improve the RBAC model, as well as the clustering of this product. It will be good if we can start up the cluster, via IBM Connect Console. Some other products like MuleSoft, are providing this type of administration. MuleSoft is easy to use and user friendly."

"Finding developers for the product is difficult since it is a niche solution. I know the OpenShift environment is running well for the microservice environment. We had some issues with the other environment we tried to implement. It can be easily implemented internally, but we have some problems in practice."

"Plugins for the repositories are difficult to find."

More IBM App Connect cons

"Some recent changes to the solution have made it bulky and not as intuitive to use as it previously was."

"I would like to see them improve the Quickbase integration. Currently, it only allows triggering actions when records are added, but it would be more useful if we could also trigger actions when records are modified or deleted."

"The pricing could be a little cheaper."

"Zapier could be a little faster, but that might not be possible. I would encourage Zapier to make more API endpoints for each application"

"Zapier needs more YouTube or video tutorials or more training for people. That would help a lot. In particular, Zapier should have documentation for every connector. Its documentation needs to be more detailed and visual."

"Being able to share Zaps and organize them with teammates would allow sharing and refining scenarios and even combining steps that require different people's credentials."

"I think that this solution should have more apps connected to it."

"After mapping them out, and they'd worked for a while, I've had Zapier fail."

More Zapier cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing isn't cheap, but you can get good discounts based on your competitive deal."

"It is very expensive if we want to scale."

"IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products."

"The cost depends upon the consumer."

"The price could be better."

"Initially, App Connect was quite expensive because the cost was based on the number of processors we used. However, it's now based on containers, which means we can be more specific about our consumption and get a better price."

"App Connect is not cheap."

"The licensing cost for IBM App Connect is very high."

"The price of Zapier is approximately $75 monthly."

"Zapier is a paid service. Its license renews monthly, and Zapier will downgrade your subscription to the free version when your credit card doesn't have funds. That significantly impacts your service because everything halts completely. Zapier doesn't have any hidden costs."

"It's very affordable."

"There is a free plan that is, of course, limited. However, it allows you to understand and check true scenarios for a while."

"Think your Zaps through to make sure you don't use more Zaps than you need."

"It's very straightforward licensing. There's only one cost you have to pay, and if you want a relevant pricing plan, I think you have two or three different models or packages which include the number of notifications or Zaps, as they call it, that you can program."

"The least expensive plan is $24 a month, and you can go all the way to $800 a month if you're a huge company using many tasks."

"The product is reasonably priced."

More Zapier pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Data Integration solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

57%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

22%

University

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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?

IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products.

What is your primary use case for IBM App Connect?

Our company has a big project for delivery and e-commerce sites. We use IBM App Connect to deliver information to our end users after they buy our products. We get information from many places, suc...

What do you like most about Zapier?

The product's most valuable feature is automation.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zapier?

The pricing is suitable. It's not cheap, but not expensive.

What needs improvement with Zapier?

The pricing could be a little cheaper.

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Product Reports

IBM App Connect

Download IBM App Connect product report

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Also Known As

IBM Cast Iron

No data available

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IBM

Overview

Rapidly connect public clouds, private clouds and on-premises application

App Connect Professional is IBM’s cloud integration offering which delivers an integration solution
• With ease-of-use, flexibility and increased responsiveness to the evolving business needs, while removing the daunting complexities of integration.
• Provides the powerful combination of a ‘simple integration experience’ for business users looking to automate how their applications talk to each other; coupled with a ‘configuration based integration’ approach for IT.
• App Connect Professional is for the teams and integration developers who need to solve more complex problems and need powerful tooling for integration scenarios

Zapier is a tool for primarily non-technical users to connect together web apps.

An integration between two apps is called a Zap. A Zap is made up of a Trigger and one or more Actions or Searches.

Whenever the trigger happens in one app, Zapier will automatically perform the actions or searches in another app in order.

Zaps are very lightweight and easy to set up. Zaps do not import or export old data (they only operate on new items created after the Zap is enabled). Zaps are also not kept in sync ("two way syncing") after the Zap is triggered.

Zaps are deceivingly simple if you're used to dealing with complex and difficult integrations. Their simplicity is what enables anyone to create them.

Sample Customers

United Way of Allegheny County, Saint-Gobain CPS, Ricoh, SunTrust Banks Inc.

BuzzFeed, Groupon, Spotify, Columbia University, FOX

IBM App Connect vs. Zapier