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IBM BPM vs Oracle SOA Suite comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

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 BPM
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
8th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (5th), Process Automation (4th)
Oracle SOA Suite
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
SOA Governance (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of IBM BPM is 3.0%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle SOA Suite is 3.9%, down from 4.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Kamran - PeerSpot reviewer
Has efficient processes and intuitive workflow with many valuable features
You will have access to make any needed changes. Additionally, the review will be published on PeerSpot.com in written or audio format, available to other people. You can stay anonymous if you wish. Notifications and the use of the review are subject to PeerSpot's terms of use, which you can find at PeerSpot.com/TOS. I would give the solution an overall rating of ten out of ten points.
MANOHAR SADDALA - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables seamless integration with multiple systems
I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten. It's not much more dynamic, not as dynamic as you may think, like seeing it in the cloud. In order to use it, you need to have the download servers and then scale up your systems. Oracle SOA Suites serves as a middle layer between applications. For example, let's say you have SAP, and we have Salesforce or Oracle ERP system. Users connect to those systems and perform certain activities or transactions on the applications. Now, if any data needs to be synchronized or any integration needs to happen between these applications, we use the Oracle SOA Suite. It acts as the bridge between the applications, not between the users. It's like having endpoints between the applications. Currently, we have 20 endpoints; 20 systems are connected to it, which is great. Oracle SOA Suite is being used daily. We are using it to its maximum potential.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"With the tester coach wherein you can interact with the interface while you're designing the process."
"It has reduced a lot of manual errors and processes."
"We use the solution to develop and deliver products."
"It is easy to take a requirement, put it in the code, and deploy it."
"Setting it up is fairly easy. If somebody has knowledge of the system, he or she will be able to do it fairly quickly."
"IBM BPM should become cloud-native. It should also add a cloud deployment feature."
"The initial setup is straightforward and easy. I would give it a nine out of ten."
"This solution is very stable."
"The most valuable feature of Oracle SOA Suite is all the platform's capabilities."
"The most valuable features for us are the APIs, which we commonly use, as well as the scheduling capabilities and file transfers."
"I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy."
"The stability of the solution is the most valuable feature."
"Provides connectivity between discrete systems and has availability."
"Valuable features include web service development and cloud connectivity."
"The new product has come out with SOA Cloud Service and Integration Analytics as well, which gives more options for clients to pick their point of requirements."
"The solution's XSLT or XSL Transformation feature was very useful."
 

Cons

"The configuration is not that easy, and the initial deployment took three months."
"The integration could be improved."
"The pricing is a little bit high. It's gone up in cost."
"Could increase vulnerability and security patches to make it more robust."
"Integration with web services, especially in the standard version of the product."
"The user experience, while it has improved, should continue to improve."
"Performance on large scale requirements could also be improved."
"The solution has scalability issues; on a scale, I would rate it at eight out of ten."
"The web services need to be more robust."
"SOA"
"The interface is too complicated. Making modifications still requires too much technical knowledge."
"The product is not user-friendly."
"If the disk space expansion can be made more flexible, not requiring a database restart, it would be a major benefit."
"One area that could be better is the human task feature. It could be improved to provide more functionality and customization options because it has limited options available."
"The solutions can improve the communication or translations between formats, such as JSON and XML. The JSON REST API could improve."
"The solution’s initial setup is complex and could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I already compared some solutions related to business process management, and I saw that the cost of IBM BPM is more expensive compared with that of Camunda, for example."
"The solution is highly-priced."
"The product is expensive considering the hardware and software costs."
"IBM BPM is expensive, so most large companies opt for IBM based on their licensing options."
"The pricing is quite high, I would rate it two out of five."
"Starting out with Express can also help reduce the cost for adopting the product."
"We have a yearly licensing model. It is not expensive. There are no addition costs to the standard license."
"The price of the solution is fair for an enterprise solution that has both cloud and on-premise deployments and when comparing to competitors. Recently IBM has introduced Cloud Pak which allows for more flexible licensing options for automation and other features."
"Based on my knowledge, Oracle SOA Suite doesn't have user-based licensing. It has a system-based licensing model, so you pay for whole systems. Oracle SOA Suite is an expensive solution, so it's a four out of ten for me."
"This product is WebLogic based, hence it can be both resource hungry as well as expensive from a licensing point of view."
"Oracle pricing is expensive. Support is based on your license. AWS is much better than Oracle in this regard."
"The pricing is not very high as compared to its competitors."
"Oracle SOA Suite is an expensive solution."
"It is necessary to evaluate the requirement regarding the platform usage and what the main operation area of the platform will be."
"The product is moderately priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
31%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better, IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation Workflow?
We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow. IBM BPM has a good user interface and the BPM coach is a helpful tool. The API is very useful in providing en...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM BPM?
Once it is installed, maintaining it is not a big issue.
What do you like most about Oracle SOA Suite?
The solution's XSLT or XSL Transformation feature was very useful.
What needs improvement with Oracle SOA Suite?
The solution’s initial setup is complex and could be improved. A big challenge for Oracle SOA Suite is that you don't get too many technical resources.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

WebSphere Lombardi Edition, IBM Business Process Manager, IBM WebSphere Process Server
SOA Suite
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Barclays, EmeriCon, Banca Popolare di Milano, CST Consulting, KeyBank, KPMG, Prolifics, Sandhata Technologies Ltd., State of Alaska, Humana S.A., Saperion, esciris, Banco Espirito Santo
7-Eleven, Arcor SAIC, Banca Transilvania, Eaton Corporation, Emdeon, Ferrovial, Griffith University, National Instruments, Pella Corporation, Vodafone Group Plc,
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM BPM vs. Oracle SOA Suite and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.