IBM DataPower Gateway vs webMethods.io comparison

IBM DataPower Gateway and webMethods.io are both solutions in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category. IBM DataPower Gateway is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.5, while webMethods.io is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.9. IBM DataPower Gateway holds a 6.3% mindshare in E, compared to webMethods.io’s 11.1% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of IBM DataPower Gateway users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of webMethods.io users who would recommend it.

IBM DataPower Gateway

Read 30 IBM DataPower Gateway reviews

5,657 Views
905 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

webMethods.io

Read 93 webMethods.io reviews

9,290 Views
1,672 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM DataPower Gateway

webMethods.io

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

IBM DataPower Gateway and webMethods.io are competing products in the integration and API management tools category. Based on data comparisons, IBM DataPower Gateway may have an edge in pricing and support, while webMethods.io is favored for its comprehensive features, making it a potentially superior choice for those who value functionality over cost.

Features: IBM DataPower Gateway is recognized for its robust security features, high-performance processing, and scalability for API management. It stands out for handling multiple protocols and being easily configurable to ensure security standards. webMethods.io, however, provides seamless cloud integration, intuitive automation capabilities, and extensive connectivity options, making it particularly valuable for businesses that prioritize versatility.

Room for Improvement: IBM DataPower Gateway could improve usability for less technical users and reduce the complexity of its deployment options. Adding more intuitive user interfaces and streamlining integrations could make it more accessible. webMethods.io may enhance its API governance capabilities and expand its performance metrics visibility, while bolstering integration options with legacy systems to better accommodate diverse environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: webMethods.io offers a straightforward cloud-based deployment model with efficient customer service, which facilitates easier integration and minimal operational disruption. In contrast, IBM DataPower Gateway, with its on-premises and hybrid deployment options, requires more complex setups but provides comprehensive support services. webMethods.io positions itself as more user-friendly, especially for companies seeking quick deployment.

Pricing and ROI: IBM DataPower Gateway often involves a higher initial setup cost due to its hardware and infrastructure requirements but offers substantial long-term value through its robust architecture. webMethods.io typically presents a lower upfront investment thanks to its cloud model, providing a favorable ROI by reducing maintenance and operational costs. IBM DataPower Gateway benefits larger enterprises with existing infrastructure, while webMethods.io appeals to those seeking cost-effective integration solutions with flexible pricing strategies.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM DataPower Gateway vs. webMethods.io Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. webMethods.io

September 2025

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Helped 867,497 peers since 2012

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 DataPower Gateway

Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

6th

Ranking in API Management

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (12th), SOA Application Gateways (1st)

webMethods.io

Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

3rd

Ranking in API Management

11th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business-to-Business Middleware (2nd), Managed File Transfer (MFT) (9th), Cloud Data Integration (8th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 6.3%, up from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of webMethods.io is 11.1%, up from 10.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
webMethods.io	11.1%
IBM DataPower Gateway	6.3%
Other	82.6%

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

Featured Reviews

AkshaySawant

Manager at CSB Bank Ltd

Security features excel but development limitations emerge

We are using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes. As per the development perspective, there are some limitations with IBM DataPower Gateway because it only supports XML and XSLT language, but it does not support the Java language. This is the only limitation of the IBM DataPower Gateway. For the authentication and authorization purpose, we can use the IBM DataPower Gateway. It's a very good product. We are mostly using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes and load balancing purposes. If we are handling the load for a particular server, then we can use the IBM DataPower Gateway. The IBM DataPower Gateway is mostly used for security purposes. If we have some APIs and we are using some security for those APIs, then we can use it. It can also be used as a load balancer. It's also used for certificate management, user management purposes, authentication, and authorization. For routing, the IBM DataPower Gateway has multiple URL-based routing and content-based routing capabilities. If we have multiple URLs, then we can use an XML script. Using the XSLT language, we can configure multiple URLs and implement URL-based routing. Content-based routing means if we have multiple requests, we can route the request to a particular URL. For this, we need to use the XSLT language only. We can't use XML, Java, or other scripting languages. With IBM DataPower Gateway, we are using all the APIs. All APIs have been configured on the gateway. We have configured the particular TLS profile and some TLS client profiles as well. Using that TLS profile, we have configured the APIs and authentication. We have configured some tokens also, including JWT tokens and different types of auth tokens. There is also a rate limiting feature which we use for handling API loads.

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MohanPrasad

Senior Consultant at Brillio

Smooth integration and enhanced deployment with high licensing cost

webMethods.io was used to integrate APIs through the webMethods.io platform, trigger database events, and connect backend APIs through a Java backend. It was used extensively for integration purposes in my organization Integration became smoother, troubleshooting was easier, and deployment and…

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 solution is scalable, our customers are mostly South African banks and they handle mostly transactions with this solution."

"The performance is good. It's been very stable."

"I like the tool's security. Also, all functionalities are integrated within on platform."

"What I like most is the stability."

"The product is stable...The product is scalable."

"Since it is a gateway, it provides a lot of security features."

"It is a scalable solution."

"Its initial setup was straightforward."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pros

"The messaging part is the most valuable feature."

"Clients choose webMethods.io API for its intuitive interface, promoting seamless interaction and quick communication between systems."

"The core product can be used not only for automatic file transfers between applications, but also as an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)."

"I like the stability of the webMethods Integration Server."

"The solution is scalable."

"My impression of webMethods.io's drag-and-drop interface to design workflows is actually amazing."

"We have found the pricing of the solution to be fair."

"It's easy to construct new interfaces like apps and client portals."

More webMethods.io pros

Cons

"The IBM community does not have much engagement from the IT community in Saudi Arabia and developers for this solution are difficult to find."

"They should improve the solution's clustering features."

"The components that they include in the product that are, in fact, a WTX, really need to be removed from the product because they tend to fail."

"An area for improvement in IBM DataPower Gateway is its price point because it's a relatively expensive product. Sometimes, when the customer use case is just a very small subset of what's being offered in IBM DataPower Gateway, then the product can be expensive, making my company lose some of the opportunities because of the expensive pricing. A lower price point for IBM DataPower Gateway, even if that results in a less feature-rich version, would be appreciated. In terms of additional features that I'd like to see in the next release of IBM DataPower Gateway, nothing specific comes to mind because IBM constantly improves its standards and provides quarterly updates to the product, so it's quite fine."

"The solution requires a lot of training manuals in order to get to know it better and to be able to use it effectively."

"One area that could be improved is the integration with Postgres and SQL databases. Currently, IBM DataPower Gateway only integrates with Oracle databases."

"Scripting needs improvement. It's hard for our customers."

"In terms of OEM support, it is poor. If I raise a CBRT one, as per the SLA, they should respond in one hour, however, sometimes it takes four or five hours to respond."

More IBM DataPower Gateway cons

"A while ago, they were hacked, and it took them a very long time to open their website again in order to download any service packs or any features. I don't know what they could do differently. I know that they were vulnerable, and there was some downtime, but because they were down, we were unable to download any potential service packs."

"The interface needs some work. It is not very user-friendly."

"On the monitoring side of things, the UI for monitoring could be improved. It's a bit cumbersome to work with."

"Upgrades are complex. They typically take about five months from start to finish. There are many packages that plug into webMethods Integration Server, which is the central point for a vast majority of the transactions at my organization. Anytime we are upgrading that, there are complexities within each component that we must understand. That makes any upgrade very cumbersome and complicated. That has been my experience at this company. Because there are many different business units that we are touching, there are so many different components that we are touching. The amount of READMEs that you have to go through takes some time."

"Need to see more API portal features like monetizing APIs and private cloud readiness."

"This product has too many gaps. You find them after update installations. This should be covered by automatic testing."

"webMethods Integration Server could improve on the version control. I'm not sure if Web Method has some kind of inbuilt integration with Bitbucket or GitHub or some kind of version control system. However, that's one area where they can improve."

"They should develop clear visibility for the onboarding."

More webMethods.io cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's initial costing is expensive for small banks and financial institutions."

"Most customers' use case budgets are not inlined with the price of IBM DataPower Gateway. It is too expensive."

"The solution has a return on investment but is a little expensive."

"The appliance is a bit on the expensive side for the workloads that are not too high."

"IBM DataPower Gateway is quite expensive to get resources to work on this product. If the price could be cheaper, I think that will make it a little bit better and easily accessible to smaller clients. Then it could compete with other solutions that are available in the market. There's a whole lot of other solutions available that work well and are cheaper than IBM's products."

"The product is expensive."

"It's expensive when you compare it with others."

"The solution is expensive in comparison to other products."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pricing and cost advice

"The product is very expensive."

"This is not a cheap solution but, compared to other products such as those offered by IBM, the pricing is similar."

"I do see a lack of capabilities inside of the monetization area for them. They have a cloud infrastructure that is pay per use type of a thing. If you already use 1,000 transactions per se, then you can be charged and billed. I see room for improvement there for their side on that particular capability of the monetization."

"webMethods.io is expensive. We have multiple components, and you need to pay for each of them."

"I do think webMethods is coming under increasing pressure when it comes to their price-to-feature value proposition. It's probably the single biggest strategic risk they have. They're very expensive in their industry. They've been raising the price recently, especially when compared with their competitors."

"Some of the licensing is "component-ized," which is confusing to new users/customers."

"The product is expensive."

"It's a good deal for the money that we pay."

More webMethods.io pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

29%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	63

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM DataPower Gateway?

The MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) is great because it allows you to easily expose services using various protocols – web services, REST (JSON), and others. This flexibility simplifies things.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM DataPower Gateway?

I would rate the pricing a two out of ten, with one being high price, and ten being low price. It's high-priced for smaller companies. But it is okay for enterprises. So, the price could be more fl...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?

The DCDR process should be less complex. AI should improve developer efficiency and effort. Whenever I am writing code, it should give recommendations automatically by incorporating AI so I can wri...

See all answers

What do you like most about Built.io Flow?

The tool helps us to streamline data integration. Its BPM is very strong and powerful. The solution helps us manage digital transformation.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Built.io Flow?

webMethods.io is expensive. We have multiple components, and you need to pay for each of them.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Built.io Flow?

webMethods.io needs to incorporate ChatGPT to enhance user experience. It can offer a customized user experience.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM API Connect vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 37% of the time

Apigee vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 7% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 6% of the time

NGINX Plus vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM DataPower Gateway Competitors

IBM App Connect vs webMethods.io

Compared 9% of the time

IBM Integration Bus vs webMethods.io

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services vs webMethods.io

Compared 7% of the time

Apigee vs webMethods.io

Compared 7% of the time

WSO2 API Manager vs webMethods.io

Compared 2% of the time

More webMethods.io Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway

September 2025

Download IBM DataPower Gateway product report

Buyer's Guide

webMethods.io

August 2025

Download webMethods.io product report

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower

Built.io Flow, webMethods Integration Server, webMethods Trading Networks, webMethods ActiveTransfer, webMethods.io API

Overview

IBM DataPower Gateway is a robust, secure next-generation enterprise-grade single multichannel API gateway that supplies dynamic access, integration, control, and outstanding security. The solution is available in a broad range of workload capabilities, including application programming interface (API), service oriented architecture (SOA), B2B, cloud, web, and mobile. These dynamic capabilities ensure users are able to quickly increase the reach of an organization's critical IT resources to new channels, which will provide shareholders, team members, and clients with safe, secure access at all times.

DataPower Gateway is very flexible and is widely available in virtual, cloud, traditional, physical, Docker, and Linux form factors.

IBM DataPower Gateway Features

IBM DataPower Gateway has many value-added features. Some of these features are included below:

Control: The solution provides decision point authorization and authentication for all standards, including Lightweight Direct Access Protocol (LDAP) and Open Authorization (OAuth), which allow for better access control across an organization’s entire network.
DataPower dashboard: The dashboard is specifically designed to enhance performance and determine problematic processes. The solution provides intuitive real-time performance transparency to diagnose operational and performance anomalies and offer repair and restoration recommendations.
Enhanced messaging: Users are able to easily mediate messaging and protocols by incorporating the best of today’s traditional and modern application standards.
Integration: IBM DataPower Gateway offers super fast mainframe connectivity, database connectivity, transport protocol bridging, content-based routing, and any-to-any message transformation, ensuring secure and immediate connect service.

IBM DataPower Gateway Benefits

IBM DataPower Gateway provides many benefits. Some of those benefits include:

Flexibility: The solution is easy to use and configure and provides for a pleasant, intuitive overall user experience. The solution can immediately be used out of the box, which makes overall process management simple.
Protection: The solution provides sturdy continuous service protection and application performance using robust powerful routing and traffic control.
Security: The solution’s enterprise-grade De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) ready gateway enables users to enforce the desired runtime application security across all messaging protocols.
Profitability: The solution’s design ensures significant reduction of development costs in addition to the streamlining of overall operations. Users are able to achieve reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and experience a near-immediate ROI.

Reviews from Real Users

“My company has a good impression of IBM DataPower Gateway. What I like about it is that because it's an appliance, it's a turnkey solution that's very fast and out of the box. Another valuable feature of IBM DataPower Gateway is that it's easy to integrate with other products.”- Bálint T., Solution Manager at Intalion

“You don't have to have a separate DMC proxy because DataPower Gateway is an appliance and will take care of a lot of security features. These include data validations, encryption, as well as XML or any type of scripting or security threats that are present. From a security point of view, being an appliance in the DMC zone, IBM DataPower Gateway will take care of the entire security angle for the infrastructure.” - Sathyan K., Founder/Director at perfTech Solutions Pvt Ltd

IBM

webMethods.io Integration is a powerful integration platform as a service (iPaaS) that provides a combination of capabilities offered by ESBs, data integration systems, API management tools, and B2B gateways.

IBM

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity

Cisco, Agralogics, Dreamforce, Cables & Sensors, Sacramento Kings

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. webMethods.io

September 2025

Free Report: IBM DataPower Gateway vs. webMethods.io

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