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IBM Integration Bus vs webMethods.io comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Integration Bus
Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
webMethods.io
Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
Business-to-Business Middleware (4th), Managed File Transfer (MFT) (10th), API Management (10th), Cloud Data Integration (6th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (4th)
 

Featured Reviews

KR
Sep 26, 2019
Good performance, high-availability features, and provides an easy way to develop integrations
My advice for anybody implementing this solution for the first time is to have people from IBM on-site to help you establish the operating procedures and the development procedures. My understanding is that the new release will have a lot of new features, including support for Docker containers. At this point, I don't have any requirements for the new release. It has also been rebranded. This is a good solution from a technical and operational point of view, but they should really remove this technically complicated license controlling. It is very complicated software that you have to install. I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
RJ
Oct 21, 2022
Good designer and helpful support, but can be buggy
The solution can be buggy. If I compare it with IBM, before webMethods, we were using IBM DataPower. To be frank, DataPower had very, very minimal bugs. You may have one or two bugs in maybe a year, whereas with Integration Server, with customizations, it comes with all these caveats. We had to go back to support a bit for help. Support is expensive. There is not any capability as a managed service. Maybe a managed service would help people to use it. Or apart from that, I would also say there is a containerized microservices version, yet it is not in a usable format. If you look at a Kubernetes environment, if you want to have a containerized application running in Integration Server, it's still quite very heavy. Maybe webMethods should look at that perspective as well to run a pure proper cloud-native environment. If you look at Spring Boot or maybe a similar open-source application, you can easily containerize and run Kubernetes. In Integration Server, it's not very easy.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is one of the most stable products which I have seen in the market."
"Easy to understand documentation with a huge list of examples and tutorials."
"The system's stability is the most valuable feature."
"It is a stable solution."
"The most valuable feature is the security."
"The most valuable feature is the API integration."
"The most valuable feature is that it's robust and its time to market is very short."
"One of the most valuable features is how seamless and easy to use this solution is. This is a fantastic solution and a very measured product."
"High throughput and excellent scalability."
"There were no complexities involved in the setup phase...The product is able to meet my company's API protection needs."
"What I like best about webMethods Integration Server is its portfolio of connectors."
"ActiveTransfer lets us maintain the file in the staging area before we transfer it. After that, we can remove the file to make sure that the reconciliation process is done. Sometimes we will zip and unzip the files, but if we have a GKB file, we often ignore it."
"It's a visual tool, so our transformations can be quickly implemented without a lot of fuss. The fact that we have an easy way to expose REST services is also very interesting. It offers the possibility to connect over GMS to synchronize message brokers."
"The solution is scalable."
"Currently, we're using this solution for the integration server which helps us to integrate with the mainframe."
"The connectivity that the tool provides, along with the functionalities needed for our company's business, are some of the beneficial aspects of the product."
 

Cons

"I can't say that there is any improvement I’m looking for. I’m new and haven’t connected with all features. For all drawbacks that were in the old version, I think they have been solved. The scalability needs improvement."
"Sometimes migration takes too long."
"Migrating to this solution is complex and it would be helpful if they had a way to convert existing integrations."
"IBM does not support orchestration, which is how they designed it, and other BPM tools in the market support orchestration. If they merged the BPM capability into this product, then it would be a better solution."
"IBM Integration Bus could be easier to manage, but this is true of all vendors. It doesn't always do what it says on the box."
"It provides all the features that are required for day-to-day work. So far, I haven't seen any major issues that impact our work. I have been told that IBM App Connect Enterprise, which is the next version of IIB, is really good. It is better than IIB, and it gives you more coverage in terms of application integration."
"In terms of improvement, the UI should be more user-friendly."
"Recently, there was a lot of instability when selecting the solution they needed for testing."
"I am not satisfied with the solution because it takes too much effort to migrate and add new information. The migration could be easier."
"I would like to have a dashboard where I can see all of the communication between components and the configuration."
"Documentation needs tuning. There is a lot of dependency with SoftwareAG. Even with the documentation at hand, you can struggle to implement scenarios without SAG’s help. By contrast, IBM’s documentation is self-explanatory, in my opinion."
"The learning curve is a little steep at first."
"The certifications and learning resources are not exposed openly enough. For instance, they have a trial version which comes with only a few basic features, and I think that community-wise they need to offer more free or open spaces where developers can feel encouraged to experiment."
"Other products have been using AI and cloud enhancements, but webMethods Integration Server is still lagging in that key area."
"We need more dashboards and reporting engines that can provide detailed information for management. In short, we need better analytics."
"Business monitoring (BAM) needs improvement because the analytics and prediction module very often has performance problems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing could be improved to make it more competitive."
"I generally do not get involved in the licensing or pricing because I'm a hardcore technical guy, but I'm aware of the fact that IBM is highly expensive, so not everybody can afford it. All the products are licensed."
"The solution requires a license and is very expensive here in India."
"For small companies, First of all, there are a lot of free products that could be used for integration. It can use the cloud or new implementation in the past. But if the tool is IBM, the official box in your company, you can make your submission and also publish the cloud to the work file. But let’s say, if you are working with premises, then you have to buy a reasonable main full support and gain experience with your product."
"The price of the IBM Integration Bus is expensive. If you compare the price to the cloud version you can purchase what you need but the on-premise version price is flat."
"Our licensing is based on a five-year contract, and as far as I know, there are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fee."
"IBM Integration Bus solution is expensive and this is one of the reasons we are looking for an alternative, such as MuleSoft."
"IBM Integration Bus is expensive."
"I am not involved in the licensing side of things."
"I don’t have much idea about prices, but webMethods API Portal is not something cheaper."
"Sometimes we don't have a very clear idea what the licensing will entail at first, because it can be very customizable. On one hand, this can be a good thing, because it can be tailored to a specific customer's needs. But on the other hand it can also be an issue when some customer asks, "What's the cost?" and we can't yet give them an accurate answer."
"Currently, the licensing solution for this product is pretty straightforward. The way that Software AG has moved in their licensing agreements is very understandable. It is very easy for you to see where things land. Like most vendors today, they are transaction based. Therefore, just having a good understanding of how many transactions that you are doing a year would be very wise. Luckily, there are opportunities to work with the vendor to get a good understanding of how many transactions you have and what is the right limit for you to fall under."
"webMethods Integration Server is expensive, and there's no fixed price on it because it has a point pricing model. You can negotiate, which makes it interesting."
"I signed a three-year deal with them. It is a yearly locked-in price for the next three years."
"Based on our team discussions and feedback, it is pretty costly because they charge us for each transmission."
"The product is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Insurance Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Migration from IBM Integration Bus to Mulesoft ESB for a large enterprise tech services company
I was previously part of the Oracle SOA/OSB development team. In my current capacity I architected solutions using MuleSoft Anypoint Platform on cloud / on-premises and hybrid modes and on PCE/RTF ...
IBM Integration Bus vs Mule ESB - which to choose?
Our team ran a comparison of IBM’s Integration Bus vs. Mule ESB in order to determine what sort of ESB software was the best fit for our organization. Ultimately we decided to choose IBM Integratio...
What do you like most about IBM Integration Bus?
The message queue, like, message queue connectors. Then they have a built in connectors for most of the systems, like SAP, oracle database, and this Civil connector is there. Of course, we have thi...
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.
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.
What needs improvement with Built.io Flow?
webMethods.io needs to incorporate ChatGPT to enhance user experience. It can offer a customized user experience.
 

Also Known As

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

Learn More

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Salesbox, €sterreichische Bundesbahnen (€BB), Road Buddy, Swiss Federal Railways, Electricity Supply Board, The Hartree Centre, ESB Networks
Cisco, Agralogics, Dreamforce, Cables & Sensors, Sacramento Kings
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Integration Bus vs. webMethods.io and other solutions. Updated: August 2024.
801,634 professionals have used our research since 2012.