No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.
Guirino Ciliberti - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Governance & Lineage Product Manager at Primeur
Real User
Sep 9, 2022
Robust, reliable, and responsive
Pros and Cons
  • "IBM HQ's stability is great - we send six million messages a day, and we're very satisfied with HQ's ability to handle that volume."
  • "IBM HQ's scalability isn't the best."

What is our primary use case?

I use IBM HQ to communicate with subsystems within our plants e.g. the supply chain.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using IBM HQ for eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

IBM HQ's stability is great - we send six million messages a day, and we're very satisfied with HQ's ability to handle that volume.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

IBM HQ's scalability isn't the best.

Buyer's Guide
IBM MQ
May 2026
Learn what your peers think about IBM MQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
899,125 professionals have used our research since 2012.

How are customer service and support?

IBM's technical support is great.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward and took around half an hour.

What about the implementation team?

We used an in-house team and a system integrator.

What other advice do I have?

I would absolutely recommend IBM HQ to others as a very robust, reliable, responsive product. I would give IBM HQ a rating of nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Ahmed Elgrouney - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Integration Developer at ISFP
Real User
Sep 7, 2022
An excellent solution with great security and monitoring capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "The product helps us monitor messages with other queues, view duplicated messages and control undelivered messages."
  • "We have found the security and monitoring capabilities of the product most valuable."
  • "However, it would be great if the dashboard had additional features like a board design or picture management features."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution locally and work in port authority where we deal with multiple parties like warehousing, containers, customs and Egyptian customs. Therefore we can communicate with each other and achieve middleware goals. We use the MQ Server and MQ client in each party and control it with the MQ server in port authority.

How has it helped my organization?

The product has allowed our organization to deal with all parties, like containers and warehousing. As a result, we can deal with these parties, exchange messages, and achieve our goals.

What is most valuable?

We have found the security and monitoring capabilities of the product most valuable. The product helps us monitor messages with other queues, view duplicated messages and control undelivered messages so they can be stored in pack-out queues and restored. We like more than one feature in MQ as the product is secure. For example, we can exchange messages between all parties with a stake and have control of undelivered and unrouted messages. Furthermore, with a scheme of validation, we can report access.

What needs improvement?

The dashboard is handy because we use it to monitor the messages and know how many messages are delivered to parties' dashboards. For example, we can notice how many letters are delivered, how many messages are undelivered, and how many messages are brought incorrectly by the dashboard. However, it would be great if the dashboard had additional features like a board design or picture management features.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for over six years and are currently using MQ version nine.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. Over ten parties, with 10,000 people, are using this solution in our organization, and two employees are required for maintenance. One employee is a system analyst, and the other is an integration developer.

How are customer service and support?

I rate technical support a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not previously use any other solutions.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. It was easy to install and configure.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment was done in-house.

What was our ROI?

The product is good, and our organization has used this product for more than ten years.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licenses for our company are according to port authority contract sales and we buy a license for six months or one year. I don't know the exact costs of the licenses.

What other advice do I have?

I rate this solution a ten out of ten because we have no issues with it. The solution is good, but improvements could be made to the dashboard.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
IBM MQ
May 2026
Learn what your peers think about IBM MQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
899,125 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1164303 - PeerSpot reviewer
Service Delivery Consultant at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feb 20, 2022
Secure, no data loss, and it is easy to set up
Pros and Cons
  • "This product has good security."
  • "Overall, I am very happy with this product and my only complaint is that the price is high."
  • "The licensing fees should be more cost-effective so that we can better pitch the product to our clients. With the pricing as it is, they tend to move away from IBM products."
  • "The problem with this product is that it's a little bit expensive."

What is our primary use case?

We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we implement for our clients.

The primary use case for IBM MQ is handling the transportation of messages between applications.

This is being used in a mainframe environment.

How has it helped my organization?

Our clients complain about the price of this solution but otherwise, they have not had any problems with it. They are very happy with the quality of the product.

What is most valuable?

This product has good security.

There is no data loss while transporting messages.

What needs improvement?

The licensing fees should be more cost-effective so that we can better pitch the product to our clients. With the pricing as it is, they tend to move away from IBM products. They look for other solutions, such as open-source products.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with IBM MQ for fifteen years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This product is used on a daily basis and it is quite stable. In terms of reliability, I would rate it a five out of five.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not found any issues related to scalability.

We have multiple clients that use IBM MQ.

How are customer service and support?

We handle the support that initially comes in from our clients. If we have any problem, then we take it to IBM using a PMR (Problem Management Report). When there is an issue then we feel that we can go to them.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not use another similar solution prior to IBM MQ.

How was the initial setup?

IBM MQ is not at all difficult to set up.

There is no deployment, per se. A broker will handle the deployment.

What about the implementation team?

We handle the implementation and maintenance in-house. The number of people required for maintenance depends on the team. Our team members support multiple accounts.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The problem with this product is that it's a little bit expensive. This is one of the main challenges that we face with our clients. The charges are high and there should be a less costly solution available. This is especially true when you consider it in comparison to open-source tools that are available.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I am very happy with this product and my only complaint is that the price is high. I definitely recommend it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer914148 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Integration Leader - Cloud Migration Leader at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feb 18, 2022
We like the solution for our synchronous communications and transactional applications that require a lot of CPS
Pros and Cons
  • "We like IBM MQ for our synchronous communications and transactional applications that require a lot of CPS."
  • "It's not always easy for applications to connect to IBM MQ, but I think it's fine in general."

What is our primary use case?

We use MQ for our transactional layer in conjunction with IBM Bus. We use MQ for our web application servers and many of our processes.

What is most valuable?

We like IBM MQ for our synchronous communications and transactional applications that require a lot of CPS.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using IBM MQ for about 10 years, but we are currently in the process of migrating our IBM workload to the integration layer in AWS.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

IBM MQ is highly stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The portion of IBM MQ that we have in the cloud is scalable, but the on-premise part isn't so much. However, we are working on sending our loads to cloud.

How are customer service and support?

IBM support is good. I would rate it nine out of 10.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

It's straightforward to set up IBM MQ because we can use it in lightweight modules, like containers, for example. It's not always easy for applications to connect to IBM MQ, but I think it's fine in general.

What other advice do I have?

I rate IBM MQ nine out of 10. It's a good solution.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1037130 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Talent Acquisition Specialist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Jan 7, 2022
Simple to deploy, low maintenance, and technical support is always reachable
Pros and Cons
  • "This initial setup is not complex at all. Deploying it was very easy."
  • "The MQ appliance has very good performance."
  • "The user interface should be enhanced to include more monitoring features and other metrics. The metrics should include not only those from the IBM MQ point of view but also CPU and memory utilization."
  • "Right now, this limits us from using the product."

What is our primary use case?

Our use cases for IBM MQ involve share markets.

In this organization, we are not using many of the features because we have a very small infrastructure. In my previous organizations, I used many of the components including AMS. However, here, we are just using it as a messaging solution and not any of the other components.

What is most valuable?

The MQ appliance has very good performance.

What needs improvement?

The user interface should be easier to use.

The user interface should be enhanced to include more monitoring features and other metrics. The metrics should include not only those from the IBM MQ point of view but also CPU and memory utilization. These kinds of features would be really helpful when we have a large infrastructure. Right now, this limits us from using the product.

In general, the user interface should be more catchy, to entice users.

IBM should promote the use of the MQ appliance because the speed and performance are superior when compared to traditional ways of using the product.

If IBM were to release as least some limited features for MQ as open-source, then it would be great because people will migrate to this solution instead of choosing open-source products like Apache Kafka or RabbitMQ.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with IBM MQ for almost 13 years across different organizations. I began working with version 5.3 and am currently using version 9.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is absolutely perfect when it is running on AIX. However, I have experienced some issues with certain Linux distributions. With AIX, I have not had any problems with IBM MQ. With other flavors of Linux, there is some instability whereby the MQ configuration parameters are not giving the proper information. From this, I have concluded that the stability of MQ depends on the Linux distribution that it is running on.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The number of users in my current organization is six or seven. This is the number of applications that we have. This is not an extensive use of the product but we do plan to increase usage in the future.

In my previous organization, our use was more extensive. We had between 700 and 710 users.

This product scales and the number of users depends on the industry, as well as the financial strengths that the organization has.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support from IBM is always reachable.

Internally, we provide technical support to our users. This is possible because our team is only six or seven users.

How was the initial setup?

This initial setup is not complex at all. Deploying it was very easy.

What about the implementation team?

Limited staff is required to maintain this solution because of its stability.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing fees are paid quarterly and they are expensive. This is something that I have heard from all of the organizations that I have worked with.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated Apache Kafka and RabbitMQ because of the open-source features and benefits. The open-source aspect is an advantage. I have found that not many users choose IBM MQ, even though it is stable, because of financial constraints.

If IBM were to release MQ or at least some limited version as open-source, it would become more popular. People would choose it instead of implementing other products, or other streaming solutions. This is what people are trying to do with DevOps.

IBM MQ is much more stable than these other products, although the rest of them work well with cloud providers such as AWS.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, this is a good product. The only thing that I found complex was to build the user interface with the latest versions of IBM MQ. It was a little bit tricky to do.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1127196 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Solution Architect at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Dec 7, 2021
Easy to use and compatible with many languages, but could be easier to integrate
Pros and Cons
  • "I have found that the solution scales well."
  • "I'd advise new users to try it out as it is easy to integrate, scalable, and stable."
  • "The integration capabilities could be even easier."

What is our primary use case?

Mainly we are using MQ to pass the orders in the format of messages. We use MQ mainly for all the asynchronous messages that we pass.

What is most valuable?

It's easy to use and also quite compatible with all the language technologies where they can read messages and they can push messages to Java. It's easy to integrate and compatible with most coding languages.

The solution is stable.

I have found that the solution scales well. 

What needs improvement?

The integration capabilities could be even easier. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for a while now. It's been maybe ten or 15 years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability has been good. The performance is reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so. It's easy.

We have a team of about five on the solution right now. 

We do not have plans to increase the number of users at this time. 

How are customer service and support?

IBM technical support for any product is pretty much the same across the board. I have no complaints. They are okay. They are fast and knowledgeable. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have been using MQ for a long time. In the past we were using a custom-developed framework instead of MQ, however, that was ten to 15 years ago.

How was the initial setup?

I can't speak to how the initial setup went. Those kinds of tasks are handled by the technology team. Therefore, I can't say if it was an easy or complex process.

I'm not sure, ultimately, how long the deployment process was.

What about the implementation team?

I wasn't a part of the process. I can't say if we enlisted outside help or not. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

You do need to pay a licensing fee in order to use this product. We pay it on a yearly basis. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm not following the versioning part. I'm not sure which version we are using currently. 

I'd advise new users to try it out as it is easy to integrate, scalable, and stable. 

I'd rate the solution, in general, at a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1662720 - PeerSpot reviewer
Yapı Kredi şirketinde Application Infrastructure Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Nov 30, 2021
A robust solution with an easy setup and comparatively good performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution allows one to easily configure an IBM MQQueueManager."
  • "The solution allows one to easily configure an IBM MQQueueManager, is very easy and demonstrates comparatively better performance than that of other products, and makes it impossible to lose a message, with its greatest advantage being its robustness."
  • "It would be nice if we could use the cluster facilities because we are doing active/passive configuration use."

What is most valuable?

The solution allows one to easily configure an IBM MQQueueManager. It's very easy and demonstrates comparatively better performance than that of other products. It is very good and makes it impossible to lose a message. These are very important advantages of the solution, but the greatest one is its robustness. 

What needs improvement?

It would be nice if we could use the cluster facilities because we are doing active/passive configuration use. Maybe we could implement them in cluster scenario and use the active/active nodes.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using IBM MQ for around 20 years.

How was the initial setup?

The onboarding processes and setup are very easy. 

What other advice do I have?

We solely make use of IBM MQ and are an MQ customer. 

I rate IBM MQ as a nine out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Works at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Oct 13, 2021
Stable with good features and a responsive technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is stable."
  • "The solution offers very good features, including listener channels, remote queues, and transmit queues."
  • "IBM MQ is not very user-friendly."

What is our primary use case?

We're a service provider. My company provides services to different clients that include financial institutions in the banking sector.

IBM MQ is used for queue messaging. I have to install and configure, the MQ features of listener channels, remote queues, and some transmit queues. We enable these as per customer requirements.

What is most valuable?

The solution offers very good features, including listener channels, remote queues, and transmit queues.

The solution is stable.

The initial setup isn't overly complex. It's pretty straightforward. 

Technical support is very good.

What needs improvement?

IBM MQ is not very user-friendly. MQ needs to redesign or add some sort of user-friendly interface in order to offer better performance.

This is a very old solution. Nowadays, some other products are designed to be much more user-friendly as compared to IBM MQ. 

The product needs better administration.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with the solution for three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

How are customer service and support?

We've found the technical support to be very good. they tend to match the severity level of the situation. We're quite happy with the way they respond.

How was the initial setup?

While the initial setup is not overly difficult, the user interface is not very user-friendly. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I cannot speak to the pricing of the product. I can't say if it's overly expensive or reasonably priced as I don't deal directly with licensing. 

What other advice do I have?

We are an IBM partner. 

I'd rate the soluton at an eight out of ten. For the most part, I've been pretty happy with its capabilities. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM MQ Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2026
Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM MQ Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.