We performed a comparison between IBM API Connect and Microsoft Azure API Management based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Azure API Management provides DevOps by default and has a robust marketplace where users can easily integrate with existing APIs and begin work immediately. It scales easily and integrates seamlessly with Azure cloud infrastructure. In contrast, many users feel IBM is a bit dated and is lacking cloud-focused tools.It is also more difficult to deploy.
"The most valuable features of IBM API Connect are its performance and user-friendliness."
"Publishers can easily identify, create, and publish APIs on the developer portal, defining plans, packages, and potentially billing rules."
"The ability for all of our web applications to share standard functions and documents easily is valuable."
"In-built policies and security functions."
"I have found IBM API Connect to be highly secure, efficient, easy to deploy, and has a great GUI. It can operate and integrate well with other vendors, such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft."
"Security is well organized and managed within the solution."
"The gateway is the most valuable aspect of this solution."
"It acts as a central gateway for both external APIs and underlying systems. It's basically a central middleware for hosting APIs to the internet and consuming APIs from internal systems. It provides central governance for any APIs going outside the network, ensuring security and a common contract for API definitions."
"We use this solution for API rate limiting and for its security features against DDoS."
"We're very satisfied with Azure API Management. We've had no issues with bugs, everything runs smoothly, and the connection between the cloud and the on-premise infrastructure was good."
"The most valuable feature is the developer portal, which has source code examples in various programming languages to help developers learn the API."
"The Application Gateway we have found to be the most useful in Microsoft Azure API Management. We have integrated the Microsoft Azure API Management with Application Gateway. Application Gateway is a type of load balancer that we are using for the high availability of our API calls."
"Microsoft Azure API Management has many valuable features. One is the developer portal, that's very useful for teams. The tool also provides layers of security. I also found the caching, automatic documentation, and version management functionalities most valuable."
"The solution is quite stable. We have no issues with it. there have been no crashes and we haven't experienced bugs or glitches. It's been quite reliable."
"I like that security features can be integrated with API Management. I also like that you can perform rate-limiting and throttling functions."
"I like the stability and the ease of use."
"The solution is not scalable."
"There are some performance issues and issues related to asynchronous APIs."
"Understanding the architecture, deployment criteria, and communication methods of the installation can be time-consuming."
"It needs to be less taxing on compute resources."
"The initial setup and installation could be easier."
"The platform’s integration with the payment gateway needs enhancement. The setup process and support services could be improved."
"The only disadvantage I can see is that it requires heavy hardware support."
"The integration of cloud-based services is where we're looking for improvement in this platform."
"When you start with Azure API management, you also need to onboard the Azure console and the Azure cloud environment, which comes with a price."
"This solution is only available as a cloud-based deployment and it would be very helpful to have an on-premises version."
"An area for improvement in Microsoft Azure API Management is deployment, in particular, the deployment of versions in Oryx. The development to production instance isn't adequate for me and needs to be improved. Microsoft Azure API Management lacks automation, which is another area for improvement."
"The cloud deployment performance could be better."
"Other products have more customization options."
"I would like to see better scalability and better performance."
"Some of the DevOps stuff could be easier to work with. The migration paths are a little complicated, and moving code around could be more seamless. There should be less manual migration when several teams work together to publish code to the DevOps."
"Security could be improved."
More Microsoft Azure API Management Pricing and Cost Advice →
IBM API Connect is ranked 5th in API Management with 73 reviews while Microsoft Azure API Management is ranked 1st in API Management with 68 reviews. IBM API Connect is rated 8.0, while Microsoft Azure API Management is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of IBM API Connect writes "Good speed and performance, but it's based on a bit dated architecture". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Azure API Management writes "Efficiently manages and monetizes API ". IBM API Connect is most compared with Apigee, IBM DataPower Gateway, MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager, Amazon API Gateway and Kong Gateway Enterprise, whereas Microsoft Azure API Management is most compared with Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager, Kong Gateway Enterprise and WSO2 API Manager. See our IBM API Connect vs. Microsoft Azure API Management report.
See our list of best API Management vendors.
We monitor all API Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
