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BizTalk Server vs IBM BPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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

BizTalk Server
Ranking in Process Automation
14th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Business-to-Business Middleware (8th)
IBM BPM
Ranking in Process Automation
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (6th), Application Infrastructure (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of BizTalk Server is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM BPM is 6.3%, down from 10.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Process Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Vignesh Kumar Sekar - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables message routing and provides a secure way to communicate between two systems
The AS2 communication protocol is one of the most advanced processes. It enables a handshake with the source and target systems using certificates. It is the most secure way of communicating between two systems. It is an advantage. We can do a lot of message routing. If we want to handle large data, we can put the data into different patterns to process it. We can do it through sequential convoy or parallel convoy orchestration. BizTalk comes with SQL Server. We can load temporary data in the database and use the batch process from BizTalk. It is an added advantage. Creating agreements is a manual job, but it's quite easy in BizTalk. Even a fresh college graduate can configure AS2 certificates and partner profiles and communicate with other systems. It is easy.
Prince Mathew - PeerSpot reviewer
More customizable than IBM FileNet and useful for automation
One suggestion for IBM BPM is to provide better integration between their products, such as DataCap, which we use for scanning. Although the new CP4BA offers offline capabilities, not everyone is on CP4BA, so enhanced integration for those on older versions would be beneficial. Another major suggestion is to offer a migration path when a product reaches its end of life. For example, there was no migration path when we moved, so we had to redo everything we had developed over ten years completely.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool's most valuable feature is its integration with the banks. Its messaging and routing capabilities are good."
"Compared to the current solutions I use, like Azure Logic Apps and other cloud services, BizTalk was far better and more reliable."
"The most valuable feature of BizTalk Server is that it will turn XML into flexible transactions."
"We can handle a large number of messages without any issues, ensuring that everything runs smoothly."
"I rate the tool's stability a nine out of ten."
"The AS2 communication protocol is one of the most advanced processes."
"The most valuable feature is its reliability and stability. The first version of BizTalk was released in 2000, and many companies still use it. It was stable until 2013 when we had support."
"Essentially, you can do whatever you like with these systems, and you do not have to take care about the scaling because if one server is overloaded, it just forwards the message to the next server, even if it were designated to a specific server. It weeds out the messages according to the load. If you want to scale it, you just add new servers."
"IBM BPM and Automation Anywhere working together automate manual tasks with a reduction in FTEs, creating about a 30% reduction in FTEs by automating processes."
"The solution has helped us automate business processes."
"It is transparent to business users because it is mostly picture based modelling."
"With the Process Center, I can go to one place and view what all the environments are doing."
"The system integration layer is valuable because this enables an organization to create a single point where all the key organizational master data is held in different IT applications across different functions, that can be accessed and updated."
"Enabled us to convert most of the paper-based work into an automated workflow process, and some of them were converted into straight-through processing, with no human interaction involved whatsoever."
"There is a component of this BPM pool - I can't recall the name. What it does is, it allows you to create various scenarios and then run them quickly, before actually putting them onto a tool. So I think that part of the tool is really fantastic, because that enables you to create scenarios, create simulations, before actually going out and putting it into the tool itself"
"It is efficient in reducing costs."
 

Cons

"BizTalk is in the past, Microsoft is not going to evolve it any further or add any new features."
"Updating things in BizTalk is a headache."
"The deployment could be simplified."
"BizTalk Server needs improvements, especially because we use it for EDI messaging, and it would be very useful to have enhanced tracking capabilities for message tracking and archiving of messages."
"BizTalk lacks native cloud support. BizTalk doesn't offer in-built support for cloud. We need to use third-party adapters to connect it to cloud services."
"The product's deployment can be quicker"
"It's an on-premises system, requiring physical servers for deployment. This is different from Azure; you don't need any servers with Azure. If you have a subscription, you can do whatever you want. There are unit restrictions based on the environment (like non-production vs. production) in BizTalk. You need physical servers and databases. In Azure, those are not required – it's all in the cloud."
"BizTalk Server is an outdated legacy system that does not support messaging."
"The setup was quite complex because the solution was cutting-edge at that time and IBM invested considerably in the implementation, likely at a loss to themselves."
"The business would like to use the product with a lot less IT and equipment involvement."
"The coaches and the user interface are the areas that can be improved a lot. It is good in terms of data processing, but the UI, scripting, and coaches are not very user-friendly and developer-friendly. Performance is always an issue. The scripting and the pattern that it uses are very tedious for new developers to understand, and it takes time to master it in depth. When comparing IBM BPM with IBM APN, a lot of things are provided out of the box in IBM APN. We don't have to write code or a Java connector to make a functionality work. It would be very helpful and time-saving for developers if IBM BPM is improved in this area to provide many functionalities or drag-and-drop options so that the developers don't have to write the code."
"We have been experiencing bad performance and instability."
"It is a really powerful tool, but its entry price is so high, which makes it a very exclusive club for who gets to use it. The thing that seemed to be the most intolerable was that you could put lots and lots of users on it, and it worked fine, but if you put lots and lots of developers on it, it sure seemed to have challenges. The biggest challenge was the development because of the Eclipse tool. It just seemed like irrespective of the development team that you put together, whether it had 10 or 50 people, you would end up having to reboot the development server throughout the day when you concurrently had lots of people hammering on the system. The development server just got sluggish. This was true for every project I was on. Once you got more than about five people working on the system at the same time, it would just get slower and slower during development work, and the only way to fix it was to reboot the server. It became just like a routine. Sometimes, we would reboot at lunch or dinner time, which is silly. After the cloud instances started rolling out, I never saw that again. That was probably the one big advantage of the cloud version. Instead of using an independent Eclipse-based process development tool, we moved to web-based process and design. The web-based tool definitely had greater performance than the Eclipse-based tool. I never got onto another project after that with 50 people, so I don't know how the performance is when you get a large team on it, but it definitely seems that the cloud design tool was a massive improvement."
"When you have to integrate files for enterprise applications."
"The pricing is a little bit high. It's gone up in cost."
"Consider an admin console during deployment. I would like to migrate single instances, not the whole bunch at once."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It was not cheap, but it was affordable."
"Based on the knowledge, it is relatively cheaper than Azure Identity Services and cloud services in general."
"BizTalk Server is not freeware. There's a significant licensing cost involved. Be sure you will actually utilize its features fully."
"BizTalk Server is cheap. I would rate its pricing a two out of five."
"The solution is expensive."
"The cost will depend on the client's requirements."
"The solution might be expensive, but I can't give you a precise number. In the market here, I've seen two main products for BPM: IBM BPM and Camunda. Camunda is very popular and open-source, so there's no direct comparison."
"IBM could improve the price. It is far too expensive."
"It has a low cost to implement. You'll get your money back in the same year that you complete the project."
"Its price is on the higher side, and it can be improved. Its licensing is on a yearly basis. There are no additional costs."
"We chose to purchase IBM BPM because it was bundled with the actual RPA program/solution that we decided to purchase. We decided to use Automation Anywhere tool (RPA), and it is was bundled with IBM BPM."
"​We have definitely seen ROI. When we first kicked it off, we said it had to pay for itself within three years, and it did."
"Licensing is managed by the client, but we know it is yearly. Camunda is relatively cheaper. There is not much difference in pricing of IBM and PEGA. For large licensing, there are discounts as well."
"IBM BPM cannot be considered a cheaply priced product. IBM BPM is a really expensive product compared to other companies. One needs to opt for the perpetual licensing model offered by IBM."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
30%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BizTalk Server?
The tool's most valuable feature is its integration with the banks. Its messaging and routing capabilities are good.
What needs improvement with BizTalk Server?
BizTalk Server needs improvements, especially because we use it for EDI messaging, and it would be very useful to have enhanced tracking capabilities for message tracking and archiving of messages....
What advice do you have for others considering BizTalk Server?
BizTalk Server has adapted to the changing needs of business over time with steady development, but there are new requirements, for example, on APIs, application programming interfaces. That functi...
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.
 

Also Known As

No data available
WebSphere Lombardi Edition, IBM Business Process Manager, IBM WebSphere Process Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Centrebet, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, QualCare, Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, DTEK, Allscripts, United BioSource, Hogg Robinson
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
Find out what your peers are saying about BizTalk Server vs. IBM BPM and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.