IBM API Connect vs Microsoft Azure API Management comparison

IBM and Microsoft are both solutions in the API Management category. IBM is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.1, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.9. IBM holds a 4.9% mindshare in APIM, compared to Microsoft’s 14.7% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

IBM API Connect

Read 79 IBM API Connect reviews

6,454 Views
6,067 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure API Management

Read 83 Microsoft Azure API Management reviews

15,767 Views
15,767 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM API Connect

Microsoft Azure API Management

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

IBM API Connect and Microsoft Azure API Management are leading solutions in the API management domain. IBM API Connect has an edge in environments requiring robust security and complex integrations, while Azure API Management stands out for its ease of use and integration within the Azure ecosystem.

Features: IBM API Connect offers robust security features, extensive integration capabilities, and comprehensive management suitable for complex environments. Its ability to secure and catalog APIs is highlighted positively. Azure API Management offers seamless integration with Azure services and hybrid cloud functionalities, with a reputation for being user-friendly and versatile in various deployment scenarios. Both handle REST and SOAP conversions efficiently.

Room for Improvement: IBM API Connect could improve its integration, billing, and automation features, with users noting challenges with DataPower and installation complexities. Microsoft Azure API Management might enhance its third-party integration and administration interface, with users pointing out potential improvements in multi-cloud flexibility and reducing integration complexities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM API Connect is available on-premises and across cloud deployments, offering flexibility but requiring significant technical expertise. Technical support receives mixed reviews. Microsoft Azure API Management is easier to deploy, particularly in the Azure ecosystem, though its customer service is slower during peak times. Both support various environments but differ in initial setup complexity and support responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: IBM API Connect is generally more expensive with critiques on its pricing complexity but offers significant ROI through integration features and efficiencies. Azure API Management provides competitive pricing within the Azure ecosystem, appealing with its pay-as-you-go model that reduces upfront expenses. While initial costs may be higher compared to AWS, its integration capabilities offer strategic value, providing solid ROI through streamlined processes and reduced operational costs over time.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM API Connect vs. Microsoft Azure API Management Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. Microsoft Azure API Management

February 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score

5.9

IBM API Connect saves time and costs, enhances integration, and improves ROI, though microservices' profitability is still unclear.

Sentiment score

5.9

Microsoft Azure API Management enhances efficiency and operations, reducing integration time by 90%, favored for usability over platforms like AWS.

Reducing development hours from eighty to four for an API was possible due to reusing existing scripts from DataPower.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

I have seen a return on investment from using IBM API Connect, as we created multiple plans based on customer usage.

Sairathish Murugesan

Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

Proper configuration of the solution, implementation strategy and correct scaling tier selection are other factors that influence the ROI.

reviewer1260759

Integration Engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

If I am working in AWS and with Azure, I see that Azure is much easier and helps save time while also being able to manage and deploy the API services.

GagandeepSingh5

Network Security Engineer at Movate

We have seen significant financial benefits after using the product.

Dinesh Venkates

Consultant at Fujitsu

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.2

IBM API Connect's support is responsive and knowledgeable but can be slow, lacking documentation with varied customer service experiences.

Sentiment score

6.5

Microsoft Azure API Management support is mixed, with premium support praised and other areas needing improvement in efficiency and expertise.

Support is excellent when it comes to APIC.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

Support is extremely good, especially with Sev 1 issues.

KANCHANCHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

The documentation from Microsoft helps our company to solve issues on our own.

reviewer1260759

Integration Engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

The initial support engineers are often not qualified.

Allan Møller

Consult Manager at Conscia

I logged an incident, and it was resolved promptly within three hours.

Praveen_Srivastava

Solution Architect at Cognizant

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.3

IBM API Connect offers scalable API management, supporting large transactions and customizable deployments, making it ideal for enterprises.

Sentiment score

7.7

Microsoft Azure API Management offers seamless scalability for medium to large enterprises, though costs increase with higher usage levels.

With container versions, scaling up or down the gateways deployed into pods is a two to three-minute task for the operations team.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

It is distributed among IBM MQ, IBM Ace, IBM DataPower, and IBM API Connect.

KANCHANCHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

IBM API Connect's scalability is good, as you can handle it easily similar to how you manage cloud providers.

Sairathish Murugesan

Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

I've worked with multiple tools from an observability perspective, such as Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Splunk, and Elasticsearch, and I find KQL and APIM amazing and filled with useful features.

Swapan Biswas

Associate Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

There are no limitations to adding any number of devices.

GagandeepSingh5

Network Security Engineer at Movate

Microsoft Azure API Management is extremely scalable.

Allan Møller

Consult Manager at Conscia

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.3

IBM API Connect is highly stable and reliable, with minimal issues, especially improved in recent versions, despite initial concerns.

Sentiment score

7.9

Microsoft Azure API Management is stable and reliable, though performance may vary with hybrid versions and specific customizations.

The runtime engine for the APIC Gateway is still a DataPower component, which has been stable in the industry for about fifteen years.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

If it is functioning well, you won't have a bad experience and your application becomes more reliable.

Sairathish Murugesan

Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

Microsoft Azure API Management is very stable.

Allan Møller

Consult Manager at Conscia

With high scalability and availability, it supports many users and endpoints without significant issues.

Praveen_Srivastava

Solution Architect at Cognizant

Microsoft Azure API Management is generally stable.

Amit Das

Technical Solution Architect at liwa

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Room For Improvement

IBM API Connect requires improvements in integration, usability, scalability, support, monetization, documentation, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness across environments.

Microsoft Azure API Management needs improvements in security, integration, cost transparency, documentation, performance, deployment options, scalability, and analytics.

Examples include the lack of connectivity to MQ.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

You need to know when traffic peaks, so use auto-scaling when traffic comes.

Sairathish Murugesan

Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Connectivity to MQ is not available in IBM API Connect.

KANCHANCHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

The service is extensive and expensive, and this added flexibility would make it more manageable and less prone to errors.

Allan Møller

Consult Manager at Conscia

Documentations for the product should include examples of implementation.

reviewer1260759

Integration Engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

They should enhance AI capabilities and more advanced integration features with other platforms.

Dinesh Venkates

Consultant at Fujitsu

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Setup Cost

IBM API Connect is pricey, favoring larger enterprises, but negotiating with IBM can reduce costs for smaller businesses.

Enterprise users find Azure API Management cost-effective and flexible, despite premium tier expense and licensing complexity challenges.

Pricing depends on how many instances run across environments.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

It's an expensive solution.

reviewer1260759

Integration Engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

However, once you scale up to your full volume, it'll be more expensive.

reviewer2520948

Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

It costs around 30,000 Kronas a month, which translates to about $3,000 dollars monthly.

Allan Møller

Consult Manager at Conscia

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Valuable Features

IBM API Connect provides secure, efficient API management with advanced analytics, multi-cloud support, and intuitive functionality for enterprises.

Microsoft Azure API Management provides seamless integration, strong security, and user-friendly tools for effective API management and monitoring.

It offers significant development efficiency, reducing man-hours from eighty to four when creating APIs.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

We can add some policies to provide extra security, protect your backend, validate the consumers, and analyze based on the traffic limit to throw things out.

Sairathish Murugesan

Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

IBM API Connect has a designer and CLI features which can be used to completely automate the API.

KANCHANCHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

The platform's most valuable features are its rule-based permissions and comprehensive API lifecycle management capabilities.

Dinesh Venkates

Consultant at Fujitsu

The ability to create a subscription model for APIs allows companies to monetize valuable data and share it securely.

Allan Møller

Consult Manager at Conscia

The analytics phase of API Management is very beneficial for tracking API usage and identifying suspicious users.

Praveen_Srivastava

Solution Architect at Cognizant

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Categories and Ranking

IBM API Connect

Ranking in API Management

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (14th)

Microsoft Azure API Management

Ranking in API Management

1st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 4.9%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure API Management is 14.7%, down from 19.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Azure API Management	14.7%
IBM API Connect	4.9%
Other	80.4%

API Management

Featured Reviews

Sairathish Murugesan

Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Have addressed performance challenges while benefiting from flexible subscription models and reliable user access

To improve IBM API Connect, based on customer experience, you could work on latency. You can increase scalability and availability. If you're connecting with any other cloud, it connects to the infrastructure which needs to be managed with the customers and cloud providers, so if you have a setup, we can handle it easily. I have faced latency issues on the server, related to our management. If you need to stabilize your server based on peak traffic, you need to configure the scalability model. You need to know when traffic peaks, so use auto-scaling when traffic comes. If the application is not in use, the value should be zero, and it starts from zero. Based on customer experience, the value will increase, and when there is no customer servicing, the peak would be reduced, making the value remain zero. Following this approach, you should be able to optimize costs and satisfy customer experience.

Read full review

Rajeev Jha

Database Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Facilitating seamless integration and robust security support

The integration process is very easy, which is crucial for our organization. Another valuable aspect is the support from Microsoft. Whenever support is required, it is readily available. Additionally, I appreciate the technical expertise Microsoft brings to the table. The security features are highly satisfactory, with various options providing flexibility to implement security measures based on specific compliance requirements.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Insurance Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	61

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	53

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM API Connect?

Publishers can easily identify, create, and publish APIs on the developer portal, defining plans, packages, and potentially billing rules.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM API Connect?

I do not handle the pricing, setup cost, and licensing details.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM API Connect?

We are relatively new to IBM API Connect, so I do not have significant improvements to suggest at this time.

See all answers

How does Apigee differ from Azure API Management?

Apigee offers both cloud-based and on-prem options while Microsoft Azure API Management currently only offers a cloud-based solution. Both solutions are easy to use. Apigee allows for the ability...

See all answers

Which is better - Azure API Management or Amazon API Gateway?

If you use Azure products, API Management is a great solution. It solves many of the problems of externalizing web services. For example, when you need versioning, establish a developer portal and ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure API Management?

Microsoft Azure API Management is a good, comprehensive solution for enterprise implementation.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Compared 32% of the time

Apigee vs IBM API Connect

Compared 16% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Compared 5% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs IBM API Connect

Compared 5% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM API Connect

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM API Connect Competitors

Amazon API Gateway vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 62% of the time

Apigee vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 10% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 3% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 3% of the time

WSO2 API Manager vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Azure API Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect

January 2026

Download IBM API Connect product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure API Management

January 2026

Download Microsoft Azure API Management product report

Also Known As

No data available

Azure API Management, MS Azure API Management

Overview

IBM API Connect is an API management tool providing robust security, seamless REST and SOAP conversion, and flexible deployment options for diverse cloud environments. It aids organizations in securing and monetizing their APIs while streamlining the development process.

IBM API Connect offers features like a security gateway, API lifecycle management, and integration with DataPower. Its intuitive interface enhances ease of use, supporting extensive analytics and traffic management. However, there are areas for improvement in automation, system integration, and user configuration. Organizations can deploy API Connect on-premises or in the cloud, delivering secure access control and analytics for banking, financial services, and government sectors. Compliance with standards like PSD2 ensures secure external API exposure and integration with multiple systems.

What are the most important features of IBM API Connect?

Security Gateway: Provides robust protection and data security for APIs.
Seamless Conversion: Facilitates easy conversion between REST and SOAP protocols.
API Management: Supports full API lifecycle management for efficient development.
DataPower Integration: Integrates seamlessly with DataPower for enhanced functionality.
Developer Portal: Offers a user-friendly interface for managing APIs and developers.
Analytics: Delivers powerful insights through comprehensive API analytics.
Flexible Deployment: Supports deployment on different cloud platforms for versatility.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from IBM API Connect?

Traffic Management: Efficiently manages high volumes of API traffic without compromising performance.
Data Protection: Ensures data is protected during API communication.
API Monetization: Facilitates API monetization strategies to drive revenue.
Scalability: Provides scalable solutions to handle growing demands seamlessly.

In specific industries like banking, financial services, and government sectors, IBM API Connect plays a crucial role in API management, orchestration, and regulation tasks. It provides secure access, control, and compliance with industry standards, serving as an essential gateway for data exchange and integration across multiple systems.

IBM

Microsoft Azure API Management offers a comprehensive solution for managing APIs, ensuring security, integration, and access across cloud environments. It enables seamless API orchestration and supports flexible management systems, making it valuable for API-driven architectures.

Microsoft Azure API Management is an advanced platform designed for seamless API integration and management within Microsoft's ecosystem. It provides robust security capabilities, including access control and Active Directory integration. The platform features a developer portal for easy API documentation and testing, along with real-time monitoring, analytics, and configurable policies to enhance API behavior. With hybrid cloud support and API orchestration, users gain flexibility and the ability to monetize APIs through subscriptions. The platform aids businesses in modernizing their applications and processes, but users have highlighted the need for enhanced scalability, third-party integration, improved documentation, and more comprehensive pricing models.

What are the most important features of Azure API Management?

User-friendly setup facilitating ease of integration
Robust security with access control and Active Directory
Comprehensive developer portal for API documentation and testing
Real-time monitoring and analytics
Flexible policy configuration for API orchestration
Hybrid cloud connectivity support
Monetization through subscription models

What benefits or ROI should users look for in Azure API Management reviews?

Enhanced API security and governance
Efficient backend system connections
Improved application monitoring and orchestration
Seamless migration from legacy to API-driven interfaces
Support for modernizing applications and automating processes

Azure API Management is widely implemented across industries like finance, healthcare, and retail to integrate and manage internal and external APIs. Businesses use it for secure connections, microservices support, and modernizing legacy systems. It's also adopted for subscription models and access control, aiding companies in automating and enhancing their operational processes.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH, Opensistemas

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. Microsoft Azure API Management

February 2026

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