IBM API Connect vs TIBCO Cloud API Management comparison

IBM and TIBCO are both solutions in the API Management category. IBM is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.2, while TIBCO is ranked #27 with an average rating of 7.0. IBM holds a 6.4% mindshare in APIM, compared to TIBCO’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of TIBCO users who would recommend it.

IBM API Connect

Read 75 IBM API Connect reviews

8,910 Views
6,632 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

TIBCO Cloud API Management

Read 11 TIBCO Cloud API Management reviews

1,123 Views
987 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

IBM API Connect

TIBCO Cloud API Management

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

TIBCO Cloud API Management and IBM API Connect compete in the API management space. TIBCO Cloud API Management seems to have the upper hand in pricing and support, making it a cost-effective choice, while IBM API Connect stands out for its comprehensive feature set, appealing to enterprises needing extensive capabilities.

Features: TIBCO Cloud API Management offers strong integration capabilities, user-friendly design tools, and quick deployments for ease of customization. IBM API Connect provides robust security features, in-depth analytics, and powerful policy management tools suitable for complex environments.

Room for Improvement: TIBCO Cloud API Management could enhance its containerized setups, improve scalability and refine its fine-grained configurations. IBM API Connect might improve its ease of onboarding, documentation for microservices goals, and streamline third-party integration processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: TIBCO Cloud API Management is recognized for straightforward deployment and responsive customer service, attracting businesses seeking simplicity and quick onboarding. IBM API Connect offers more detailed configuration capabilities, benefiting organizations needing comprehensive support.

Pricing and ROI: TIBCO Cloud API Management is known for its cost-effectiveness, providing favorable ROI and appealing to budget-conscious companies. IBM API Connect, with higher startup costs, offers significant long-term value for businesses ready to invest in a comprehensive API management solution.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM API Connect vs. TIBCO Cloud API Management Report (Updated: February 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. TIBCO Cloud API Management

February 2025

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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:

Categories and Ranking

IBM API Connect

Ranking in API Management

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (7th)

TIBCO Cloud API Management

Ranking in API Management

27th

Average Rating

7.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 6.4%, up from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO Cloud API Management is 0.9%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management

Featured Reviews

KavitaChavan

Associate Manager at Baariz

Quite flexible and provides excellent performance for API gateway

The only disadvantage I can see is that it requires heavy hardware support, which can be considered quite expensive. In terms of new functionality, I think the analytics can be improved in V10. The analytics feature was better in the older version, 2.18. But in V10, it's not as flexible. When exporting analytics as KSP or JSON, it's not well formatted. They can work on enhancing the analytics part. Additionally, they can focus on reducing the hardware cost.

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Amitava Roy

Principal Enterprise Architect (Cognizant Digital Business) at Cognizant

Offers pre-built packages for quick and easy onboarding of APIs but configuration is not that easy

The configuration is not that easy. It's not that user-friendly, and security-wise when you try to implement the security layer on top of it, it's not that easy either. There are certain things where the performance is not that great. When the traffic is huge, we see some lag in performance.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"API Connect's data gateway is one of the strongest in the market."

"The centralized management: this provides a management module that can deploy and apply security policies to all APIs, including all the gateways that are deployed on-premises and on any cloud because the gateway component can run at a VMware or in a Kubernetes cluster."

"It is a very scalable solution."

"In-built policies and security functions."

"The interface is very nice. It makes the solution easy to use and navigate."

"The most valuable feature of IBM API Connect is the security of the protocol."

"DataPower Gateway holds significant value for us as it serves as the cornerstone of our enterprise security controls."

"The most valuable features of IBM API Connect are its performance and user-friendliness."

More IBM API Connect pros

"The reason why we selected the solution originally was because of its ability to have a gateway both on-premise and in the cloud. This is the most valuable aspect of the solution for us."

"When we did the product evaluation, we saw that TIBCO Mashery offers end-to-end API life cycle management. It provides all API features that are required for managing the complete life cycle. It includes the developer portal and tools for API monitorization. The out-of-box security features that TIBCO Mashery provides are enterprise-grade, which gives it an edge over other API products."

"Very few outages or SLA issues."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to have different packages based on the API keys. The same core system can have different packages based on different environments."

"It has something called packages. In that way, it's good because we have some pre-built packages. So, if you want to onboard different APIs, we can just add them to the package, and it's there."

"The solution is a good general API manager. They have a few propriety features but are offering items that are standard in the industry as well."

"This has provided a new stream of traffic and exposure of our catalogue beyond the normal web store offering."

"The platform's most valuable features are its capabilities to support security measures such as tokenization, token refresh, throttling, and enforcement of payloads."

More TIBCO Cloud API Management pros

Cons

"The solution is overly complex."

"The developmental process is not quite user-friendly."

"While Azure API Management offers configurable scalability, IBM API Connect relies on Kubernetes clusters. This might seem manual and require defining cluster instances upfront, but it's completely customizable and not on-the-fly scaling. It's completely custom-driven, not on-the-fly scaling, which some may consider cumbersome."

"I would like to see support for non-Java based services. We struggle a bit to be able to deploy and connect our .NET services because of things like data types. We had to map a couple of things. For one solution provider, we had to move them to .NET Core before we could use it properly. I would like to see more agnostic tool service platforms rather than moving it more towards Java or open source."

"Support for this platform could still be improved. It also needs to have more levels of versatility. Its compatibility and integration with different platforms also need improvement."

"The solution is not scalable."

"Improving the documentation would be beneficial as it currently presents navigation challenges. Incorporating a step-by-step guide could facilitate the integration or migration of various systems, including databases. The existing documentation only comprises plain text, hence incorporating more interactive instructions could enhance its usefulness."

"The product's setup phase and its setup for the users in different environments, along with DevOps integration, are areas of concern where there is a need for improvement."

More IBM API Connect cons

"The management console of API and customers' applications are not the most intuitive."

"It's not that user-friendly, and security-wise when you try to implement the security layer on top of it, it's not that easy either."

"They can fix some stability issues and probably make it more user-friendly so that not only an IT savvy person but an end-user can also easily navigate through this solution."

"I'd like to see TIBCO integrate authentication and security features into Mashery."

"The way agile life cycle is working needs improvement. I also want to see more support for open API standards. I want to see some improvement on the protocol transformation. That is quite missing now. These are the three main issues."

"We observed delays under heavy load conditions, and without proper tuning, changes could take an extended period to filter and become effective."

"It lacks many features at the API gateway compared to other solutions."

"Monetization is not that great in API management. You need customization. Improvements are needed with sandbox local as well as with monetization. Those features are missing."

More TIBCO Cloud API Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is expensive. However, there are a lot of customization capabilities."

"The pricing is too expensive with IBM. Sometimes, we prefer to go with an open source or something more lightweight."

"API Connect is quite pricey."

"It is an expensive solution. The licensing model is based on a per-subscription and per-subscriber end-user basis, meaning the price is determined by the end-users of the platform."

"We pay for the IBM API Connect monthly. We only need to pay the standard licensing fee."

"API Connect was highly expensive for us, but the decision to switch was made before I joined the company. It seems like the company bought it, but they didn't know how to use it. After two years, they decided to reevaluate and conduct some cost estimates."

"It can be quite expensive. It's okay for large-scale usage but quite expensive for smaller-scale implementations."

"The pricing is significantly high."

More IBM API Connect pricing and cost advice

"Its price is pretty reasonable. There are some lightweight API options available in the market, but given the feature set that TIBCO provides, its price is really reasonable."

"Licensing is quite flexible."

"TIBCO Cloud API Management is not an expensive solution."

"We have secured terms on which we have been happy to renew for a number of years."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

23%

Financial Services Firm

18%

Insurance Company

10%

Computer Software Company

24%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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?

Price depends on many factors like size of the deal, competitive factors, timing, customer profile or where the pricing for API Calls is very competitive comparing to any of the leader players.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM API Connect?

The only downside where improvements are needed is probably on the licensing side. Scalability is an issue with IBM API Connect, making it an area where improvements are required.

See all answers

What do you like most about TIBCO Cloud API Management?

The platform's most valuable features are its capabilities to support security measures such as tokenization, token refresh, throttling, and enforcement of payloads.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TIBCO Cloud API Management?

My primary role was to assess the solution from a capability perspective. So, there are some issues with the licensing cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with TIBCO Cloud API Management?

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Compared 26% of the time

Apigee vs IBM API Connect

Compared 21% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM API Connect

Compared 15% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Compared 6% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM API Connect

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM API Connect Competitors

Apigee vs TIBCO Cloud API Management

Compared 30% of the time

Layer7 API Management vs TIBCO Cloud API Management

Compared 21% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs TIBCO Cloud API Management

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs TIBCO Cloud API Management

Compared 12% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs TIBCO Cloud API Management

Compared 12% of the time

More TIBCO Cloud API Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect

March 2025

Download IBM API Connect product report

Buyer's Guide

TIBCO Cloud API Management

March 2025

Download TIBCO Cloud API Management product report

Also Known As

No data available

Mashery API Management

Overview

IBM API Connect facilitates API management and integration in the financial sector. Companies use it to expose, secure, and manage APIs for banking, insurance, and fintech, deploying it on-premises, in the cloud, or as a hybrid solution.

IBM API Connect focuses on creating and monetizing APIs while enabling seamless transactions and integration with third-party services. It is vital for compliance with regulations and enhances external communication among institutions. With deployment options suitable for different environments, it supports centralized gateway management, robust security features, and comprehensive API lifecycle management. Users benefit from powerful analytics, user-friendly interfaces, and high performance with capabilities in message transformation and efficient monitoring.

What are the most important features?

Centralized Gateway: Manages all APIs through a single entry point.
Robust Security: Ensures API protection with advanced security measures.
Comprehensive API Lifecycle Management: Covers creation, deployment, and retirement of APIs.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies API creation and management tasks.
Powerful Analytics: Provides insights into API usage and performance.
Seamless Integration: Connects easily with third-party services and internal systems.
Flexible Deployment Options: Supports on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
High Performance: Optimizes API performance and reduces latency.
Message Transformation: Manipulates and formats messages between different systems.
Visualization Tools: Enables clear and detailed views of API usage statistics.

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

API Monetization: Generates additional revenue streams from APIs.
Enhanced Compliance: Ensures adherence to industry regulations and standards.
Improved External Communication: Facilitates integration and communication among financial institutions.
Technical Support: Benefit from reliable customer support and easy configuration.
Deployment Flexibility: Choose from on-premises, cloud, or hybrid options.

IBM API Connect is extensively implemented in the financial sector, enabling banking, insurance, and fintech services to manage APIs efficiently. Companies use it to ensure secure transactions, integration with third-party services, and compliance with regulatory standards. Its deployment flexibility accommodates different infrastructure needs, making it suitable for a wide range of financial applications.

IBM

APIs are critical business assets that form the foundation of digital business enabling new business models, improved operational efficiency, and connected customer experiences. TIBCO Cloud API Management empowers users to maximize the business value of their APIs products through an end-to-end solution that provides full lifecycle API management alongside capabilities for API discovery, implementation and analytics that speed business value realization across your digital ecosystem.

TIBCO

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank

uShip, Sabre, TouchTunes, Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, athenahealth, Coca-Cola Enterprises, CentralIndex.com, Constant Contact, Edmunds.com, FoodEssentials, Getty Images, Klout, Rovi, Rotten Tomatoes, Sportradar, TomTom, ACTIVE.com

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. TIBCO Cloud API Management

February 2025

Free Report: IBM API Connect vs. TIBCO Cloud API Management

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