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IBM App Connect vs SAP Process Orchestration comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 App Connect
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Integration (11th)
SAP Process Orchestration
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Business-to-Business Middleware (2nd)
 

Featured Reviews

Mehdi El Filahi - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers flexible adapters, good scalability but logging can be difficult at times
There is room for improvement in the logging messages. Sometimes, if you put someone new into App Connect, they can abandon it the same day. The logging is really painful. However, IBM has made efforts to integrate with Elasticsearch for logging, so that's an improvement. Overall, the logging can be difficult at times. One more important point is that if IBM improves its CI/CD capabilities, it will make a big difference. Right now, I have to create my own CI/CD setup from scratch for every client, which is inefficient. Back in 2013, I worked with Sonic ESB, and even then, it had CI/CD with Maven. With App Connect, you need to build everything yourself when using tools like Jenkins, Bamboo, or CircleCI. IBM really needs to provide official support for this.
Laxman  Molugu - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhances operational efficiency with valuable prepackaged content and cost-effective pricing
For organizations that operate within an SAP ecosystem, SAP Process Orchestration is recommended due to its cost-effectiveness and the availability of valuable prepackaged content. It is important to consider the needs of your industry, as SAP Process Orchestration may not meet all requirements in consumer-oriented sectors. I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the adapters. The adapters help us achieve scalability. If you want to connect to SAP, there's an adapter. Salesforce? There's an adapter. You want to connect to another system? There's likely an adapter for that."
"It has different type of interfaces that can integrate with companies."
"I would say that the most valuable feature is the array of connectors and integration tools."
"Technical support is good."
"Very scalable, flexible, and user-friendly."
"There is a friendly interface for configuration, and integration is made easy."
"The solution is very fast-paced when it comes to making things right. We can quickly download what we need if we need any app migrations for our software business. We can download it plenty of times when we need to use it. It gives us very high speed for delivering any development."
"It has an efficient design flow."
"In my opinion, SAP PO is the most mature suite of tools to integrate processes across SAP environments at this moment. It's really unbeatable because it allows you to integrate whatever scenarios you can imagine."
"The solution offers very good documentation and manuals to assist with understanding the solution."
"Orchestration is beneficial for us."
"It is a scalable solution."
"SAP Process Orchestration has all the features that are necessary."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"Great monitoring tools and has its own alert framework."
"The solution is easy to use."
 

Cons

"More connectors could be available for the product as some of the third-party software doesn't have default connectors."
"IBM App Connect is scalable. From the administration side, they need to improve the RBAC model, as well as the clustering of this product. It will be good if we can start up the cluster, via IBM Connect Console. Some other products like MuleSoft, are providing this type of administration. MuleSoft is easy to use and user friendly."
"Plugins for the repositories are difficult to find."
"IBM App Connect should improve security features."
"The addition of string functionality would be a benefit, particularly in the ESQL space that IBM already uses internally."
"They reply in one or two hours at most, but they could be better."
"The interface could be better."
"When we do a version upgrade of the system, the platform is kind of complicated."
"I think the main area that SAP PO should improve on is offering pre-delivered content like they do when you use SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI). SAP should not forget that they still have a lot of customers using Process Orchestration and they should focus more on providing pre-delivered content in SAP PO."
"I think the big improvement required in the tool stems from the fact that the whole issue around it is that we have some downtime failures during upgrades and patching."
"Data modeling is an area of concern in the product where improvements are required."
"The solution is not very scalable because it is at the end of its life."
"The product roadmap suggests it will approach the end of support in several years, and a lot of innovations are now implemented by SAP not in SAP PO, but in SAP Integration Suite, hence, the platform is stable, but doesn't receive a lot of new features in recent updates."
"The solution needs to move to the cloud."
"The solution could be more scalable."
"In terms of technical support, it would be helpful if they handled the tickets a bit faster when queries are sent to them."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Initially, App Connect was quite expensive because the cost was based on the number of processors we used. However, it's now based on containers, which means we can be more specific about our consumption and get a better price."
"IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products."
"It is very expensive if we want to scale."
"The solution's pricing isn't cheap, but you can get good discounts based on your competitive deal."
"The price could be better."
"The cost depends upon the consumer."
"App Connect is not cheap."
"The licensing cost for IBM App Connect is very high."
"The price of SAP Process Orchestration was reasonable."
"The product is not a low-priced solution, but I can say that it is competitively priced in the market."
"Normally, you will have to choose CPU-based licensing...I rate the tool price a five out of ten."
"There are fees in addition to the licensing."
"The pricing depends on what type of client you are with SAP and the contract you have. There is a licensing cost that needs to be paid."
"We subscribe to annual licenses, and the competitive license cost is reasonable."
"The fee for maintenance is costly."
"It's not an expensive solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
53%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Manufacturing Company
18%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Energy/Utilities Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM App Connect?
I like the adapters. The adapters help us achieve scalability. If you want to connect to SAP, there's an adapter. Salesforce? There's an adapter. You want to connect to another system? There's like...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM App Connect?
IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products.
What is your primary use case for IBM App Connect?
Our company has a big project for delivery and e-commerce sites. We use IBM App Connect to deliver information to our end users after they buy our products. We get information from many places, suc...
What do you like most about SAP Process Orchestration?
It provides essential features such as continuous monitoring of all interfaces are crucial for our needs.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Process Orchestration?
The main concern is the cost. If additional help is needed due to lack of skill, we have to pay for SAP support.
What needs improvement with SAP Process Orchestration?
There are two main areas for improvement: performance and cost. The cost is quite high, and if it were reduced, it might also improve the performance, potentially allowing us to access a more effic...
 

Also Known As

IBM Cast Iron
SAP NetWeaver Process Integration, NetWeaver Process Integration
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

United Way of Allegheny County, Saint-Gobain CPS, Ricoh, SunTrust Banks Inc.
Lenovo, Dansk Supermarked A/S, Ego Pharmaceuticals Pty. Ltd, Kaeser Kompressoren
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM App Connect vs. SAP Process Orchestration and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.