Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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
26
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Integration (13th)
SAP Process Orchestration
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Business-to-Business Middleware (7th)
 

Featured Reviews

Emirhan Guven - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
Transforms data efficiently and navigates licensing challenges with ease
The transition between version 12 and version 13 presents some challenges. While version 12 had approximately 10 features, version 13 includes around 200 features with cloud platform compatibility. The learning curve for developers moving from version 12 to 13 could be smoother. When using new components, better context explanations would be beneficial. In version 13, accessing new features requires connecting through a web browser, which can be challenging to understand. The explanation of new features could be more user-friendly.
Vasanth Kumar Sabaapathi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Lead Architect at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Simplified integrations bring flexibility and efficiency to diverse industries through comprehensive features and robust support
SAP is already trying to make improvements for SAP Process Orchestration by releasing updates every quarter, including patches and modules, and from a security standpoint, while it's a tightly coupled tool, they are introducing a lot of enhancements aligned with current market trends. There are standard contents readily available for starting integrations, which suit around 90% of every industry across verticals including pharma, manufacturing, and employee data central with SuccessFactors integration. Regarding functionality-wise improvements in SAP Process Orchestration, they are now incorporating the Salesforce system. Previously, we needed to rely on a third-party adapter for integration within SAP, but now they are building their own adapters to connect with Salesforce. Additionally, there are options like data connectors using Ariba coming up with SAP Process Orchestration. There's much more to explore, especially as they release new patches, enhancements, and adapters each quarter.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"When using IBM stacks, IBM App Connect is suitable and integrates well with other IBM products like WebSphere."
"The solution is fast and supports Open UI 3.0 certification."
"It's a powerful application for collaboration. It has many features for customization and integration."
"It has an efficient design flow."
"There is a friendly interface for configuration, and integration is made easy."
"It can handle API conversions with mapping and transformation rules, simplifying the development process."
"Technical support is good."
"One of the most beneficial features is the ability to handle multiple communication technologies, like integrating Kafka flows, which is helpful as other teams heavily use it. Regarding error handling, I initially wrote most of the handling myself. While built-in features for error handling are built-in, it largely depends on the developer. We use a custom solution that catches all exceptions, logs them in a database, and replays them as needed. It has been effective for us for over twenty years."
"The monitoring is one of the greatest features in Process Orchestration because it is user-friendly and easy for somebody who is not experienced."
"Orchestration is beneficial for us."
"The solution offers very good documentation and manuals to assist with understanding the solution."
"SAP Process Orchestration offers easy maintainability and is a very flexible tool that easily adapts to any integration standards and artifacts that are readily available."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"I rate the product's setup phase a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy since it is a very easy process."
"Great monitoring tools and has its own alert framework."
"It is strategically focused to forecast a global integration platform for our business."
 

Cons

"IBM App Connect should improve security features."
"The user interface of IBM App Connect can be a little bit more user-friendly, I would say because the first-time developer is onboarded while using IBM App Connect, he or she may get a little intimidated or daunted looking at all the options available or the pipelines, et cetera."
"The installation of containers could be simplified, as it currently requires a senior-level installer."
"More connectors could be available for the product as some of the third-party software doesn't have default connectors."
"In the next release, I would like to get some quality connectors."
"It is not easy to deploy. It requires someone with a high level of knowledge in the solution to deploy it, not just anyone can do it."
"When we do a version upgrade of the system, the platform is kind of complicated."
"I've been using IBM App Connect for about twenty-five years, and while I like it, there are some areas for improvement. The trace policy is ridiculous, and the biggest issue is the cost—it's expensive. People would use it much more if the price point weren't so high."
"Data modeling is an area of concern in the product where improvements are required."
"This is an on-premise platform and one area they can improve on is having the ability to work with SaaS solutions."
"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 monitoring governance offered by SAP is too technical and needs to be geared more toward business users."
"There are two main areas for improvement: performance and cost."
"It does not have all of the industry-standard solutions available in PO and it is not plug and play, so we have to do a lot of development."
"It is not a scalable solution for the cloud. I would not recommend this for the cloud."
"SAP should improve the user interface, as it often lacks modern features and aesthetic appeal."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products."
"The cost depends upon the consumer."
"The solution's pricing isn't cheap, but you can get good discounts based on your competitive deal."
"The price could be better."
"The licensing cost for IBM App Connect is very high."
"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."
"It is very expensive if we want to scale."
"App Connect is not cheap."
"There are fees in addition to the licensing."
"The license is a one-time payment, and additional costs are only incurred on the infrastructure side since it's an on-premise solution."
"The price of SAP Process Orchestration was reasonable."
"The cost of SAP products is quite high but the quality is really good."
"The pricing for this solution is fine."
"It's not an expensive solution."
"The fee for maintenance is costly."
"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."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Data Integration solutions are best for your needs.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Retailer
7%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
Outsourcing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise26
 

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?
Configuration time varies by implementation. For insurance companies with simple JDBC connections, the process is straightforward. However, companies requiring multiple configurations for ODBC, JDB...
What is your primary use case for IBM App Connect?
I am a developer specializing in IBM App Connect. We have a customer interested in comparing ESB tools, such as webMethods, which was previously owned by Software AG company before IBM acquired the...
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 price for SAP Process Orchestration is a little high when compared to market trends, which is just how the business is. I would rate it an eight.
What needs improvement with SAP Process Orchestration?
SAP is already trying to make improvements for SAP Process Orchestration by releasing updates every quarter, including patches and modules, and from a security standpoint, while it's a tightly coup...
 

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: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.