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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
25
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 (2nd)
 

Featured Reviews

Emirhan Guven - PeerSpot reviewer
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
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

"The solution is fast and supports Open UI 3.0 certification."
"I would say that the most valuable feature is the array of connectors and integration tools."
"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."
"I recommend IBM App Connect Enterprise to everyone."
"We use IBM App Connect for the integration between the applications."
"It has an efficient design flow."
"It can handle API conversions with mapping and transformation rules, simplifying the development process."
"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."
"SAP Process Orchestration is middleware where we are able to manage and interact with everything from a single location. One of the most beneficial areas is monitoring which is very easy because it is all in one place. There are many adapters added recently that can be used for new functionality. The solution is easy to operate and it is more mature than the cloud solution provided by SAP."
"Overall, I would rate SAP Process Orchestration a 10 out of 10."
"The monitoring is one of the greatest features in Process Orchestration because it is user-friendly and easy for somebody who is not experienced."
"The initial setup is easy...The solution gets automatically connected. The deployment takes six months. I rate its setup phase a ten out of ten."
"The product has good technical support but you usually will not need it because it is quite stable."
"The initial setup is easy."
"t is a pretty stable solution. I have not seen any outages in the solution."
"The main benefit is that the solution is low maintenance. Moreover, it's the license cost is very low because it's part of the package. The maintenance is standard maintenance. And the updates are regular. So there's a regular update and you can choose whether you want to do those updates or not."
 

Cons

"They reply in one or two hours at most, but they could be better."
"In the next release, I would like to get some quality connectors."
"The interface could be better."
"When we do a version upgrade of the system, the platform is kind of complicated."
"Finding developers for the product is difficult since it is a niche solution. I know the OpenShift environment is running well for the microservice environment. We had some issues with the other environment we tried to implement. It can be easily implemented internally, but we have some problems in practice."
"More connectors could be available for the product as some of the third-party software doesn't have default connectors."
"The addition of string functionality would be a benefit, particularly in the ESQL space that IBM already uses internally."
"Plugins for the repositories are difficult to find."
"We encounter challenges while connecting to MQTT and MQDD adapters."
"SAP Process Orchestration could improve from an API standpoint. This is not an API management tool, which is one of its drawbacks. However, SAP has released an SAP Cloud Platform Integration which has all of the features, such as API management along with process integration to replace what they had previously."
"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."
"Data modeling is an area of concern in the product where improvements are required."
"In terms of technical support, it would be helpful if they handled the tickets a bit faster when queries are sent to them."
"The solution could be more scalable."
"It requires some maintenance."
"Its administration management feature needs to be simpler to use."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price could be better."
"The cost depends upon the consumer."
"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."
"The solution's pricing isn't cheap, but you can get good discounts based on your competitive deal."
"IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products."
"The licensing cost for IBM App Connect is very high."
"App Connect is not cheap."
"My company deals with different pricing models of the product, according to which we don't pay for the solution directly, but we do pay for the maintenance part."
"Looking at market conditions, vendors nowadays are giving products at very low price levels. However, SAP Process Orchestration have not yet reduced their prices. The prices could be reduced a lot to stay competitive."
"The solution is highly-priced."
"There are fees in addition to the licensing."
"We subscribe to annual licenses, and the competitive license cost is reasonable."
"Normally, you will have to choose CPU-based licensing...I rate the tool price a five out of ten."
"The pricing for this solution is fine."
"It's not an expensive solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Retailer
6%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise19
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: September 2025.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.