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IBM App Connect vs TIBCO BusinessWorks 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.2
IBM App Connect enhances efficiency and ROI with centralized integrations, requiring expertise for long-term success across various sectors.
Sentiment score
7.3
TIBCO BusinessWorks offers flexibility and reliability, with ROI seen in two years, ensuring smooth development and overall satisfaction.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
IBM App Connect support is responsive and competent, but inconsistencies and delays exist, especially in non-urgent and local support.
Sentiment score
6.1
TIBCO BusinessWorks customer service is generally efficient with knowledgeable teams, though experiences vary in responsiveness and problem-solving.
When opening a ticket with the global team, problems are resolved promptly and effectively.
The technical support from IBM is good.
Customer service is very helpful.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
IBM App Connect is praised for scalability in cloud and container environments, with suggestions for improved administration features.
Sentiment score
6.9
TIBCO BusinessWorks is scalable, handling large data, but costs and licensing can limit expansion, especially on-premise.
IBM App Connect demonstrates good scalability.
I would rate the scalability of IBM App Connect as nine out of ten.
It is not like AWS where I can add memory or more servers.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
IBM App Connect is stable, with high reliability, though occasional issues arise from environment, configuration, or resource management.
Sentiment score
7.6
TIBCO BusinessWorks is stable but faces challenges post version 5.14; users report memory spikes and require hotfixes for issues.
IBM App Connect occasionally crashes for various reasons, requiring problem-solving intervention.
It is stable, however, every now and then, it just ends.
 

Room For Improvement

IBM App Connect users seek improved logging, interface enhancements, better community support, and simpler, more cost-effective version transitions.
TIBCO BusinessWorks needs stability, cloud adoption, user-friendliness enhancements, better pricing, and improved support for non-technical users and monitoring.
I find it particularly good for on-premises and now cloud use.
Version 13 includes around 200 features with cloud platform compatibility.
The learning curve takes time compared to webMethods.
They should ensure that what was working in the previous version must also work in the new version of BW six.
 

Setup Cost

IBM App Connect's annual pricing varies by transactions and partnership, with complexities and flexibility in setup and licensing.
TIBCO BusinessWorks is costly, especially for medium-sized companies, with discounts mainly benefiting large organizations through Enterprise License Agreements.
For insurance companies with simple JDBC connections, the process is straightforward.
Pricing is for an enterprise application, so the company pays for it with a company license.
 

Valuable Features

IBM App Connect excels with robust integration, user-friendly design, scalability, and flexibility for seamless, secure, and complex integrations.
TIBCO BusinessWorks offers user-friendly, robust performance and scalable integration with efficient service creation and extensive legacy and cloud support.
File operations are simple to execute, and converting between XML to JSON formats is effortless with IBM App Connect.
The features I find most valuable are message routing, message transformation, and protocol translation.
When I have an architecture designed to plug in the service itself with BW, it makes things much easier.
It's a great software application for the middleware use cases to connect the front channels to the back ends in a secure and safer way.
 

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 (6th)
TIBCO BusinessWorks
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (18th)
 

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.
Moustafa Fares - PeerSpot reviewer
Connects systems securely, simplifies data communication, and benefits from AI integration potential
I would like to see an AI project with BusinessWorks. I haven't worked with cloud architecture using BusinessWorks, so I would like to work with it as a cloud architect. I am still learning the documentation, so I don't have a complete experience with TIBCO. The learning curve takes time compared to webMethods.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
44%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
6%
 

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?
I have been using IBM App Connect for application integration.
How does TIBCO BusinessWorks compare with Mule Anypoint Platform?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether TIBCO BusinessWorks or Mule Anypoint platform integration and connectivity software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Mule...
What do you like most about TIBCO BusinessWorks?
The ability to link to different technologies is valuable to us.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TIBCO BusinessWorks?
Pricing is for an enterprise application, so the company pays for it with a company license. Everything comes packaged with the license.
 

Also Known As

IBM Cast Iron
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

United Way of Allegheny County, Saint-Gobain CPS, Ricoh, SunTrust Banks Inc.
Euler Hermes, QSuper, Scandinavian Airlines
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM App Connect vs. TIBCO BusinessWorks and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
852,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.