No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

IBM DataPower Gateway vs InterSystems Ensemble 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 DataPower Gateway
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (4th), SOA Application Gateways (1st), API Management (11th)
InterSystems Ensemble
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
19th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 3.8%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of InterSystems Ensemble is 1.8%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM DataPower Gateway3.8%
InterSystems Ensemble1.8%
Other94.4%
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

AkshaySawant - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
Security features excel but development limitations emerge
We are using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes. As per the development perspective, there are some limitations with IBM DataPower Gateway because it only supports XML and XSLT language, but it does not support the Java language. This is the only limitation of the IBM DataPower Gateway. For the authentication and authorization purpose, we can use the IBM DataPower Gateway. It's a very good product. We are mostly using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes and load balancing purposes. If we are handling the load for a particular server, then we can use the IBM DataPower Gateway. The IBM DataPower Gateway is mostly used for security purposes. If we have some APIs and we are using some security for those APIs, then we can use it. It can also be used as a load balancer. It's also used for certificate management, user management purposes, authentication, and authorization. For routing, the IBM DataPower Gateway has multiple URL-based routing and content-based routing capabilities. If we have multiple URLs, then we can use an XML script. Using the XSLT language, we can configure multiple URLs and implement URL-based routing. Content-based routing means if we have multiple requests, we can route the request to a particular URL. For this, we need to use the XSLT language only. We can't use XML, Java, or other scripting languages. With IBM DataPower Gateway, we are using all the APIs. All APIs have been configured on the gateway. We have configured the particular TLS profile and some TLS client profiles as well. Using that TLS profile, we have configured the APIs and authentication. We have configured some tokens also, including JWT tokens and different types of auth tokens. There is also a rate limiting feature which we use for handling API loads.
it_user463221 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a tech vendor
We use the solution for web services.
It would be good to enhance the schedule interface. There is no indication that lets us know if a module has stopped. Shortly speaking, each business host has color in the Production page. Meanings of colors are described in a "Legend" link on the Production page. Also, each business host either has or has no private pool (processes that work with its queues). When we stop a business host by scheduling, its private processes are killed (if they exist). Such a situation is not expressed in changing business host color. The only way to check if a business host is stopped by scheduling is to check its processes presence.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The support for IBM DataPower Gateway has been exceptional."
"My company has a good impression of IBM DataPower Gateway. What I like about it is that because it's an appliance, it's a turnkey solution that's very fast and out of the box. Compared to other gateways, I also like that IBM DataPower Gateway is function-rich. For example, for one of the projects, there was a need for specific transformation and security features available in IBM DataPower Gateway out of the box, so my team just needed to configure the appliance. There was no need for separate development, and I found it quite neat. Another valuable feature of IBM DataPower Gateway is that it's easy to integrate with other products."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the appliance hardware, the software embedded within the hardware appliance machine, making it one of the best security platforms in the market that is easy to use, easy to install, and resilient for high availability."
"Anybody can use it as their security device and as their multi-protocol handling device."
"From a technical point of view, IBM DataPower Gateway performs quite well, so my team had no concerns at all in terms of performance, reliability, and stability."
"The solution is scalable, our customers are mostly South African banks and they handle mostly transactions with this solution."
"It is very easy to set up and configure, even for users with no prior experience."
"If you have an API application in your organization that you want to make safe and secure, in addition to your existing WAF or load balancer, this product comes with all those capabilities:"
"The InterSystems technical support (WRC) is perfect and highly qualified."
 

Cons

"Traceability could be improved, especially for business operations."
"Some pre-packaged connectors for integration with various applications, such as SaaS offerings, would be a useful addition."
"My experience with the pricing of this product is that pricing is too high and should be reduced."
"The solution requires a lot of training manuals in order to get to know it better and to be able to use it effectively."
"It is a costly product."
"It is challenging to understand the solution's design and support skills."
"The product should be more adapted to the DevOps process."
"For the workloads that are not too high, appliance is a little bit expensive, especially in the development test and UAT environment, where we can use the virtual version of the product."
"It would be good to enhance the schedule interface."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is very high and requires all five components in the API management solution."
"The total cost of IBM DataPower Gateway would depend on the configuration, but in my experience, it can amount to 60,000 Euros per box, even for the virtual version. Usually, customers need high availability and a non-production environment, so the total price for IBM DataPower Gateway can be quite a lot. It can be 200,000 Euros or a similar figure."
"The tool's initial costing is expensive for small banks and financial institutions."
"The appliance is a bit on the expensive side for the workloads that are not too high."
"As far as I know, they have a perpetual license for this product. They are paying perpetual fees rather than an annual subscription or annual pricing."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The cost of this product varies from customer to customer and the relationship with IBM, including how many offerings from IBM are already being used."
"The product is expensive."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Infrastructure solutions are best for your needs.
897,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Insurance Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise18
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM DataPower Gateway?
I don't know if the current licensing cost of IBM DataPower Gateway is high, but I think it's acceptable. I don't have any complaints about it.
What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?
I noticed that the Gateway Script libraries could be improved, as they are not covering everything I need.
What is your primary use case for IBM DataPower Gateway?
The primary purposes for which IBM DataPower Gateway is used include security purposes, and sometimes you need to put some configurations and mapping into the process.
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower
Ensemble
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity
CysNET, Pennine Acute Hospitals, Kettering Health Network, Objectway, WS trends, Ontario Systems, Assurenet, 3M, Northgate Public Services, CentraCare
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, F5, IBM and others in Application Infrastructure. Updated: May 2026.
897,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.