IBM DataPower Gateway vs Microsoft Azure API Management comparison

IBM and Microsoft are both solutions in the API Management category. IBM is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.3, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.9. IBM holds a 3.7% mindshare in APIM, compared to Microsoft’s 16.5% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

IBM DataPower Gateway

Read 30 IBM DataPower Gateway reviews

5,383 Views
4,037 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure API Management

Read 82 Microsoft Azure API Management reviews

16,995 Views
16,995 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM DataPower Gateway

Microsoft Azure API Management

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

IBM DataPower Gateway and Microsoft Azure API Management are products in the API management and integration solutions category. Microsoft Azure API Management is often chosen for its extensive feature set, making it a preferred option for organizations seeking comprehensive capabilities.

Features: IBM DataPower Gateway is known for robust security, traffic management, and integration capabilities, ideal for enterprises needing high security and performance. Microsoft Azure API Management offers broad API lifecycle management features including developer portals and analytics, appealing to those needing comprehensive API insights and developer community support.

Room for Improvement: IBM DataPower Gateway could enhance its cloud deployment capabilities and simplify initial setup processes. Microsoft Azure API Management could improve pricing structure clarity and further develop offline support for scenarios with limited internet access. Both solutions would benefit from enhanced user interface intuitiveness and better cross-platform integration.

Ease Of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure API Management provides a cloud-native deployment model, aligning well with organizations using Azure ecosystems, and offers extensive documentation plus an active online community for support. IBM DataPower Gateway offers flexibility for on-premises environments but may require substantial initial setup.

Pricing and ROI: IBM DataPower Gateway is recognized for competitive initial setup costs, making it favorable for security-centric deployments. Microsoft Azure API Management may incur higher subscription fees but offers a clear ROI through its scalable cloud model and comprehensive features, which can justify its cost for businesses leveraging its advanced functionalities.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft Azure API Management Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft Azure API Management

September 2025

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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 API Management

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (5th), Application Infrastructure (12th), SOA Application Gateways (1st)

Microsoft Azure API Management

Ranking in API Management

1st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 3.7%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure API Management is 16.5%, down from 19.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Azure API Management	16.5%
IBM DataPower Gateway	3.7%
Other	79.8%

API Management

Featured Reviews

AkshaySawant

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.

Read full review

Allan Møller

Consult Manager at Conscia

Transforms internal APIs with secure, manageable cloud compatibility

Microsoft Azure API Management could be improved by enhancing the preview feature, specifically the workspaces. The feature should allow for better delegation of permissions to specific groups without affecting others. The service is extensive and expensive, and this added flexibility would make it more manageable and less prone to errors.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's high-speed and it can be remotely administered via an API."

"Since it is a gateway, it provides a lot of security features."

"We are mostly using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes and load balancing purposes."

"The solution is straightforward and for large organizations, it functions well."

"The solution is stable."

"The scalability of the solution is good."

"The product's most valuable features are AAA policies and security features."

"What I like most is the stability."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pros

"The user management is pretty seamless."

"The solution is reliable and very stable."

"The most valuable feature is the developer portal, which has source code examples in various programming languages to help developers learn the API."

"I like API Management's sandbox feature. It's an environment where you can test out the API before putting it into production and connecting it to a live environment."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Azure API Management are the easy configuration and deployment with automation."

"The initial setup is not that complex, but there are certain challenges."

"Azure APIM's best features are its straightforward access management (it's a single point of access for all monitoring and logging and for policy implementation) and its integration with the Azure Cloud infrastructure."

"Most of the features are valuable to me."

More Microsoft Azure API Management pros

Cons

"Small and medium-sized companies might look for cloud-hosted applications due to the cost."

"Making it more user-friendly would be an improvement."

"The programming language is only supported in XSLT and Gateway script."

"Scripting needs improvement. It's hard for our customers."

"For the workloads that are not too high, appliance is a little bit expensive."

"The DCDR process should be less complex."

"The product's cost for data appliances or hardware is quite high. It needs improvement."

"They should improve the solution's clustering features."

More IBM DataPower Gateway cons

"The developer console for external users could be improved, especially in the testing site."

"The documentation could be improved for the customer."

"Specific to API development, I think Microsoft is still far behind AWS. AWS has grown by leaps and bounds, and Microsoft is a close second. But in terms of features and other stuff they provide, Microsoft's compatibility with publicly available APIs is a little limited. So, that is a little bit of a constraint. But what they provide is good, it's just that they need to build more on their API suite. I think Google is doing a really good job at that."

"The licensing part of Microsoft is always higher than other platforms, like Amazon services and other cloud services. Microsoft should work on reducing the cost."

"The licensing tiers can be misleading."

"Microsoft Azure API Management's most valuable features are the microservices we used to use. They were API callers to receive communication with the network and building system, to complete the request. The response would be through the processing system."

"The implementation has room for improvement and can be more user-friendly."

"The cloud deployment performance could be better."

More Microsoft Azure API Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's expensive when you compare it with others."

"The cost is very high and requires all five components in the API management solution."

"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."

"The product is expensive."

"This product is a bit expensive as IBM products are costly assets. However, for enterprise customers it is a worthwhile investment."

"IBM DataPower Gateway is quite expensive to get resources to work on this product. If the price could be cheaper, I think that will make it a little bit better and easily accessible to smaller clients. Then it could compete with other solutions that are available in the market. There's a whole lot of other solutions available that work well and are cheaper than IBM's products."

"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."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pricing and cost advice

"Based on the resources that we are leveraging, the price we are paying to use this solution is slightly higher than other competitors. In a few cases, it has its own advantage in some resources."

"I rate the solution's pricing between three and four, as it could be more competitive."

"The price is comparable."

"Microsoft Azure is an expensive solution not for the large enterprises but for the medium and small."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."

"The solution appears cheaper because it's a cloud SaaS model."

"Licensing fees are paid on an annual basis."

"It's an expensive solution"

More Microsoft Azure API Management pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

29%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	52

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM DataPower Gateway?

The MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) is great because it allows you to easily expose services using various protocols – web services, REST (JSON), and others. This flexibility simplifies things.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM DataPower Gateway?

This product is definitely expensive because if any issue occurs in the live environment or production environment, and our organization faces some issue with the IBM DataPower Gateway, then the IB...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?

I have significant experience with the IBM DataPower Gateway. As a security product, it is very good. However, from the development perspective, it has limitations because it only supports the XSLT...

See all answers

How does Apigee differ from Azure API Management?

Apigee offers both cloud-based and on-prem options while Microsoft Azure API Management currently only offers a cloud-based solution. Both solutions are easy to use. Apigee allows for the ability...

See all answers

Which is better - Azure API Management or Amazon API Gateway?

If you use Azure products, API Management is a great solution. It solves many of the problems of externalizing web services. For example, when you need versioning, establish a developer portal and ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure API Management?

Microsoft Azure API Management is a good, comprehensive solution for enterprise implementation.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM API Connect vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 36% of the time

Apigee vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 10% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 5% of the time

IBM Integration Bus vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 3% of the time

More IBM DataPower Gateway Competitors

Amazon API Gateway vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 52% of the time

Apigee vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 14% of the time

IBM API Connect vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 5% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 4% of the time

SAP Integration Suite vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Azure API Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway

October 2025

Download IBM DataPower Gateway product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure API Management

September 2025

Download Microsoft Azure API Management product report

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower

Azure API Management, MS Azure API Management

Overview

IBM DataPower Gateway is a robust, secure next-generation enterprise-grade single multichannel API gateway that supplies dynamic access, integration, control, and outstanding security. The solution is available in a broad range of workload capabilities, including application programming interface (API), service oriented architecture (SOA), B2B, cloud, web, and mobile. These dynamic capabilities ensure users are able to quickly increase the reach of an organization's critical IT resources to new channels, which will provide shareholders, team members, and clients with safe, secure access at all times.

DataPower Gateway is very flexible and is widely available in virtual, cloud, traditional, physical, Docker, and Linux form factors.

IBM DataPower Gateway Features

IBM DataPower Gateway has many value-added features. Some of these features are included below:

Control: The solution provides decision point authorization and authentication for all standards, including Lightweight Direct Access Protocol (LDAP) and Open Authorization (OAuth), which allow for better access control across an organization’s entire network.
DataPower dashboard: The dashboard is specifically designed to enhance performance and determine problematic processes. The solution provides intuitive real-time performance transparency to diagnose operational and performance anomalies and offer repair and restoration recommendations.
Enhanced messaging: Users are able to easily mediate messaging and protocols by incorporating the best of today’s traditional and modern application standards.
Integration: IBM DataPower Gateway offers super fast mainframe connectivity, database connectivity, transport protocol bridging, content-based routing, and any-to-any message transformation, ensuring secure and immediate connect service.

IBM DataPower Gateway Benefits

IBM DataPower Gateway provides many benefits. Some of those benefits include:

Flexibility: The solution is easy to use and configure and provides for a pleasant, intuitive overall user experience. The solution can immediately be used out of the box, which makes overall process management simple.
Protection: The solution provides sturdy continuous service protection and application performance using robust powerful routing and traffic control.
Security: The solution’s enterprise-grade De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) ready gateway enables users to enforce the desired runtime application security across all messaging protocols.
Profitability: The solution’s design ensures significant reduction of development costs in addition to the streamlining of overall operations. Users are able to achieve reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and experience a near-immediate ROI.

Reviews from Real Users

“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. Another valuable feature of IBM DataPower Gateway is that it's easy to integrate with other products.”- Bálint T., Solution Manager at Intalion

“You don't have to have a separate DMC proxy because DataPower Gateway is an appliance and will take care of a lot of security features. These include data validations, encryption, as well as XML or any type of scripting or security threats that are present. From a security point of view, being an appliance in the DMC zone, IBM DataPower Gateway will take care of the entire security angle for the infrastructure.” - Sathyan K., Founder/Director at perfTech Solutions Pvt Ltd

IBM

Microsoft Azure API Management is essential for managing APIs, facilitating integration, and ensuring secure internal and external communication.

Organizations leverage Microsoft Azure API Management for seamless integration and effective API management. It supports microservices, legacy modernization, and platform orchestration in sectors like healthcare, telecom, and finance. Features such as developer portals and centralized libraries simplify usage. While it showcases strengths in hybrid cloud support and scalability, improvements are suggested in versioning and multi-tenancy.

What key features does it offer?

Integration with Microsoft services ensures robust access control and user-friendly deployment.
Developer portal and documentation improve usability and learning.
Hybrid cloud support offers seamless on-premise connectivity.
Scalability and security features are well-regarded.
Centralized API library simplifies management.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Facilitates API lifecycle management enhancing user experience.
Simplifies authentication and subscription models.
Enhances data exchange and real-time monitoring.
Streamlines API mapping and orchestration across platforms.
Promotes flexibility and transparency in system integration.

Microsoft Azure API Management aids modernization across healthcare, telecom, and financial services by enabling legacy system updates and facilitating smooth platform orchestration.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH, Opensistemas

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft Azure API Management

September 2025

Free Report: IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft Azure API Management

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