IBM DataPower Gateway vs OpenLegacy comparison

Read 5 OpenLegacy reviews

1,205 Views
795 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

IBM DataPower Gateway

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

IBM DataPower Gateway and OpenLegacy operate within the enterprise integration sphere. IBM DataPower Gateway is recognized for its robust security features, while OpenLegacy offers a more innovative approach to legacy modernization, making it preferable in certain contexts.

Features: IBM DataPower Gateway provides significant security capabilities, protocol mediation, and threat protection. Its integration with various security services is comprehensive. OpenLegacy focuses on seamless integration with legacy systems, ease of API generation, and deployment supporting agile modernization strategies.

Room for Improvement: IBM DataPower Gateway could improve in reducing complexity and enhancing user-friendliness during deployment. Greater agility in updates might also be beneficial. OpenLegacy may need enhanced documentation for deeper technical insights and could benefit from extended integration with new, emerging technologies.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM DataPower Gateway's deployment can be challenging due to its intricate security configurations, requiring specialized expertise. However, it provides extensive documentation and a strong support network. OpenLegacy excels in simplifying the connection with legacy systems, offering speedy deployment and responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: IBM DataPower Gateway demands significant initial investment, contributing to higher ROI in security-focused environments. OpenLegacy's subscription-based model offers cost-effectiveness, providing quicker ROI through reduced complexity and faster integration timelines, especially in efficiency-focused scenarios.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM DataPower Gateway vs. OpenLegacy Report (Updated: April 2026).

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. OpenLegacy

Download the complete report

Helped 887,041 peers since 2012

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

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (5th), Application Infrastructure (7th), SOA Application Gateways (1st)

OpenLegacy

Ranking in API Management

34th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

AI Software Development (91st)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 3.1%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenLegacy is 1.1%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
IBM DataPower Gateway	3.1%
OpenLegacy	1.1%
Other	95.8%

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

reviewer1042905

VP, Chief Enterprise Integration Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

The biggest advantage is how simple the technology was.

I'd like to see OpenLegacy develop its low-code/no-code (LCNC) solutions. They've expanded somewhat their horizons for integration beyond mainframe CICS, which is their sweet spot. They have some tooling in that area, but it's not as good as it needs to be. OpenLegacy handles the bread-and-butter TP monitoring stuff, but I am working for one of the six banks in the United States still using the Hogan mainframe, which has a slightly proprietary mechanism. But OpenLegacy currently doesn't have a connector for Hogan. So it would help if they could build one. That would appeal to financial institutions that still use Hogan, like US Bank, Wells Fargo, KeyBank, and Vanguard.

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

"What I like most is the stability."

"I like the tool's security. Also, all functionalities are integrated within on platform."

"Anybody can use it as their security device and as their multi-protocol handling device."

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

"The solution is scalable, our customers are mostly South African banks and they handle mostly transactions with this solution."

"It can look for the various security threats, productions, payload scanning, and perform routing based on the content type."

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

"IBM DataPower Gateway has positively impacted my organization by allowing me to implement rate limits on the different API usage, which is the benefit."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pros

"Without OpenLegacy, it would take us several months to create the same services."

"Using mainframe programs (not screens), the OpenLegacy services do not require any changes by the mainframe programmers, thus reducing development cycles."

"OpenLegacy provides a way to go from the outside world to the legacy mainframe, to move the old standard application to a REST API application. New digital services can be created in a few clicks and this can be done easily by COBOL programmers."

"The product has helped our business by allowing us to become more efficient in data handling."

"OpenLegacy produces a war file which includes everything you need to deploy a Tomcat server."

"OpenLegacy opens the door to connect modern web products to our old legacy system."

"The speed of development of production, especially in specific environments like IBM mainframes, has been valuable."

"The biggest advantage of OpenLegacy was how simple the technology was, and we were able to build out the OpenLegacy parts very quickly, putting together a couple hundred APIs in six months."

More OpenLegacy pros

Cons

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

"The solution requires a lot of training manuals in order to get to know it better and to be able to use it effectively."

"Additional documentation needs to be provided for complex automations."

"In the next release, I would like to see the product price reduced. It should be cheaper."

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

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

"The DCDR process should be less complex."

"Additional documentation needs to be provided for complex automations."

More IBM DataPower Gateway cons

"The pricing of the solution could be more flexible and allow for once-off payment versus annual licensing. This would be more appealing to companies in Latin America."

"Customer support for the product is slow and not very good. It makes using the product difficult if you need help quickly."

"The pricing of the solution could be more flexible and allow for once-off payment versus annual licensing."

"Debugging and logging for programmers could be better."

"Customer support for the product is slow and not very good. It makes using the product difficult if you need help quickly."

"I would like to see SSL out-of-the-box. OpenLegacy certainly does SSL, but it was not the default for our use case. We are currently working with OpenLegacy to cross the SSL bridge and suspect that most users will want to do the same."

"They've expanded somewhat their horizons for integration beyond mainframe CICS, which is their sweet spot. They have some tooling in that area, but it's not as good as it needs to be."

"Debugging and logging for programmers could be better."

More OpenLegacy cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The solution is expensive in comparison to other products."

"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 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 cost of this product varies from customer to customer and the relationship with IBM, including how many offerings from IBM are already being used."

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

"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."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pricing and cost advice

"The pricing of the solution could be more flexible and allow for once-off payment versus annual licensing. This would be more appealing to companies in Latin America."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which API Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

887,041 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

29%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Construction Company

27%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Insurance Company

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	18

No data available

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?

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Comparisons

IBM API Connect vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 31% of the time

Apigee vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 6% of the time

NGINX Plus vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 4% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 3% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 3% of the time

More IBM DataPower Gateway Competitors

Pipedream vs OpenLegacy

Compared 12% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs OpenLegacy

Compared 9% of the time

IBM API Connect vs OpenLegacy

Compared 9% of the time

Layer7 API Management vs OpenLegacy

Compared 9% of the time

TIBCO Cloud API Management vs OpenLegacy

Compared 3% of the time

More OpenLegacy Competitors

Product Reports

IBM DataPower Gateway

Download IBM DataPower Gateway product report

Download OpenLegacy product report

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower

No data available

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

OpenLegacy helps organizations quickly launch innovative digital services by extending their core back-end systems to the web, mobile and cloud in days or weeks versus months. Our microservice-enabled API integration and management software quickly reduces project backlog by automating and accelerating microservices and API creation, deployment, testing and management from core applications, mainframes and databases. Together, business and IT teams can quickly, easily and securely meet consumer, partner or employee demands for digital services without modernizing or replacing core systems, and without special programming skills or invasive changes to existing systems and architectures. OpenLegacy is designed for ongoing management of microservices APIs and is based on open standards, so our software plays nice with your current technology stack and supports agile, DevOps and continuous development. Learn why leading companies choose OpenLegacy at www.openlegacy.com.

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity

Many of openLegacy's global customers are among the Global 100 companies. Review case studies in these industries: Agriculture, Airport Authority, Automotive, Auto, Finance, Insurance, Government, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Retailwww.openlegacy.com/case-studie...

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. OpenLegacy