IBM DataPower Gateway vs Red Hat Fuse comparison

IBM and Red Hat are both solutions in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category. IBM is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.6, while Red Hat is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.0. IBM holds a 5.9% mindshare in E, compared to Red Hat’s 7.2% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Red Hat users who would recommend it.

IBM DataPower Gateway

Read 29 IBM DataPower Gateway reviews

981 Views
613 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Red Hat Fuse

Read 24 Red Hat Fuse reviews

1,765 Views
723 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM DataPower Gateway

Red Hat Fuse

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 3, 2025

IBM DataPower Gateway and Red Hat Fuse are competing products in the application integration and data management category. IBM DataPower Gateway has the upper hand in security and gateway functionalities, while Red Hat Fuse excels in integration capabilities and flexibility.

Features: IBM DataPower Gateway's most valuable features include advanced security, API management, and efficient service virtualization. Red Hat Fuse is recognized for its open-source environment, seamless integration, and flexibility, supporting multiple programming languages and cloud environments.

Room for Improvement: IBM DataPower Gateway could improve by streamlining its deployment process, reducing complexity, and enhancing support for non-IBM environments. Red Hat Fuse would benefit from enhancing its user interface, improving detailed documentation, and strengthening security features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Red Hat Fuse offers a simpler deployment process due to its modular architecture and cloud accessibility, making it adaptable in hybrid scenarios. IBM DataPower Gateway, with more complex deployment, offers extensive configuration options and robust customer service.

Pricing and ROI: IBM DataPower Gateway has higher initial setup costs due to its enterprise-level security features, delivering significant ROI for secure data handling. Red Hat Fuse provides a cost-effective solution with lower upfront costs, offering high flexibility and scalability for potentially higher ROI in diverse integration environments.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Red Hat Fuse Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Red Hat Fuse

June 2025

Download the complete report

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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 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (9th), SOA Application Gateways (1st), API Management (12th)

Red Hat Fuse

Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 5.9%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Fuse is 7.2%, down from 7.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

Featured Reviews

Mehdi El Filahi

Co-Founder at tenekit

Security features meets compliance needs and offers MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) that simplifies integration efforts

While I like IBM products, I'm not an evangelist. I work with Java, Microsoft ASP.NET, and various technologies. I'm not tied to any specific vendor. However, I do find IBM to be a bit greedy. It's a large, profit-driven company. The support team is mostly based in India, and they follow a very structured process and protocol. Sometimes, it feels like playing ping pong with them – lots of back and forth before the problem gets escalated. You might even have to get your sales rep involved to push things along. For me, the support it could be better. Indian support teams aren't inherently bad, but with IBM, it feels impersonal. They respond, sure. But if it's a complex technical issue, they might ask you a lot of questions that just seem designed to waste your time. Sometimes it feels like they hope you'll get frustrated and solve the problem yourself.

Read full review

Kaushal Kedia

Technical Architect at Accenture

Offers a single console for all applications and supports Camel routing

Containerization is one key area where the product can improve, but it probably has already improved in JBOS integration. On a few occasions, our company's production team faced an issue with Red Hat Fuse; the screen displayed that the containers had gone down while, in reality, they were running in the background. The user interface and the back-end code were not in sync in the aforementioned situation, which our organization frequently faced while using Red Hat Fuse. But at our company, we were using an older version of Red Hat Fuse in which we faced the issues. From the JBOS end, the product was very frequently changed from Red Hat, and it was difficult for our clients to keep investing money in every upgrade. Six or seven years back, Red Hat Fuse was one of the best solutions.

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

"The API Connect gateway service and the SQL injection feature is good."

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

"It is easy to use, easy to install, and it's resilient for high availability."

"The most valuable feature is the security appliance, it's very secure."

"The solution is robust."

"The solution is stable."

"I like that it is very stable, and we never experience any downtime."

"What I like most is the stability."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pros

"Because we have been doing Red Hat Fuse projects for three years, and over time we have matured, we can employ similar use cases and make use of accelerators or templates. It gives us an edge when we deliver these services or APIs quickly."

"The stability has been good."

"We usually had used PowerCenter for master data integration (by replication). But in some cases, it was better to use Fuse for providing the master data online. It doesn't make it necessary to replicate data."

"The most valuable part of Fuse is the fact that it's based on Red Hat Apache Camel. It is really good that it already comes with so many different connectors. That makes it relatively easy to use. We use their XML definition to define the routes, making it really easy to define the routing."

"The process workflow, where we can orchestrate and design the application by defining different routes, is really useful."

"The features I found most valuable in Red Hat Fuse are the OSB framework, containerization, and the integration of Apache technologies such as the NQ channel, CXF, etc. These are the features that are very prominent in the solution. Red Hat Fuse also offers flexibility, so it's another valuable characteristic of the solution."

"The most valuable feature is the software development environment."

"The most valuable feature is that it's the same as Apache Camel."

More Red Hat Fuse pros

Cons

"Some pre-packaged connectors for integration with various applications, such as SaaS offerings, would be a useful addition."

"DataPower isn't the most user-friendly tool. It is not an easy tool to use. Some things could use better wizards to guide you through processes."

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

"The two biggest issues of this solution are the complexity and the maintenance procedures."

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

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

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

"The DCDR process should be less complex."

More IBM DataPower Gateway cons

"As its learning curve is quite steep, developer dependency will always be there in the case of a Red Hat Fuse development. This should be improved for developers. There should be some built-in connectors so the grind of the developer can be reduced."

"The monitoring experience should be better."

"The main issue with Red Hat Fuse is the outdated and scattered documentation."

"Containerization is one key area where the product can improve"

"Currently, the main point of concern for us is how flexible it is to cater to different requirements. It should be more flexible."

"I don't know the product last versions. I know they are migrating a microservices concepts. We still didn't get there... but we are in the process."

"While it's a good platform, the pricing is a bit high."

"Our clients would like to see the user interface improved so that it is more user-friendly."

More Red Hat Fuse cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"Most customers' use case budgets are not inlined with the price of IBM DataPower Gateway. It is too expensive."

"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 product is expensive."

"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 licensing cost is very expensive."

"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."

"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

"In terms of pricing, Red Hat Fuse is a bit expensive because nowadays, if I'm just comparing it with OpenShift with Kubernetes, so Kubernetes and OpenShift, are similar, and Kubernetes is open source, so Red Hat Fuse is quite expensive in terms of support, but Red Hat Fuse provides value for money because it provides good support. If you want to get something, you need to pay for it."

"Red Hat Fuse saved us money. It is a lot easier to license for cloud deployments."

"My company pays for the license of Red Hat Fuse yearly. At the end of the day, it's a low-cost solution, and its support licenses are still very decently priced versus bigger operators such as IBM, etc. Red Hat Fuse is much more affordable than other solutions. On a scale of one to five, with one being cheap and five being extremely expensive, I'm rating its pricing a one."

"Pricing has been something that we have been working with Red Hat on, year over year. We have preferred pricing with the university because we are involved in education and research."

"This is an open-source product that can be used free of charge."

"This is an expensive product. It costs a lot and although it's worth the money, the explanations that we need to give to our top executives are highly complicated."

"We found other solutions were more costly."

"The most important feature of Fuse is the cost. It is open source and a cheap option for an ESB. So, most of the clients in the Middle East and Asian countries prefer this ESB. Other ESBs, like MuleSoft and IBM API Connect, are pretty expensive. Because it is open source, Red Hat Fuse is the cheapest solution, providing almost every integration capability."

More Red Hat Fuse pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

29%

Insurance Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 would rate the pricing a two out of ten, with one being high price, and ten being low price. It's high-priced for smaller companies. But it is okay for enterprises. So, the price could be more fl...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?

The DCDR process should be less complex. AI should improve developer efficiency and effort. Whenever I am writing code, it should give recommendations automatically by incorporating AI so I can wri...

See all answers

What do you like most about Red Hat Fuse?

The process workflow, where we can orchestrate and design the application by defining different routes, is really useful.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Fuse?

You need to pay for the license. It's not free. I'm not aware of the exact prices. There are no extra costs in addition to the standard licensing since it is a subscription-based solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Red Hat Fuse?

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM API Connect vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 33% of the time

Apigee vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 7% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM DataPower Gateway Competitors

IBM Integration Bus vs Red Hat Fuse

Compared 27% of the time

Mule ESB vs Red Hat Fuse

Compared 20% of the time

JBoss ESB vs Red Hat Fuse

Compared 19% of the time

Oracle Service Bus vs Red Hat Fuse

Compared 14% of the time

WSO2 Enterprise Integrator vs Red Hat Fuse

Compared 11% of the time

More Red Hat Fuse Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway

April 2025

Download IBM DataPower Gateway product report

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Fuse

June 2025

Download Red Hat Fuse product report

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower

Fuse ESB, FuseSource

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

Red Hat JBoss Fuse is a lightweight, flexible integration platform that enables rapid integration across the extended enterprise - on-premise or in the cloud. JBoss Fuse includes modular integration capabilities, an enterprise service bus (ESB), to unlock information.

Red Hat

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity

Avianca, American Product Distributors (APD), Kings College Hospital, AMD, CenturyLink, AECOM, E*TRADE

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Red Hat Fuse

June 2025

Free Report: IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Red Hat Fuse

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