IBM DataPower Gateway vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus comparison

IBM and TIBCO are both solutions in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category. IBM is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.2, while TIBCO is ranked #11. IBM holds a 5.3% mindshare in E, compared to TIBCO’s 4.9% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of TIBCO users who would recommend it.

IBM DataPower Gateway

Read 31 IBM DataPower Gateway reviews

5,240 Views
786 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Read 12 TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus reviews

892 Views
883 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

IBM DataPower Gateway

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 3, 2025

IBM DataPower Gateway and TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus are competing products in the enterprise integration and connectivity domain, each demonstrating unique strengths. TIBCO ActiveMatrix shines with a strong feature set and perceived value, while IBM DataPower Gateway offers more favorable pricing and support.

Features: IBM DataPower Gateway stands out in security and integration capabilities tailored to API management and data processing. Its features include comprehensive security measures, thorough data processing, and seamless API management. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus is notable for its flexibility, extensive integration capabilities, and diverse connectivity options, enhancing adaptability to complex environments.

Room for Improvement: IBM DataPower Gateway could enhance its flexibility and expand its integration options to match diverse infrastructure needs. Additionally, it might benefit from more advanced deployment customization and increased feature variety. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus could improve in reducing its associated setup costs, enhancing its security features, and streamlining licensing processes for better customer accessibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM DataPower Gateway offers straightforward deployment options featuring extensive customer support, ensuring efficient setup and management. On the other hand, TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus provides a more adaptable deployment process suitable for varied infrastructures, coupled with responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: IBM DataPower Gateway is linked with a more appealing initial setup cost and rapid ROI, thanks to strategic pricing. In contrast, TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus, while potentially involving higher initial investment, presents a robust feature set that justifies its cost, promising a substantial long-term ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM DataPower Gateway vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

February 2026

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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

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (7th), SOA Application Gateways (1st), API Management (10th)

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

11th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 5.3%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus is 4.9%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM DataPower Gateway	5.3%
TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus	4.9%
Other	89.8%

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

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.

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Mustofa Yonus

Cheif Specialist- Licensing Systems at Roads & Transport Authority

A robust product that needs to improve the functionality it offers related to API lifecycle management

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a six to seven out of ten. My company consists of around 7000 employees, and we use the solution as an integrated service in around 300 to 400 systems, both internally and externally, making it a huge number. Our company uses the solution every minute and every second, and we can't function without it.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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:"

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

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

"Support for PCA and non-PCA services is valuable."

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

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

"The scalability of the solution is good."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that the performance is robust."

"It is easy to develop. It has a very wide range of features. The older versions are very stable, and there are no issues with the product."

"The technology is really easy to learn."

"It's very stable and reliable."

"The product’s most valuable feature is stability."

"The most valuable features are the monitoring, ease of use, and easy to understand development GUI."

"The solution is very stable."

"The most valuable feature is that it is a service-oriented architecture, SOA-based."

More TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus pros

Cons

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

"My experience with the pricing of this product is that pricing is too high and should be reduced."

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

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

"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."

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

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

"From the development perspective, it has limitations because it only supports the XSLT language. It does not support multiple languages."

More IBM DataPower Gateway cons

"In the configuration, where we need to customize, it takes more time that we expect it to, ideally."

"The stability of their latest version is not on par with their classic version 5.X."

"Our version does not have cloud capabilities."

"We'd like to see improvements in product support."

"The intermediate version that we are using has stability issues. These stability issues should be resolved, but it seems like TIBCO is not focusing on resolving these issues. The resolution timelines are quite high even for high-priority incidents. Its price should be lower. Its licensing cost is considerably high as compared to other ESBs."

"In the next release, there should be improvements made to the API manager."

"Migration to cloud solutions or products should be made convenient, transparent, and easily understandable."

"Issues with the support, the fees, and the termination of the professional services are reasons we are looking for other solutions."

More TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 solution has a return on investment but is a little expensive."

"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."

"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."

"The appliance is a bit on the expensive side for the workloads that are not too high."

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

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

More IBM DataPower Gateway pricing and cost advice

"The price is on the higher side. For the same price, if I go to the previous version, I would have got a lot more capacity with similar kinds of features."

"The biggest issue disadvantage of TIBCO is that it is expensive."

"Its licensing cost is considerably high as compared to other ESBs."

"The licensing cost is a challenge for quite a few customers."

"When it comes to cost, TIBCO is much more competitive than a product like Pega."

"Price-wise, I would say that the product is expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

28%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

11%

Retailer

Marketing Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	17

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	10

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...

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What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?

The developer portal should be an integrated part of IBM DataPower Gateway to improve it. I think it is fine as is, and maybe no other additional features should be included in the next release. My...

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Comparisons

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Compared 40% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 5% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 3% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 3% of the time

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Mule ESB vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Compared 19% of the time

IBM Integration Bus vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Compared 18% of the time

Oracle Service Bus vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Compared 16% of the time

JBoss ESB vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Compared 9% of the time

Workday Business Process Framework vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Compared 6% of the time

More TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway

January 2026

Download IBM DataPower Gateway product report

Buyer's Guide

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

January 2026

Download TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus product report

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower

ActiveMatrix Service Bus

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

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus is a platform for developing, deploying, and managing applications that conform to a service-oriented architecture. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus is a lightweight enterprise service bus that helps organizations bridge the mediation gap in their SOA infrastructure. It reduces complexity and increases flexibility and reuse by replacing hard-coded service dependencies with configuration, and can be used to onboard services from a third-party environment or a TIBCO-based infrastructure. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus provides service mediation capabilities to the TIBCO ActiveMatrix SOA platform. Service mediation allows you to adapt to changing requirements for developing mediation flows.

TIBCO

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity

Colonial Life, CTBC Bank, New World Mobility, QUALCOMM, Swisscom Mobile, T-Mobile USA, Tata Teleservices, Telecom Italia

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

February 2026

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Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DataPower Gateway vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

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