I'm a technical specialist and we are customers of IBM.
Technical Specialist at a maritime company with 10,001+ employees
Offers very good performance as well as scalability and stability
Pros and Cons
- "Offers good performance as well as scalability and stability."
- "Should have more integration in the monitoring tools."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
This solution offers good performance as well as scalability and stability. It offers a template that's beneficial for any company.
What needs improvement?
I'd very much like to see more integration in the monitoring tools.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for nine years.
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IBM MQ
September 2025

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution offers very good scalability.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. It's all about planning because we have multiple application teams involved. Deployment takes somewhere between half an hour to an hour, but for the coordination to check and perform from the application side, takes almost a full day because we have critical, multiple applications. It needs to be coordinated and we need to be sure they are able to connect perfectly with our environment or with the MQ.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay an annual license fee.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this product and rate it a nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Software Engineering Expert at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Integrates well, helpful technical support, but stability needs improvement
Pros and Cons
- "Overall the solution operates well and has good integration."
- "We have had scalability issues with some projects in the past."
What is our primary use case?
IBM MQ is one of the biggest message exchanges in our company. We are in the process of migration to a cloud base environment because in some projects we are using RabbitMQ and Amazon SQS. However, IBM MQ is a big part of our technology ecosystem.
What is most valuable?
Overall the solution operates well and has good integration.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using IBM MQ within the past 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have had stability issues using the solution for some of our projects.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have had scalability issues with some projects in the past.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support has been helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used RabbitMQ and Amazon SQS.
How was the initial setup?
The installation can be easy, but it depends on the environment.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend others use a more cloud-native approach to messaging.
I rate IBM MQ a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
IBM MQ
September 2025

Learn what your peers think about IBM MQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2025.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Database Administration Team Leader at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Good usability with very good publish and subscribe features
Pros and Cons
- "The usability of the solution is very good."
- "We need to have a better administration console and better monitoring features. Right now, they are not good and could be a lot better."
What is most valuable?
The subscribe and publish features are excellent. We use them a lot.
The usability of the solution is very good.
What needs improvement?
There isn't that much happening with the installation consoles and monitoring consoles. This could be improved.
We need to have a better administration console and better monitoring features. Right now, they are not good and could be a lot better.
The pricing could be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for ten years. It's been a decade so far, therefore, it's been a rather long time overall.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support has been pretty good. Every time I've used it, they were pretty good and I found them to be knowledgeable and responsive. I'm quite happy with their level of service.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing could be lower. It's not the cheapest option out there. However, I don't have comparison prices with other solutions at this time. We're working on comparison pricing currently.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are currently evaluating other options. We are starting the comparison now and we are starting on the technical scope, not on the budget. However, we will also consider pricing as we evaluate other potential options for our company.
What other advice do I have?
We're just a customer. We don't have any business affiliation with the organization.
On a scale from one to ten, I'd rate this solution at a nine.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Development Manager at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Very stable with good integration capabilities and easy to work with
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is very easy to work with."
- "The solution isn't free. There are other solutions, like RabbitMQ, which are open source and absolutely free to use. It's one reason we are moving away from IBM."
What is our primary use case?
IBM WebSphere MQ is deployed on a Windows machine, as well as almost all of our infrastructure. Windows services read and write to the MQ server - this is the way that we interact with it. All the messages that we put on the queue are also stored in an SQL Databases. A Windows service reads that message from the SQL Database storage and puts it on a queue on a certain channel; these Windows services are running indefinitely, on a loop so any message is read instantly.
What is most valuable?
The solution is very easy to work with.
The solution is very stable, it also offers transaction management and support.
The solution offers very good integration with other services. It's one of the great advantages of the service.
What needs improvement?
We have had it for a long time now - version 7.1, which is not the latest.
The admin interface of MQ Explorer that is used to interact with the server seems a little bit dated. It makes it somehow difficult to interact with it. It needs a major update to make it more modern and easy to navigate, maybe a web version.
The solution isn't free. There are other solutions, like RabbitMQ, which are open source and absolutely free to use. This open source solution we use it for non-critical processes.
IBM offers a special version that you need to get if you want to transfer files, especially large files. Maybe it should be included in any version.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the solution for a very long time. It's been at least a decade - about ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the solution is good. We've never run into any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
IBM MQ offers clustering. We don't have this yet, as it hasn't been implemented, however, I know that you can install it in a cluster of servers.
My understanding is RabbitMQ is also easier to scale. I'm unsure as to how well IBM can scale in comparison.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've never contacted technical support in the past. I can't speak to their level or service due to the fact that I've never directly dealt with them.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We're also using RabbitMQ. While IBM is more stable, RabbitMQ is easier to work with.
We've been trying to change our architecture, and RabbitMQ is more appropriate for us as it's easier to put together with microservices.
How was the initial setup?
While I was part of the process for implementing RabbitMQ, which was very simple and straightforward, in the case of IBM, I didn't install it myself. Unfortunately, I cannot explain how easy or difficult it was as I was not part of the experience. My understanding is it's not too difficult.
In terms of maintenance, we have two people from the support team handling that aspect. They can restart the server or look into the queues. They aren't working in shifts, however, if there are issues, one of them is normally available to troubleshooting.
In comparison, for RabbitMQ, we had only one developer that installed it and created the publishers, workers etc. I believe the support will be the same as for IBM. In both cases, there aren't too many people needed for maintenance.
What other advice do I have?
I'd recommend the solution. It's a very stable solution and very resilient.
If there is not essential data that needs to be transported between services, then I would go for a RabbitMQ, because it's easier in style, and it's free to use. On top of that, you can have it to wrap around everything in a straightforward way.
That said, I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. We've used it for a number of years and it's always worked very well for us.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Product Development Manager at Arab Bank
Has good stability and is expandable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the stability. It's perfect in this way."
- "In the next release, I would like for there to be easier monitoring. The UI should be easier for non-technical users to set up appliances and servers."
What is our primary use case?
We are currently working on the use case. I work as an IBM system admin and part of MQ is hosted on the IBM server. We have a lot of other servers and appliances for IBM MQ that costs us a lot of money so we are currently looking for less expensive alternatives. Kafka is one of the choices on the table. We are looking to migrate to services on Google which is why Kafka was proposed for us to implement.
We use it to integrate the backend and front end solutions and applications.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the stability. It's perfect in this way.
What needs improvement?
We are looking for another solution that is less expensive.
There is room for improvement. The live and portal monitoring needs improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using IBM MQ for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would rate their technical support an eight out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was average. Not so complex and not so straightforward.
The deployment itself, not including testing, took a couple of hours.
What other advice do I have?
It's expandable but it will add costs that should be taken into consideration.
I would rate it an eight out of ten.
In the next release, I would like for there to be easier monitoring. The UI should be easier for non-technical users to set up appliances and servers.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Lead Architect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Reduced various footprints of the database but it is expensive
Pros and Cons
- "IBM MQ deals mainly with the queuing mechanism. It passes the data and it publishes it. These two abilities are the most valuable features."
- "It is expensive. The cost is high. There should be more improvement in the new age of technologies."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case for pushing data as a queuing mechanism for all the applications to send out messages. We use it as a pipeline. We also use it to publish data and for the application to extract it all.
How has it helped my organization?
In terms of runtime, we just push data. We have reduced the various footprints of the database and for transmitting the data from one location to another. MQ is reliable and more structured and it's helped us a lot in pushing the data. The data can be pushed and it will be persistent. It helps us and the connectivity between the data as two separate applications and our middleware interactions are much faster and more reliable.
What is most valuable?
IBM MQ deals mainly with the queuing mechanism. It passes the data and it publishes it. These two abilities are the most valuable features.
What needs improvement?
IBM MQ has a lot of room for improvement. It's an older solution but they are improving the product. It's wider and it's a heavy application so it supports clusters also.
It is expensive. The cost is high. There should be more improvement in the new age of technologies.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using IBM MQ for ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is high.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their support is very good. IBM MQ is around 20 years old. The technicians have a lot of expertise with it.
How was the initial setup?
MQ is has a straightforward implementation. There is not much configuration required. It is more complicated for a cluster implementation and the active-passive implementation. You'll need more technical knowledge
A regular deployment will take around five to 10 minutes. If it's for a cluster implementation, it will take at least 15 to 30 minutes.
We have an internal team that does the implementation. We asked IBM to do the deployment.
What other advice do I have?
If you use it for evaluation purposes, it's good but if you're using it for freeware, it's not so good.
Multiple fault tolerance and partition tolerance are great.
I would rate it a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Manager Specialist Platform (Java) at a tech consulting company with 10,001+ employees
Backup queue concept and topics are unique features, but throughput could be better
Pros and Cons
- "It also has a backup queue concept and topics, features that I have not seen anywhere else. I like these features very much."
- "It could provide more monitoring tools and some improvement to the UI. I would also like to see more throughput in future versions."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for data integration.
What is most valuable?
It's very stable.
It also has a backup queue concept and topics, features that I have not seen anywhere else. I like these features very much.
What needs improvement?
It could provide more monitoring tools and some improvement to the UI. I would also like to see more throughput in future versions.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been dealing with IBM MQ for the last six months.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's scalable. It's not for every use case, but you can scale it.
We have about 50 users of IBM MQ.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is good.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is between straightforward and complex. It's not as straightforward as Apache ActiveMQ.
What about the implementation team?
We did the setup.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I like Kafka more. MQ is number-two compared to Kafka.
What other advice do I have?
It's a good product but I think it's too costly. That's one disadvantage because there are already many open-source products, like RabbitMQ, Kafka, and ActiveMQ. If you really need a solid MQ solution then go with IBM MQ. If you don't need such a robust solution then you can go with any of the other solutions.
I would rate IBM MQ at seven out of 10. It has less throughput.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Consultant at Ministry of Justice, Kuwait
Secure, fast, and easy to work with
Pros and Cons
- "Secure, safe, and very fast."
- "I wanted to upgrade Windows Server. It's not that easy to move."
What is most valuable?
- Secure
- Safe
- Very fast
It's a very good product. Very easy to work with.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using IBM MQ for about nine years. We have many projects with it in many places in Kuwait.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There have been no issues with the stability of the solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I haven't had any issues with the scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
I only contacted technical support when I wanted to upgrade Windows Server. It's not that easy to move. I had Windows 2008, and I wanted to go to Windows 2012 or '16. You have to reinstall, or there was a solution somebody told me about and that made life easier.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. On the AS/400, setup takes about an hour.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Whatever the price is, it's worth it.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend it to other people. When somebody wants to do colocation with us, we force them to buy IBM MQ.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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