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3scale API Management vs IBM Cloud Pak for Integration comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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

3scale API Management
Ranking in API Management
28th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Cloud Pak for Integration
Ranking in API Management
38th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Integration (28th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of 3scale API Management is 1.8%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration is 1.1%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
3scale API Management1.8%
IBM Cloud Pak for Integration1.1%
Other97.1%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2747757 - PeerSpot reviewer
Program Manager at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Facilitates API exposure securely and highlights developer portal flexibility needs
Not much stands out for me regarding the advantages of this product. We usually don't tinker with it. Developing developer portals could be more standards-based. I think currently it's Ruby-based. Having more options on designing that would be beneficial. Additional flexibility would have been great; we would have used it more if it aligned with our platform. I don't use the analytics part. We don't use monetization features, which help to create a revenue generation model.
Igor Khalitov - PeerSpot reviewer
Owner/Full Stack Software Engineer at Maraphonic, Inc.
Manages APIs and integrates microservices with redirection feature
IBM Cloud Pak for Integration includes monitoring capabilities to track the performance and health of your integrations. You can quickly roll back to a previous version if an issue arises. Additionally, it supports incremental deployments, allowing you to shift traffic to a new version of an API gradually. For example, you can start by directing 10% of traffic to the new version while the rest continue using the legacy version. If everything works as expected, you can gradually increase the traffic to the new version over time. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration has a client base that includes numerous organizations using AI and machine learning technologies. We leverage an open-source machine learning framework and integrate it with Kafka to help create and manage various products and data retrieval processes. For companies with private data, the framework first retrieves relevant data from a GitHub database, which is then combined with the final request before being sent to a language model like GPT. This ensures that the language model uses your specific data to generate responses. Kafka plays a key role by streaming real-time data from file systems and databases like Oracle and Microsoft SQL. This data is published to Kafka topics, then vectorized and used with artificial intelligence to enhance the overall process. It's like an old-fashioned approach. The best way is to redesign it with products such as Kafka. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The standard deployment is very simple."
"The product is stable."
"It's good that they aren't adding a lot of features like ESP, etc. It's okay with just being a gateway."
"I like the API automation."
"3scale API Management's best feature is API management."
"One of the most valuable aspects of this solution for us is its ease of deployment."
"The most valuable features are the gateway and security features."
"The gateway is the most valuable feature because it makes it possible for us to gather all traffic into one proxy, which is a good thing."
"The most valuable aspect of the Cloud Pak, in general, is the flexibility that you have to use the product."
"In general, the solution works very, very well."
"Redirection is a key feature. It helps in managing multiple microservices by centralizing control and access."
"The most preferable aspect would be the elimination of the command, which was a significant improvement. In the past, it was a challenge, but now we can proceed smoothly with the implementation of our policies and everything is managed through JCP. It's still among the positive aspects, and it's a valuable feature."
"Cloud Pak for Integration is definitely scalable. That is the most important criteria."
"It is a stable solution."
 

Cons

"I believe the CMS part of it has room for improvement though. That is where you write a couple of things if you want to publish your API. It's based on liquid scripting, which doesn't seem like the obvious ones to script with."
"What was suggested by Red Hat was a crucial part of the configuration, but when we started to ask about the supportability of this configuration, Red Hat said only some parts of the configuration would be supported."
"As much as we tried to implement 3scale API Management the incompatibility of the version did not allow us to proceed."
"The initial setup is complex and takes four months to complete."
"3scale API Management only supports restful APIs and doesn't support SOAP."
"The user experience could be better. The developer portal is too complex and hard to configure."
"We have had performance issues before with 3scale API Management, but we came to certain resolutions, and we are looking to improve or increase our throughput in the near future."
"In my previous company, I used Kong, and in my current company, I'm using 3scale API Management, but I prefer Kong."
"Setting up Cloud Pak for Integration is relatively complex. It's not as easy because it has not yet been fully integrated. You still have some products that are still not containerized, so you still have to run them on a dedicated VM."
"The pricing can be improved."
"Its queuing and messaging features need improvement."
"The initial setup is not easy."
"Enterprise bots are needed to balance products like Kafka and Confluent."
"What needs to be improved is the restriction that they have on the product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't think that 3scale is very expensive."
"3scale API Management has reasonable pricing, judging from its competitor, Kong. My organization pays yearly for the 3scale API Management license, though I'm unable to give the exact figure because every single day there are new clusters deployed. I'm in charge of three to four clusters in my team, but give or take, it costs a few thousand lakhs."
"The pricing is affordable, it's cheap."
"The cost was around $45,000 per year."
"The solution's pricing model is very flexible."
"It is an expensive solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Insurance Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with 3scale API Management?
Not much stands out for me regarding the advantages of this product. We usually don't tinker with it. Developing developer portals could be more standards-based. I think currently it's Ruby-based. ...
What is your primary use case for 3scale API Management?
Our company exposes different APIs, and we use it to monitor traffic, limit traffic, and similar functions. I don't have much involvement with the solution, though I did conduct some research. We s...
What advice do you have for others considering 3scale API Management?
In my work, I am using both Azure API Management and 3scale API Management. We're on the Red Hat platform, so this product aligns naturally. I would rate 3scale API Management a six out of ten.
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Victor Ops, Coca Cola, The Telegraph, Skava, Orange, Typeform
CVS Health Corporation
Find out what your peers are saying about 3scale API Management vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,148 professionals have used our research since 2012.