No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Apiary vs IBM DataPower Gateway comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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

Apiary
Ranking in API Management
37th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM DataPower Gateway
Ranking in API Management
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (6th), Application Infrastructure (13th), SOA Application Gateways (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Apiary is 0.9%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 4.0%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM DataPower Gateway4.0%
Apiary0.9%
Other95.1%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

PW
Enterprise Integration Architect at Capgemini
The ability to configure rules to check for consistency has helped
Apiary provides a free tier of the platform which allows a small group of developers to collaborate easily on the design of open source APIs. In addition to this, it provides mock endpoints allowing people to experiment with the API without depending or having to stand up a real backend. With our clients, using Apiary allows us to very quickly pull together an API definition (particularly when using API Blueprint). The whole API design process for the simpler use cases can be done in a relatively short workshop which makes it a lot easier to agree, publish, version-manage an API definition with suitable documentation. This can then be evolved and enhanced (particularly in the documentation aspects). With the ability to support Swagger (Open API v2 and introducing/ed support for v3) and API Blueprint makes it a very versatile tool.
AkshaySawant - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution has allowed us to standardize API definitions and bring consistency into our shared components, reducing the effort and cost of using functionality across domains within the organization, with Apiary being crucial to our good API strategy."
"I find the generation of mock services very useful, especially when demonstrating for new consumers."
"Vey high - very easy API design with no setup effort"
"I do like the overall performance of the solution."
"Git integration"
"The feature I find most valuable is that it offers authentication and allows us to develop communication points."
"In two years, there was one time the service was down for an hour or so."
"Quick and easy way to share a new API design with teams."
"The solution was very stable, we had no issues with it in that sense, it didn't crash or freeze and there were no bugs or glitches."
"I like all of the features in this product and it does what it's supposed to do."
"I like that it is very stable, and we never experience any downtime."
"The performance is good, it's been very stable, and the product is easy to integrate."
"We did not experience any downtime, even if the number of transactions increased heavily."
"The most valuable features for our business include the ability to monitor and log data transactions and handle multiple request at an enterprise level."
"The solution is scalable, our customers are mostly South African banks and they handle mostly transactions with this solution."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the appliance hardware, the software embedded within the hardware appliance machine, making it one of the best security platforms in the market that is easy to use, easy to install, and resilient for high availability."
 

Cons

"Swagger (OpenAPI Specification) and Blueprint Support"
"Validation messages could be a bit clearer."
"I don't think this solution is very stable so we try to manage stability from our side."
"Better Swagger support."
"I would like an integrated option to download a Swagger version of the definition."
"The Oracle release cycle is very bad because the patches only update once a year."
"My experience with the pricing of this product is that pricing is too high and should be reduced."
"IBM DataPower Gateway is quite big for smaller organizations, looking at different types of clients who are virtually assisted in this, I would say it's not really a good product for smaller firms."
"The DCDR process should be less complex."
"I noticed that the Gateway Script libraries could be improved, as they are not covering everything I need."
"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."
"The product should be more adapted to the DevOps process."
"In terms of OEM support, it is poor. If I raise a CBRT one, as per the SLA, they should respond in one hour, however, sometimes it takes four or five hours to respond."
"The customization of the solution isn't as straightforward as we would like it to be."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is easy to get started with personal (free) accounts, but a subscription is required for additional features."
"There is a free subscription option to start and try the service."
"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."
"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 licensing cost is very expensive."
"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."
"The solution is expensive in comparison to other products."
"Most customers' use case budgets are not inlined with the price of IBM DataPower Gateway. It is too 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."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which API Management solutions are best for your needs.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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.
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.
What is your primary use case for IBM DataPower Gateway?
The primary purposes for which IBM DataPower Gateway is used include security purposes, and sometimes you need to put some configurations and mapping into the process.
 

Also Known As

No data available
WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft, salesforce.com, Bloomberg, GoodData, Viacom, Akamai Technologies, DigitalGlobe
RBL Bank, Availity
Find out what your peers are saying about Apiary vs. IBM DataPower Gateway and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.