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Azure AI Foundry vs IBM API Connect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
Azure AI Foundry streamlines implementation, boosts efficiency, and delivers ROI, though financial impacts vary, especially for non-profits.
Sentiment score
5.9
IBM API Connect saves time and costs, enhances integration, and improves ROI, though microservices' profitability is still unclear.
Each one we've carefully measured ROI and been able to demonstrate significant ROI with them.
AI Practice Director at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
The biggest return on investment for me when using Azure AI Foundry is the savings in cost for implementing our own observability, visibility, evaluation, and building our own infrastructure to do proof of concepts.
Assistant VP, Architecture (Engineering & Director at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The playground is where you can deploy the model and test, and guardrails serve as the protection mechanism.
Advisory Specialist Master at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Reducing development hours from eighty to four for an API was possible due to reusing existing scripts from DataPower.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
I have seen a return on investment from using IBM API Connect, as we created multiple plans based on customer usage.
Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.3
Azure AI Foundry support receives mixed reviews, citing both quick responses for some and delays and challenges for others.
Sentiment score
6.2
IBM API Connect's support is responsive and knowledgeable but can be slow, lacking documentation with varied customer service experiences.
I evaluate customer service and technical support positively because we have the enterprise license, which allows us to prioritize serious issues, ensuring that Microsoft support responds quickly.
Manager, Data Science at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
On a scale from one to ten, I would rate customer service and technical support as a nine.
Senior VP, AI, Innovation & Architecture at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
I am receiving full support due to our partnership with Microsoft and because we are in the evaluation phase.
Sr Director at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Support is excellent when it comes to APIC.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
Support is extremely good, especially with Sev 1 issues.
Software Engineer IV at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
5.5
Azure AI Foundry offers seamless scalability, though GPU availability and organizational readiness can affect expansion and deployment.
Sentiment score
7.3
IBM API Connect offers scalable API management, supporting large transactions and customizable deployments, making it ideal for enterprises.
Azure AI Foundry scales with the growing needs of my organization very well.
Senior VP, AI, Innovation & Architecture at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
The platform expands to all of our needs without us really having to do anything, so scalability is definitely there.
Staff Software Developer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
I've had a couple of times where I've had to get to the VP level of Microsoft before I could get the capacity I needed for my customers.
AI Practice Director at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
With container versions, scaling up or down the gateways deployed into pods is a two to three-minute task for the operations team.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
It is distributed among IBM MQ, IBM Ace, IBM DataPower, and IBM API Connect.
Software Engineer IV at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
IBM API Connect's scalability is good, as you can handle it easily similar to how you manage cloud providers.
Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Azure AI Foundry is stable with high user satisfaction, despite occasional issues due to broader Azure service outages.
Sentiment score
7.3
IBM API Connect is highly stable and reliable, with minimal issues, especially improved in recent versions, despite initial concerns.
I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues.
Directeur Des Ventes at Ited
Regarding stability and reliability, I've had zero downtime with Azure AI Foundry, and it helps fix itself.
IT Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would assess the stability and reliability of Azure AI Foundry as very good.
Senior VP, AI, Innovation & Architecture at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
The runtime engine for the APIC Gateway is still a DataPower component, which has been stable in the industry for about fifteen years.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
If it is functioning well, you won't have a bad experience and your application becomes more reliable.
Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Azure AI Foundry needs improved integration, usability, transparency, governance, and tool support to enhance user experience and adoption.
IBM API Connect requires improvements in integration, usability, scalability, support, monetization, documentation, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness across environments.
Providing data on the internal workings of Azure AI Foundry would help customers like us feel more comfortable adopting it.
Assistant VP, Architecture (Engineering & Director at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
What did not work well for us regarding Azure AI Foundry includes the security piece, being able to identify how to deploy to multiple regions, reducing latency, and managing tokens per minute.
Azure Cloud Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
With code, you know what the binary result is, but with prompting, it is a lot harder.
Senior Director, Data Orchestration Ai & Helix Practice Advisor at Connection
Examples include the lack of connectivity to MQ.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
You need to know when traffic peaks, so use auto-scaling when traffic comes.
Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Connectivity to MQ is not available in IBM API Connect.
Software Engineer IV at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Azure AI Foundry pricing varies by user, with mixed views on cost justification and competitiveness, prompting some to seek alternatives.
IBM API Connect is pricey, favoring larger enterprises, but negotiating with IBM can reduce costs for smaller businesses.
Regarding the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Azure AI Foundry, I would say it is fair, but I think it gets more expensive.
Assistant VP, Architecture (Engineering & Director at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
the pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Azure AI Foundry are very expensive, but still cheaper than hiring an additional position
Manager, Data Science at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
It was difficult to get an understanding of how we could model out our pricing and cost over time without talking to someone.
Senior VP, AI, Innovation & Architecture at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Pricing depends on how many instances run across environments.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
 

Valuable Features

Azure AI Foundry streamlines AI integration with quick testing, centralized hosting, enhanced security, and efficient deployment features.
IBM API Connect provides secure, efficient API management with advanced analytics, multi-cloud support, and intuitive functionality for enterprises.
Some examples of how its features have benefited my organization include ease of access, being able to see what's functioning, what's not functioning, why it's not functioning, and when it stopped functioning, and to maintain visibility on day-to-day operations.
IT Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The feature of being able to pick the right models has been the most beneficial for enhancing our customer service because some AI models are more expensive but slower, while others are faster and cheaper, allowing us to pick the right model for the right task that we are trying to solve.
Manager, Data Science at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
The feature that has been the most beneficial for enhancing customer experience is the one that allows you to compare multiple models to one another and see how they perform against each other.
AI Practice Director at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
It offers significant development efficiency, reducing man-hours from eighty to four when creating APIs.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
We can add some policies to provide extra security, protect your backend, validate the consumers, and analyze based on the traffic limit to throw things out.
Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
IBM API Connect has a designer and CLI features which can be used to completely automate the API.
Software Engineer IV at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure AI Foundry
Ranking in Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
AI Development Platforms (7th), Low-Code Development Platforms (10th), AI-Agent Builders (3rd)
IBM API Connect
Ranking in Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
API Management (9th)
 

Featured Reviews

Sudhakar Pyndi - PeerSpot reviewer
Data, Analytics & Ai Senior Director, Enterprise Architecture at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Document processing has accelerated contract reviews and enabled rapid development of AI-driven supply chain solutions
With regard to security, compliance, or governance features in Azure AI Foundry, this is something that we have started looking into, primarily using Microsoft Purview for our governance, data governance. There is this new module called DSPM for AI, and we are exploring it while trying to operationalize it with different policies and so forth, but we're still not where we want to be on the governance, AI governance side. It's a process and a path, and we are trying to work through that right now. Azure AI Foundry can be improved from the governance perspective, as a lot can be done. The promising part is the recent announcement on the Foundry control plane. A couple of days back, there was an announcement regarding it bringing in some of the gaps that were on the platform, so it's a really positive direction in terms of where it's going. More governance is what is lacking, but the control plane will really play a big role there.
SM
Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Have addressed performance challenges while benefiting from flexible subscription models and reliable user access
To improve IBM API Connect, based on customer experience, you could work on latency. You can increase scalability and availability. If you're connecting with any other cloud, it connects to the infrastructure which needs to be managed with the customers and cloud providers, so if you have a setup, we can handle it easily. I have faced latency issues on the server, related to our management. If you need to stabilize your server based on peak traffic, you need to configure the scalability model. You need to know when traffic peaks, so use auto-scaling when traffic comes. If the application is not in use, the value should be zero, and it starts from zero. Based on customer experience, the value will increase, and when there is no customer servicing, the peak would be reduced, making the value remain zero. Following this approach, you should be able to optimize costs and satisfy customer experience.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Outsourcing Company
15%
Retailer
11%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Insurance Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise61
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure AI Foundry?
I would need to ask my technical team about my experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing.
What needs improvement with Azure AI Foundry?
The platform's effect on my management of privacy, performance, and compliance across different regions is quite complex because Azure AI Foundry does not make it very clear how to deploy. We set u...
What is your primary use case for Azure AI Foundry?
My main use cases for Azure AI Foundry include deploying AI applications to perform document comparison, translation services, and a chat feature, helping the digital AI team at our company. Curren...
What do you like most about IBM API Connect?
Publishers can easily identify, create, and publish APIs on the developer portal, defining plans, packages, and potentially billing rules.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM API Connect?
I do not handle the pricing, setup cost, and licensing details.
What needs improvement with IBM API Connect?
We are relatively new to IBM API Connect, so I do not have significant improvements to suggest at this time.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure AI Foundry vs. IBM API Connect and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.