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FME vs IBM webMethods Hybrid Integration 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

FME
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (32nd)
IBM webMethods Hybrid Integ...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
95
Ranking in other categories
Business-to-Business Middleware (6th), Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (4th), Managed File Transfer (MFT) (14th), API Management (17th), Cloud Data Integration (12th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (11th)
 

Featured Reviews

Gert Booysen - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Solutions Leader at GE Vernova
Extensive format support and reliable integration enhance data management while new pricing model requires reassessment
I haven't had any input or requirements from any customers that are not currently covered, so I don't have any additional needs that were identified or raised to me. Regarding pricing, with the model changes that they've implemented a while back, it actually made it more expensive to use, especially on the server side. They changed the licensing model, and that made customers think it is overpriced. Some customers were actually looking at alternatives. Pricing with the model changes was perceived negatively. I work primarily with enterprise customers, Vodacom, Eskom, so it's tier-one customers. For small customers, this solution is a bit too expensive. They don't really use it and just do direct integration on smaller implementations. This is basically used by tier-one customers. FME is still able to save time and money for clients. It's still a good investment. Regarding similar products to FME, GE developed a product called Data Fabric. That is a real-time operational integration platform, Data Fabric Network Connect, which is a GE Grid OS product. It is actually more expensive than FME, but the purpose is different as it's operational. The vendor in this case is GE, and it's a company that we bought that used to be called Greenbird. In current use scenarios, FME is still leading compared to Data Fabric. The GE product has a different application.
YM
Developer at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Offers strong integration capabilities and reliable features but needs pricing and scaling improvements
Many things are evolving with the AI buzz in the market. What I would like to see improved or enhanced in webMethods.io in the future is that since webMethods.io is already under IBM, I think IBM will introduce and integrate AI into it. Additionally, regarding what webMethods.io can improve is the license cost. Other cloud players are also providing the same kind of functionality, such as AWS and Azure. webMethods.io is being installed on-premises, but AWS is providing it directly in the cloud. When comparing the license cost and request per minute cost, webMethods.io needs to address that. There are many competitors in the market for this.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"From my reseller perspective, the best features in FME are the ease of operation and the fact that it works."
"The most valuable feature of FME is the graphical user interface."
"FME is spatially aware and understands how to deal with the conversion of spatial objects and their attributes."
"The most valuable feature of FME is the graphical user interface. There is nothing better. It is very easy to debug because you can see all steps where there are failures. Overall the software is easy to optimize a process."
"We make minor subtle changes to the workbenches to improve it. We can share the workbenches. We don't have to use GitHub or anything else."
"All spatial features are unrivaled, and the possibility to execute them based on a scheduled trigger, manual, e-mail, Websocket, tweet, file/directory change or virtually any trigger is most valuable."
"FME's features that I have found most valuable are that it has a very friendly user interface, you don't need to use a lot of code, it has a lot of connectors and few forms, and it has a strong facial aspect that can do a lot of facial analysis."
"It has standard plug-ins available for different data sources."
"There's hardware, software and application integration, providing hosting flexibility."
"Having a product like this is invaluable to any company in terms of the amount of time that IT gets to save in terms of integrating different products as well as having an open way to ensure that these applications are working."
"The main assets are its flow language, debugging, and Broker. Flow language is far better and more flexible for debugging."
"The product supports various types of digital documents, including XMLs and EDI."
"The most valuable feature of the webMethods Integration Server is the built-in monitoring, auditing, RETS, and SOAP services."
"webMethods Trading Networks is a good solution for interacting with outside of the organization. We can integrate the solutions with multiple outside the organization."
"I think this is a very good and mature solution, but you have to be aware of the pricing."
"It has helped us streamline data from hundreds of non-SAP systems into the SAP system."
 

Cons

"Regarding pricing, with the model changes that they've implemented a while back, it actually made it more expensive to use, especially on the server side."
"FME can improve the geographical transformation. I've had some problems with the geographical transformations, but it's probably mostly because I'm not the most skilled geographer in-house. The solution requires some in-depth knowledge to perform some functions."
"We are looking at the possibility of using Glue instead of FME, using the native AWS product."
"The one thing that always appears in the community is the ability to make really easy loops to loop through data efficiently. That needs to be added at some point."
"FME's price needs improvement for the African market."
"FME is a great tool, but I don't know if we can scale it up since the prices are high and we would need to convince the decision makers to provide more budget."
"To get a higher rating, it would have to improve the price and the associated scalability. These are the main issues."
"Improvements could be made to mapping presentations."
"The logging capability has room for improvement. That way, we could keep a history of all the transactions. It would be helpful to be able to get to that without having to build a standalone solution to do so."
"As webMethods Integration Server is expensive, that's its area for improvement."
"The deployment should be simplified."
"Upgrades are complex. They typically take about five months from start to finish."
"The interface needs some work. It is not very user-friendly."
"The orchestration is not as good as it should be."
"Business monitoring (BAM) needs improvement because the analytics and prediction module very often has performance problems."
"Broker Trading partners Portal"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We used the standard licensing for our use of FME. The cost was approximately €15,000 annually. We always welcome less expensive solutions, if the solution could be less expensive it would be helpful."
"FME Server used to cost £10,000; now it can cost over £100,000."
"The product's price is reasonable."
"I signed a three-year deal with them. It is a yearly locked-in price for the next three years."
"The vendor is flexible with respect to pricing."
"The pricing is a yearly license."
"It is an expensive tool. I rate the product price a nine out of ten, where ten means it is very expensive."
"There are no hidden costs in addition to the standard licensing fees for webMethods. For corporate organizations, it's a very cheap or fairly priced product, but for growing or small businesses, it's quite expensive. These businesses would probably need to consider an enterprise services bus at some point. Thus, from a pricing point, it closes out non-cooperate businesses."
"It is a cost-effective solution."
"Pricing is the number-one downfall. It's too expensive. They could make more money by dropping the price in half and getting more customers. It's the best product there is, but it's too expensive."
"This is not a cheap solution but, compared to other products such as those offered by IBM, the pricing is similar."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
26%
Energy/Utilities Company
12%
Construction Company
7%
Computer Software Company
5%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise65
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with FME?
I haven't had any input or requirements from any customers that are not currently covered, so I don't have any additional needs that were identified or raised to me. Regarding pricing, with the mod...
What is your primary use case for FME?
The use cases for FME are mainly integration to the GE Smallworld product. GE Smallworld is a GE product, and we are using it to integrate with other third-party products into GE Smallworld and ADM...
What advice do you have for others considering FME?
The overall rating for FME is eight out of ten, and I prefer the feedback to be anonymous. My job title is Senior Solutions Architect.
What needs improvement with webMethods Integration Server?
The alignment of on-premise and cloud versions needs improvement.
What needs improvement with webMethods Trading Networks?
webMethods.io does not currently have certain features, and we have to do coding as well. However, they have recently come up with a hybrid application where users will be able to use drag-and-drop...
What is your primary use case for webMethods Trading Networks?
We are primarily focused on IBM webMethods. I am part of the Center of Excellence team, where we involve ourselves in proposals and providing solutions to clients. webMethods.io is a middleware too...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Built.io Flow, webMethods Integration Server, webMethods Trading Networks, webMethods ActiveTransfer, webMethods.io API
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Shell, US Department of Commerce, PG&E, BC Hydro, City of Vancouver, Enel, Iowa DoT, San Antonio Water System
Cisco, Agralogics, Dreamforce, Cables & Sensors, Sacramento Kings
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