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

Frends vs IBM API Connect comparison

 

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

Frends
Ranking in API Management
28th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM API Connect
Ranking in API Management
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Frends is 0.7%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM API Connect is 4.6%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM API Connect4.6%
Frends0.7%
Other94.7%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

Lauri Vanhanen - PeerSpot reviewer
Development Manager at ELO
Integration platform has simplified logistics workflows and has streamlined complex order handling
The best aspect is that it is very easy to use. The UI is very intuitive, and you can learn it very quickly because the basic principles are straightforward and easy to search. Frends has a great UI, but the UI is missing role-based permissions. You can filter your integrations by roles and add several users to roles, but in the UI, the functionality for this kind of management feature is not optimal. User management or user role management could be improved.
Mehdi-El Filahi - PeerSpot reviewer
Middleware Tech Lead at MQnovaTool
API management has strengthened security and monitoring but still needs better support and tooling
There are areas of IBM API Connect that need to be improved. I want what Gravitee made, which is much better. Gravitee made many samples for different use cases. First of all, they made examples of use cases, codes, and what the module expects and what the module returns for multiple examples and use cases inside the development. I do not even have to go to the documentation website because everything is included inside the tool when I work on it. This is great, in fact. IBM API Connect should show examples. One other thing is the support. The support of IBM is in India. Every time I want to ask something, they say they need logs, they want this, they want that. Gravitee API asks me to explain the problem without asking a thousand times as if it is a request for a green card in the USA. Then they really explain quickly. IBM is a big company, so everything is standardized with the approach of "You do that, you do that, you request that. If you do not have that, you do not reply to the client." Clients want flexibility today, even if it is a huge company. A stressed client is a client that will want to change to other flexible solutions. When everything is fine, we do not care, but when there is stress and problems, that is when the customer of IBM evaluates the tool really. It is when there are problems. IBM makes a lot of efforts on sales and technical sales, and then that is it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product has valuable features for version control."
"One of the benefits is the speed of creating something new. Second, it's replacing the old integration quite fast. Then it is like the visibility of the integration and the possibility to see what is happening in the integration."
"The best aspect is that it is very easy to use."
"The user-friendly interface for constructing integration solutions is also a notable benefit."
"IBM API Connect has positively impacted my organization because it provides better detailed analytics, which makes things easier for us."
"This is a very easy to use solution."
"The most valuable features of IBM API Connect are its performance and user-friendliness."
"It acts as a central gateway for both external APIs and underlying systems. It's basically a central middleware for hosting APIs to the internet and consuming APIs from internal systems. It provides central governance for any APIs going outside the network, ensuring security and a common contract for API definitions."
"IBM API Connect made this control quite easily, and we could see in the dashboard when someone made too many requests."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is to have the APIs available across different verticals in the company."
"Easy to configure security and generate API keys."
"The developer portal has been the most useful feature."
 

Cons

"Another enhancement includes the monitoring part. It would be nice to have some sort of maybe mobile app on which we can see how integrations are running if there are some problems, and getting those alerts on the mobile would be really nice."
"It is a new application and lacks some essential features compared to competitors."
"One of the primary areas for improvement is a more mobile-friendly interface for the control center."
"Logging should be better."
"The new version is very unstable."
"IBM API Connect could improve the security of the application and the integration."
"It lacks the ability for billing and metering the API usage to invoicing in v3, however, v4 does have this."
"The product's setup phase and its setup for the users in different environments, along with DevOps integration, are areas of concern where there is a need for improvement."
"It should be cheaper."
"Our main pain points are in these two areas: creating a better developer portal and improving stability in terms of synchronization and monetization."
"The initial setup and installation aren't easy; it's complex."
"The solution could improve security and performance."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is quite fair."
"Recent changes in their pricing have removed this benefit, moving towards process-specific pricing."
"It is a pretty expensive tool."
"API Connect is quite pricey."
"There was a need to purchase an upfront license or a one-time license or upfront license, but I cannot remember the details about it clearly."
"The price of the solution is expensive. However, there are a lot of customization capabilities."
"The pricing is significantly high."
"It's an expensive product."
"It is an expensive solution. The licensing model is based on a per-subscription and per-subscriber end-user basis, meaning the price is determined by the end-users of the platform."
"It is quite an expensive product."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which API Management solutions are best for your needs.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
34%
Educational Organization
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Insurance Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise62
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Frends?
Logging should be better. Third-party software logging should be integrated into the monitors of the front-end integrations, but it does not monitor the third-party connectors through that. Those l...
What is your primary use case for Frends?
We had many different applications for Frends. For file transferring of different types, we modified the files and then used it for logistical processes including warehousing, inventory checkups, a...
What advice do you have for others considering Frends?
If you need an integration platform, I would recommend Frends. I give this product a rating of 8 out of 10.
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?
There are areas of IBM API Connect that need to be improved. I want what Gravitee made, which is much better. Gravitee made many samples for different use cases. First of all, they made examples of...
What is your primary use case for IBM API Connect?
The usual use cases for IBM API Connect that I worked with mostly involved three things: security, monitoring, and message control. The purpose was to address these areas, though there was one feat...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Frends vs. IBM API Connect and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.