Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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
40th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM API Connect
Ranking in API Management
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Frends is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM API Connect is 5.0%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM API Connect5.0%
Frends0.4%
Other94.6%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

Kalle Reponen - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Integration Architect at Visma
Offers simplicity, ease of customization, and visibility of integrations
One thing is that Frends keep the integration, and that is something I know that it's coming, like, a later version; that is something we will be currently missing. So the end-users could take an interest in use by themselves, with the release thing some result flow. That is the most wanted and requested feature for now. 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.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The user-friendly interface for constructing integration solutions is also a notable benefit."
"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 product has valuable features for version control."
"The statistics component is easy to use."
"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."
"This solution is ready to scale and already supports our agile CICD."
"The solution offers a pretty good SLA."
"API Connect's data gateway is one of the strongest in the market."
"API Connect is a good product, and everything works fine. All the analytics are good, and it is easy to follow up. I like it in that sense. I'm more focused on following up on analytics by seeing how many API calls we are getting and where we see a lot of problems. I was working on that API level."
"Using API Connect allows us to quickly create proxy APIs and saves time on end-to-end testing, which lets us deliver quickly to clients."
"The gateway is the most valuable aspect of this solution."
 

Cons

"One of the primary areas for improvement is a more mobile-friendly interface for the control center."
"It is a new application and lacks some essential features compared to competitors."
"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."
"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."
"The platform’s integration with the payment gateway needs enhancement. The setup process and support services could be improved."
"The solution is overly complex."
"The integration of an API gateway that implements the sidecar pattern, which can be deployed in cloud applications, and expose the microservices directly in each pod, this can be more decentralized components."
"Support for this platform could still be improved. It also needs to have more levels of versatility. Its compatibility and integration with different platforms also need improvement."
"The solution would be better if it had cloud functionalities."
"Possible improvement is mainly around having more of the cloud oriented architecture bringing stability in adding new capabilities around security."
"We ran it on top of the Kubernetes cluster, so it wasn't a standalone service. In the worst-case scenario, API Connect couldn't stay online if all the containers went down. We had to restart all the services. We shut down all the containers automatically one by one."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Recent changes in their pricing have removed this benefit, moving towards process-specific pricing."
"The pricing is quite fair."
"It should be cheaper. It has a yearly licensing."
"This is a licensed product. If your company is looking to obtain a license, you have to work with IBM partners."
"Pricing for IBM API Connect varies, e.g. it could be subscription-based. Deploying it on private cloud also means you have to own most of the software licensing."
"The price of the solution is very expensive, it can turn many customers away."
"It is a pretty expensive tool."
"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"It's an expensive product."
"IBM API Connect could be cheaper."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which API Management solutions are best for your needs.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
20%
Insurance Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise61
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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 Frends vs. IBM API Connect and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.