IBM API Connect vs IBM DataPower Gateway comparison

IBM API Connect and IBM DataPower Gateway are both solutions in the API Management category. IBM API Connect is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.3, while IBM DataPower Gateway is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.6. IBM API Connect holds a 6.3% mindshare in APIM, compared to IBM DataPower Gateway’s 4.0% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of IBM API Connect users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of IBM DataPower Gateway users who would recommend it.

IBM API Connect

Read 76 IBM API Connect reviews

7,841 Views
7,606 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

IBM DataPower Gateway

Read 29 IBM DataPower Gateway reviews

6,131 Views
4,598 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

IBM API Connect

IBM DataPower Gateway

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

IBM DataPower Gateway and IBM API Connect compete in the enterprise solutions category, each offering unique benefits. IBM API Connect generally has the upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set and flexibility, aligning well with strategic needs.

Features: IBM DataPower Gateway provides high-security features, seamless integration, and scalability for varied enterprise environments. In contrast, IBM API Connect offers complete API lifecycle management, robust analytics, and detailed monitoring capabilities that are crucial for effective API development.

Room for Improvement: DataPower Gateway could improve in user interface accessibility and ease of configuration to cater to users who prefer simplified setups. Additionally, enhancing cloud integration capabilities would be beneficial. For API Connect, improving the initial cost-effectiveness and streamlining advanced customization options to reduce complexity could make it more accessible to smaller enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM API Connect boasts flexible deployment options with extensive cloud support, facilitating quick setups and responsive service. DataPower Gateway, though often more challenging to configure, is offset by a dedicated support team that ensures robust deployment within security-focused infrastructures.

Pricing and ROI: IBM DataPower Gateway often requires a lower initial setup cost, providing solid ROI through its integration capabilities. Despite a higher initial expense, IBM API Connect's advanced tools often justify the cost, delivering superior long-term ROI by enhancing productivity across the board.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM API Connect vs. IBM DataPower Gateway Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. IBM DataPower Gateway

June 2025

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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

IBM API Connect

Ranking in API Management

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (9th)

IBM DataPower Gateway

Ranking in API Management

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (5th), Application Infrastructure (9th), SOA Application Gateways (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 6.3%, up from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 4.0%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management

Featured Reviews

Shanmugasundaram Shanmuganathan

Solutions Architect at Synechron

Offers basic API orchestration and provides robust security and governance features

While Azure API Management offers configurable scalability, IBM API Connect relies on Kubernetes clusters. This might seem manual and require defining cluster instances upfront, but it's completely customizable and not on-the-fly scaling. It's completely custom-driven, not on-the-fly scaling, which some may consider cumbersome. Overall, I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. Almost all applications we've been exposing lately go through this middleware, so it's used extensively. There are around sixty applications directly using it, but six Kubernetes clusters serve those applications. It's heavily used for integration, including system-to-system integration and product integrations. Our usage has been increasing year-on-year based on our needs.

Read full review

Mehdi El Filahi

Co-Founder at tenekit

Security features meets compliance needs and offers MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) that simplifies integration efforts

While I like IBM products, I'm not an evangelist. I work with Java, Microsoft ASP.NET, and various technologies. I'm not tied to any specific vendor. However, I do find IBM to be a bit greedy. It's a large, profit-driven company. The support team is mostly based in India, and they follow a very structured process and protocol. Sometimes, it feels like playing ping pong with them – lots of back and forth before the problem gets escalated. You might even have to get your sales rep involved to push things along. For me, the support it could be better. Indian support teams aren't inherently bad, but with IBM, it feels impersonal. They respond, sure. But if it's a complex technical issue, they might ask you a lot of questions that just seem designed to waste your time. Sometimes it feels like they hope you'll get frustrated and solve the problem yourself.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is very easy to use and is something that is easily configurable."

"The gateway is the most valuable aspect of this solution."

"Publishers can easily identify, create, and publish APIs on the developer portal, defining plans, packages, and potentially billing rules."

"Since it runs on top of Datapower, all Datapower based custom policies can be utilized and exported to API connect but its not straightforward/simple process."

"The technical support is good. Whenever we need anything, we have our IT team work with IBM to change whatever requirement is needed."

"It gives a holistic environment for us to set up the APIs and that's the main value that it adds. It gives end to end for us."

"The most valuable features of IBM API Connect are its performance and user-friendliness."

"The developer portal has been the most useful feature."

More IBM API Connect pros

"Support for PCA and non-PCA services is valuable."

"It is very easy to set up and configure, even for users with no prior experience."

"The product's most valuable features are AAA policies and security features."

"It is easy to use, easy to install, and it's resilient for high availability."

"It's high-speed and it can be remotely administered via an API."

"The product is stable...The product is scalable."

"Since it is a gateway, it provides a lot of security features."

"If you have an API application in your organization that you want to make safe and secure, in addition to your existing WAF or load balancer, this product comes with all those capabilities:"

More IBM DataPower Gateway pros

Cons

"The installation was difficult with the IBM toolkit."

"I would like to see automation of the installation. If there could be a single-click function where you could automate everything, that would be helpful."

"We have encountered challenges with IBM API Connect, particularly during significant upgrades. These upgrades demand substantial labour and financial resources, including consulting services from IBM. I'd like to see increased flexibility, more frequent updates with new features, an efficient upgrade process, and additional AI capabilities for future releases."

"There are issues with upgrading in the cloud version. The cloud version is extremely buggy. We prefer to use the on-premise version."

"They seem to have left out a feature for microservices and also a certification module for OIDC."

"Installation is weak."

"Components, like caching, should be implemented as policies, not requiring dependency on an external solution."

"The administration of the user interface and the technical documentation are areas of concern in the solution where improvements are required."

More IBM API Connect cons

"An area for improvement in IBM DataPower Gateway is its price point because it's a relatively expensive product. Sometimes, when the customer use case is just a very small subset of what's being offered in IBM DataPower Gateway, then the product can be expensive, making my company lose some of the opportunities because of the expensive pricing. A lower price point for IBM DataPower Gateway, even if that results in a less feature-rich version, would be appreciated. In terms of additional features that I'd like to see in the next release of IBM DataPower Gateway, nothing specific comes to mind because IBM constantly improves its standards and provides quarterly updates to the product, so it's quite fine."

"The IBM community does not have much engagement from the IT community in Saudi Arabia and developers for this solution are difficult to find."

"Some pre-packaged connectors for integration with various applications, such as SaaS offerings, would be a useful addition."

"The components that they include in the product that are, in fact, a WTX, really need to be removed from the product because they tend to fail."

"The solution requires a lot of training manuals in order to get to know it better and to be able to use it effectively."

"It is a costly product."

"The initial setup isn't so easy, you need who has experience working with the solution to help."

"We are always looking for more features wherein it could be easily integrated with cloud applications. We are looking for either a cloud solution or a cloud integration option."

More IBM DataPower Gateway cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"IBM API Connect could be cheaper."

"It can be quite expensive. It's okay for large-scale usage but quite expensive for smaller-scale implementations."

"It is expensive when compared to other products in this class. There were no extra fees for add-ons or technical support."

"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."

"API Connect's license cost could be a little lower. But, unfortunately, there aren't many open-source API gateways. Ideally, some new developers could come up with a minimum-functionality open-source solution."

"We pay for the IBM API Connect monthly. We only need to pay the standard licensing fee."

More IBM API Connect pricing and cost advice

"The licensing cost is very expensive."

"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 cost is very high and requires all five components in the API management solution."

"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."

"It is an expensive solution."

"It's expensive when you compare it with others."

"The appliance is a bit on the expensive side for the workloads that are not too high."

"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."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Insurance Company

12%

Educational Organization

10%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

29%

Insurance Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM API Connect?

Pricing depends on how many instances run across environments. I don't deal with licensing, but compared to other IBM products, the licensing is not significantly higher.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM API Connect?

When comparing API Gateway with DataPower Gateway, several features in DataPower Gateway are absent in the APIC layer. Examples include the lack of connectivity to MQ ( /categories/message-queue-mq...

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM DataPower Gateway?

The MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) is great because it allows you to easily expose services using various protocols – web services, REST (JSON), and others. This flexibility simplifies things.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM DataPower Gateway?

I would rate the pricing a two out of ten, with one being high price, and ten being low price. It's high-priced for smaller companies. But it is okay for enterprises. So, the price could be more fl...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?

The DCDR process should be less complex. AI should improve developer efficiency and effort. Whenever I am writing code, it should give recommendations automatically by incorporating AI so I can wri...

See all answers

Comparisons

Apigee vs IBM API Connect

Compared 20% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM API Connect

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Compared 7% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM API Connect

Compared 6% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs IBM API Connect

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM API Connect Competitors

Apigee vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 7% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 6% of the time

IBM WebSphere Application Server vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM DataPower Gateway Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect

June 2025

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Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway

April 2025

Download IBM DataPower Gateway product report

Also Known As

No data available

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower

Overview

IBM API Connect facilitates API management and integration in the financial sector. Companies use it to expose, secure, and manage APIs for banking, insurance, and fintech, deploying it on-premises, in the cloud, or as a hybrid solution.

IBM API Connect focuses on creating and monetizing APIs while enabling seamless transactions and integration with third-party services. It is vital for compliance with regulations and enhances external communication among institutions. With deployment options suitable for different environments, it supports centralized gateway management, robust security features, and comprehensive API lifecycle management. Users benefit from powerful analytics, user-friendly interfaces, and high performance with capabilities in message transformation and efficient monitoring.

What are the most important features?

Centralized Gateway: Manages all APIs through a single entry point.
Robust Security: Ensures API protection with advanced security measures.
Comprehensive API Lifecycle Management: Covers creation, deployment, and retirement of APIs.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies API creation and management tasks.
Powerful Analytics: Provides insights into API usage and performance.
Seamless Integration: Connects easily with third-party services and internal systems.
Flexible Deployment Options: Supports on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
High Performance: Optimizes API performance and reduces latency.
Message Transformation: Manipulates and formats messages between different systems.
Visualization Tools: Enables clear and detailed views of API usage statistics.

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

API Monetization: Generates additional revenue streams from APIs.
Enhanced Compliance: Ensures adherence to industry regulations and standards.
Improved External Communication: Facilitates integration and communication among financial institutions.
Technical Support: Benefit from reliable customer support and easy configuration.
Deployment Flexibility: Choose from on-premises, cloud, or hybrid options.

IBM API Connect is extensively implemented in the financial sector, enabling banking, insurance, and fintech services to manage APIs efficiently. Companies use it to ensure secure transactions, integration with third-party services, and compliance with regulatory standards. Its deployment flexibility accommodates different infrastructure needs, making it suitable for a wide range of financial applications.

IBM

IBM DataPower Gateway is a robust, secure next-generation enterprise-grade single multichannel API gateway that supplies dynamic access, integration, control, and outstanding security. The solution is available in a broad range of workload capabilities, including application programming interface (API), service oriented architecture (SOA), B2B, cloud, web, and mobile. These dynamic capabilities ensure users are able to quickly increase the reach of an organization's critical IT resources to new channels, which will provide shareholders, team members, and clients with safe, secure access at all times.

DataPower Gateway is very flexible and is widely available in virtual, cloud, traditional, physical, Docker, and Linux form factors.

IBM DataPower Gateway Features

IBM DataPower Gateway has many value-added features. Some of these features are included below:

Control: The solution provides decision point authorization and authentication for all standards, including Lightweight Direct Access Protocol (LDAP) and Open Authorization (OAuth), which allow for better access control across an organization’s entire network.
DataPower dashboard: The dashboard is specifically designed to enhance performance and determine problematic processes. The solution provides intuitive real-time performance transparency to diagnose operational and performance anomalies and offer repair and restoration recommendations.
Enhanced messaging: Users are able to easily mediate messaging and protocols by incorporating the best of today’s traditional and modern application standards.
Integration: IBM DataPower Gateway offers super fast mainframe connectivity, database connectivity, transport protocol bridging, content-based routing, and any-to-any message transformation, ensuring secure and immediate connect service.

IBM DataPower Gateway Benefits

IBM DataPower Gateway provides many benefits. Some of those benefits include:

Flexibility: The solution is easy to use and configure and provides for a pleasant, intuitive overall user experience. The solution can immediately be used out of the box, which makes overall process management simple.
Protection: The solution provides sturdy continuous service protection and application performance using robust powerful routing and traffic control.
Security: The solution’s enterprise-grade De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) ready gateway enables users to enforce the desired runtime application security across all messaging protocols.
Profitability: The solution’s design ensures significant reduction of development costs in addition to the streamlining of overall operations. Users are able to achieve reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and experience a near-immediate ROI.

Reviews from Real Users

“My company has a good impression of IBM DataPower Gateway. What I like about it is that because it's an appliance, it's a turnkey solution that's very fast and out of the box. Another valuable feature of IBM DataPower Gateway is that it's easy to integrate with other products.”- Bálint T., Solution Manager at Intalion

“You don't have to have a separate DMC proxy because DataPower Gateway is an appliance and will take care of a lot of security features. These include data validations, encryption, as well as XML or any type of scripting or security threats that are present. From a security point of view, being an appliance in the DMC zone, IBM DataPower Gateway will take care of the entire security angle for the infrastructure.” - Sathyan K., Founder/Director at perfTech Solutions Pvt Ltd

IBM

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank

RBL Bank, Availity

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. IBM DataPower Gateway

June 2025

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