IBM API Connect vs Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services comparison

IBM API Connect vs. Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services

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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 Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

API Management (5th)

Informatica Intelligent Clo...

Ranking in Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 2.8%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

Featured Reviews

KavitaChavan

Associate Manager at Baariz

Quite flexible and provides excellent performance for API gateway

The only disadvantage I can see is that it requires heavy hardware support, which can be considered quite expensive. In terms of new functionality, I think the analytics can be improved in V10. The analytics feature was better in the older version, 2.18. But in V10, it's not as flexible. When exporting analytics as KSP or JSON, it's not well formatted. They can work on enhancing the analytics part. Additionally, they can focus on reducing the hardware cost.

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Argha Das

Senior Associate at Cognizant

Good tool, especially if you're using cloud services and an S3 bucket

There's definitely room for improvement in terms of user-friendliness. One example is that you can't search for jobs directly by file name. You can only search by job name. So, if you want to find a job that works with a specific file, you have to go through each job individually to find the right one. So, I'd like to see a faster search, one where I can search directly by file name. Moreover, the support team could improve by adding things like file transfer status updates. Also, if someone modifies a job and then leaves the company, that shouldn't disrupt the job for active users. It would be better if the job continued to run smoothly regardless of who modified it.

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 product gathers data to measure API performance."

"Policy configurations are pretty easy."

"It is quite stable. We've not had any problem. It has made for a good buy because we are finding that other companies that have similar set ups go down maybe once a month."

"This solution is ready to scale and already supports our agile CICD."

"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."

"The main benefits of IBM API Connect for our API life cycle management are the core API functionalities, the developer's portal, and robust security capabilities. IBM API Connect's security protocols enhance our data protection strategies by offering end-to-end security, mechanisms to counter common attacks like DDoS, and the ability to define policies for API groups to control traffic and prevent unwanted access to our systems."

"The most valuable feature for me is the ability to distribute work among our API developers, so we don't have to do all the work as IBM API Connect administrators and IBM DataPower administrators."

More IBM API Connect pros

"I rate the solution's scalability a ten out of ten."

"Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services offers a wide variety of services, including Cloud Data Integration, which is akin to a replica of PowerCenter on the cloud. I particularly like the mass ingestion service."

"The feature I found most valuable in Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services is the mapping. You just drag, and it maps the data. Mapping is very easy, and it's no code. When you migrate data or when the data interaction happens at the source and destination, the challenge is that you'll get different formats. The validation has to be done in the middleware, and the transformation should happen. In Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services, it's very easy to do data validation and transformation compared to any other tool."

"The data integration and synchronization features in IICS improve the data handling processes."

"Customer service and technical support are excellent."

"This solution allows you to easily access and make use of information that you have in your on-premises environment."

"The most valuable feature of Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services for me is the availability of connectors."

Cons

"Understanding the architecture, deployment criteria, and communication methods of the installation can be time-consuming."

"The only downside where improvements are needed is probably on the licensing side."

"The integration of cloud-based services is where we're looking for improvement in this platform."

"I would like to see support for non-Java based services. We struggle a bit to be able to deploy and connect our .NET services because of things like data types. We had to map a couple of things. For one solution provider, we had to move them to .NET Core before we could use it properly. I would like to see more agnostic tool service platforms rather than moving it more towards Java or open source."

"It should be cheaper."

"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."

"IBM API Connect could improve the security of the application and the integration."

"API Connect's analytics subsystem could be improved to make it easier to render content from the analytics system and offload it to an external database."

More IBM API Connect cons

"The product's pricing is definitely an area where a bit of improvement is needed."

"The tool is quite good overall, but sometimes the number of modules can be overwhelming. If the development interface could be optimized to have fewer modules, it would be greatly beneficial."

"The cloud version of Informatica, although easier and more advanced than PowerCenter, still requires a deep dive to fix bugs."

"There's definitely room for improvement in terms of user-friendliness. One example is that you can't search for jobs directly by file name. You can only search by job name. So, if you want to find a job that works with a specific file, you have to go through each job individually to find the right one. So, I'd like to see a faster search, one where I can search directly by file name."

"Synchronicity is an area for improvement in Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services. For example, when you want real-time or immediate response from the solution when multiple technologies are involved, the integration with Informatica Intelligent Cloud isn't seamless, whether it's the MQ, JMS, or BES service, so the connectivity should be improved a bit. The data governance is good, but what's lacking is a demo. For example, if there's a new feature in Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services, the documentation for that new feature is limited, so if Informatica could give a more complete documentation and more demos, that would be better for the users. Right now, there isn't any issue with any of the features of the solution. It's the new feature awareness or user training, and improved connectivity that I'd like to see in the next version of Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services."

"In terms of data volume processing, Intelligent Cloud Services does not match the efficiency of Power Center."

"This service could be more cost-effective."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is very expensive, it can turn many customers away."

"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."

"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."

"It's an expensive product."

"The pricing is significantly high."

"The pricing is too expensive with IBM. Sometimes, we prefer to go with an open source or something more lightweight."

"API Connect is expensive - I'd rate their pricing five out of ten."

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

More IBM API Connect pricing and cost advice

"The solution is expensive."

"The pricing model is something that can be improved."

"In terms of the licensing for Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services, we had the option of paying based on the number of users and paying based on the volume of data, and we went with the data volume licensing option. Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services isn't as expensive as CIG. The pricing for it is okay, so I'm rating it a four out of five in terms of pricing. We did use the email verification and address validation services which weren't part of the contract, so we had to pay additional fees for those services."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

24%

Financial Services Firm

17%

Insurance Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

56%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Insurance 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.

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

Price depends on many factors like size of the deal, competitive factors, timing, customer profile or where the pricing for API Calls is very competitive comparing to any of the leader players.

What needs improvement with IBM API Connect?

The only downside where improvements are needed is probably on the licensing side. Scalability is an issue with IBM API Connect, making it an area where improvements are required.

What do you like most about Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services?

The data integration and synchronization features in IICS improve the data handling processes.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services?

Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services is affordable for my specific use cases, with the pricing being rated three or four on a scale where one is very cheap. The affordability may vary based on ho...

What needs improvement with Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services?

The tool is quite good overall, but sometimes the number of modules can be overwhelming. If the development interface could be optimized to have fewer modules, it would be greatly beneficial.

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Comparisons

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Compared 7% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM API Connect

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More IBM API Connect Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

IBM API Connect

Download IBM API Connect product report

Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services

Download Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services product report

Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services report

Also Known As

No data available

Informatica IICS, IICS

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

Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services is a next generation iPaaS, which is made up of a growing number of data management products. The productivity of the environment is accelerated by a common user experience across all products, the AI/ML-driven intelligence of the CLAIRE™ engine, and a microservices architecture.

Informatica

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank

2-1-1 San Diego, Hastings, AARP , Ace Hardware

IBM API Connect vs. Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services