IBM API Connect vs Microsoft Azure API Management comparison

IBM and Microsoft are both solutions in the API Management category. IBM is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.3, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.9. IBM holds a 6.1% mindshare in APIM, compared to Microsoft’s 16.5% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

IBM API Connect

Read 76 IBM API Connect reviews

6,992 Views
6,782 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure API Management

Read 82 Microsoft Azure API Management reviews

18,017 Views
18,017 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM API Connect

Microsoft Azure API Management

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

IBM API Connect and Microsoft Azure API Management are leading contenders in the API management space. IBM API Connect stands out for its advanced API lifecycle management capabilities, making it preferable for enterprises needing extensive system integration. In contrast, Microsoft Azure API Management is more favored for its strong cloud ecosystem integration, especially with other Azure services.

Features: IBM API Connect offers seamless conversion between REST and SOAP, a security gateway, and a customizable developer portal. It also benefits from integration with IBM DataPower, enhancing API transformation capabilities. Microsoft Azure API Management provides robust Azure Active Directory integration, effective access management, and solid support for the API lifecycle within the Azure ecosystem.

Room for Improvement: IBM API Connect could improve in stability, ease of administration, and integration with other software. Users also suggest enhancing the portal customization and documentation. Microsoft Azure API Management needs better third-party integration, improved documentation, and simplification in managing API gateways. Both platforms face challenges with pricing models and multi-tenancy features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM API Connect supports on-premises, hybrid, and cloud deployments, though users report mixed experiences with technical support and response times. Microsoft Azure API Management focuses on cloud and hybrid deployments with seamless Microsoft ecosystem integration, yet its technical support could be more responsive, needing better documentation for troubleshooting.

Pricing and ROI: IBM API Connect is viewed as expensive and has a complex pricing structure but provides significant ROI through streamlined API management. Microsoft Azure API Management offers competitive pricing for lower tiers but can become expensive at higher configurations. Both platforms deliver substantial operational benefits, yet their pricing strategies and billing transparency require improvements for better customer satisfaction.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM API Connect vs. Microsoft Azure API Management Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. Microsoft Azure API Management

September 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:

ROI

Sentiment score

6.9

IBM API Connect enhances profitability and efficiency by reducing development time, improving security, and enabling seamless system integration.

Sentiment score

6.2

Microsoft Azure API Management boosts integration quality, reduces lead times, and offers significant financial benefits while impacting ROI through costs.

Reducing development hours from eighty to four for an API was possible due to reusing existing scripts from DataPower.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

Proper configuration of the solution, implementation strategy and correct scaling tier selection are other factors that influence the ROI.

reviewer1260759

Integration Engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

It helps connect all multi-environment applications to a single dashboard and give beautiful reports.

Sagar SampadMall

IT-Operation Head at Granules India Ltd

If I am working in AWS and with Azure, I see that Azure is much easier and helps save time while also being able to manage and deploy the API services.

GagandeepSingh5

Network Security Engineer at Movate

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.4

IBM API Connect support is proactive and expert but variable in speed, with regional availability challenges noted by users.

Sentiment score

6.6

Microsoft Azure API Management support is generally positive but needs improved response times and expertise for complex issues.

Support is excellent when it comes to APIC.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

The documentation from Microsoft helps our company to solve issues on our own.

reviewer1260759

Integration Engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

The initial support engineers are often not qualified.

Allan Møller

Consult Manager at Conscia

I logged an incident, and it was resolved promptly within three hours.

Praveen_Srivastava

Solution Architect at Cognizant

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.4

IBM API Connect offers excellent scalability through on-premise and cloud solutions, supporting enterprise-level operations and customization features.

Sentiment score

7.8

Microsoft Azure API Management offers scalable, cloud-based flexibility, efficiently handling multiple APIs and supporting thousands of users, though costs may rise.

With container versions, scaling up or down the gateways deployed into pods is a two to three-minute task for the operations team.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

I've worked with multiple tools from an observability perspective, such as Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Splunk, and Elasticsearch, and I find KQL and APIM amazing and filled with useful features.

Swapan Biswas

Associate Consultant at Tata Consultancy

It handles our current workload well, and I'm optimistic it can scale effectively as our needs grow.

Sagar SampadMall

IT-Operation Head at Granules India Ltd

There are no limitations to adding any number of devices.

GagandeepSingh5

Network Security Engineer at Movate

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.3

IBM API Connect is generally stable and reliable, especially in government and banking, despite occasional upgrade issues.

Sentiment score

7.9

Microsoft Azure API Management is reliable, stable, and integrates well, offering scalability and high availability with minor performance improvement needs.

The runtime engine for the APIC Gateway is still a DataPower component, which has been stable in the industry for about fifteen years.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

I can't guarantee its stability or flexibility until all our databases and financial systems are integrated.

Sagar SampadMall

IT-Operation Head at Granules India Ltd

Microsoft Azure API Management is very stable.

Allan Møller

Consult Manager at Conscia

With high scalability and availability, it supports many users and endpoints without significant issues.

Praveen_Srivastava

Solution Architect at Cognizant

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Room For Improvement

IBM API Connect needs better integration, automation, monitoring, documentation, and usability, facing issues in setup, costs, and support.

Microsoft Azure API Management users face high costs, integration issues, and demand better features, customization, and improved deployment efficiency.

Examples include the lack of connectivity to MQ.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

The service is extensive and expensive, and this added flexibility would make it more manageable and less prone to errors.

Allan Møller

Consult Manager at Conscia

It's quite expensive, which could be a barrier for some users.

Sagar SampadMall

IT-Operation Head at Granules India Ltd

Documentations for the product should include examples of implementation.

reviewer1260759

Integration Engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Setup Cost

IBM API Connect offers scalable solutions with high costs, suitable for large enterprises, available in SaaS and on-premise versions.

Microsoft Azure API Management offers varied pricing models appealing to businesses, but premium features can become costly when scaling.

Pricing depends on how many instances run across environments.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

It's an expensive solution.

reviewer1260759

Integration Engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

However, once you scale up to your full volume, it'll be more expensive.

reviewer2520948

Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Microsoft Azure is an expensive solution not for the large enterprises but for medium and small.

Rajendra Dhaundiyal

Technical Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

Valuable Features

IBM API Connect excels with strong security, integration, usability, analytics, flexibility, and scalability, enhancing API management and monetization.

Microsoft Azure API Management offers user-friendly API orchestration with robust features including security, scalability, and comprehensive Azure integration.

It offers significant development efficiency, reducing man-hours from eighty to four when creating APIs.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report

The platform's most valuable features are its rule-based permissions and comprehensive API lifecycle management capabilities.

Dinesh Venkates

Consultant at Fujitsu

The ability to create a subscription model for APIs allows companies to monetize valuable data and share it securely.

Allan Møller

Consult Manager at Conscia

The analytics phase of API Management is very beneficial for tracking API usage and identifying suspicious users.

Praveen_Srivastava

Solution Architect at Cognizant

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report

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) (8th)

Microsoft Azure API Management

Ranking in API Management

1st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 6.1%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure API Management is 16.5%, down from 19.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Azure API Management	16.5%
IBM API Connect	6.1%
Other	77.4%

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

Praveen_Srivastava

Solution Architect at Cognizant

Streamlined operations with gateway and authentication features

Azure API Management has helped streamline our operations by acting as a gateway for upstream and downstream applications. It provides authentication and authorization, ensuring that both verified and suspicious users are managed efficiently. The use of analytics within API Management is also valuable for tracking user behavior and ensuring security.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Insurance Company

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	58

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	52

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

How does Apigee differ from Azure API Management?

Apigee offers both cloud-based and on-prem options while Microsoft Azure API Management currently only offers a cloud-based solution. Both solutions are easy to use. Apigee allows for the ability...

See all answers

Which is better - Azure API Management or Amazon API Gateway?

If you use Azure products, API Management is a great solution. It solves many of the problems of externalizing web services. For example, when you need versioning, establish a developer portal and ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure API Management?

Microsoft Azure API Management is a good, comprehensive solution for enterprise implementation.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Compared 27% of the time

Apigee vs IBM API Connect

Compared 20% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Compared 6% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM API Connect

Compared 6% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs IBM API Connect

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM API Connect Competitors

Amazon API Gateway vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 50% of the time

Apigee vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 15% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 4% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 4% of the time

WSO2 API Manager vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Azure API Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect

September 2025

Download IBM API Connect product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure API Management

August 2025

Download Microsoft Azure API Management product report

Also Known As

No data available

Azure API Management, MS Azure API Management

Overview

IBM API Connect is an API management tool providing robust security, seamless REST and SOAP conversion, and flexible deployment options for diverse cloud environments. It aids organizations in securing and monetizing their APIs while streamlining the development process.

IBM API Connect offers features like a security gateway, API lifecycle management, and integration with DataPower. Its intuitive interface enhances ease of use, supporting extensive analytics and traffic management. However, there are areas for improvement in automation, system integration, and user configuration. Organizations can deploy API Connect on-premises or in the cloud, delivering secure access control and analytics for banking, financial services, and government sectors. Compliance with standards like PSD2 ensures secure external API exposure and integration with multiple systems.

What are the most important features of IBM API Connect?

Security Gateway: Provides robust protection and data security for APIs.
Seamless Conversion: Facilitates easy conversion between REST and SOAP protocols.
API Management: Supports full API lifecycle management for efficient development.
DataPower Integration: Integrates seamlessly with DataPower for enhanced functionality.
Developer Portal: Offers a user-friendly interface for managing APIs and developers.
Analytics: Delivers powerful insights through comprehensive API analytics.
Flexible Deployment: Supports deployment on different cloud platforms for versatility.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from IBM API Connect?

Traffic Management: Efficiently manages high volumes of API traffic without compromising performance.
Data Protection: Ensures data is protected during API communication.
API Monetization: Facilitates API monetization strategies to drive revenue.
Scalability: Provides scalable solutions to handle growing demands seamlessly.

In specific industries like banking, financial services, and government sectors, IBM API Connect plays a crucial role in API management, orchestration, and regulation tasks. It provides secure access, control, and compliance with industry standards, serving as an essential gateway for data exchange and integration across multiple systems.

IBM

Microsoft Azure API Management is essential for managing APIs, facilitating integration, and ensuring secure internal and external communication.

Organizations leverage Microsoft Azure API Management for seamless integration and effective API management. It supports microservices, legacy modernization, and platform orchestration in sectors like healthcare, telecom, and finance. Features such as developer portals and centralized libraries simplify usage. While it showcases strengths in hybrid cloud support and scalability, improvements are suggested in versioning and multi-tenancy.

What key features does it offer?

Integration with Microsoft services ensures robust access control and user-friendly deployment.
Developer portal and documentation improve usability and learning.
Hybrid cloud support offers seamless on-premise connectivity.
Scalability and security features are well-regarded.
Centralized API library simplifies management.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Facilitates API lifecycle management enhancing user experience.
Simplifies authentication and subscription models.
Enhances data exchange and real-time monitoring.
Streamlines API mapping and orchestration across platforms.
Promotes flexibility and transparency in system integration.

Microsoft Azure API Management aids modernization across healthcare, telecom, and financial services by enabling legacy system updates and facilitating smooth platform orchestration.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH, Opensistemas

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. Microsoft Azure API Management

September 2025

Free Report: IBM API Connect vs. Microsoft Azure API Management

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