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

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 5.8% mindshare in APIM, compared to Microsoft’s 16.3% 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 77 IBM API Connect reviews
  • 6,620 Views
  • 6,421 Comparison Views
90% willing to recommend
Microsoft Azure API Management
Read 83 Microsoft Azure API Management reviews
  • 16,995 Views
  • 16,995 Comparison Views
91% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report
Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

IBM API Connect and Microsoft Azure API Management compete in the API management space. IBM API Connect gains an edge with its advanced security features, while Microsoft Azure API Management offers superior integration within the Azure ecosystem.

Features: IBM API Connect excels in security with features like a security gateway and integrates seamlessly with IBM DataPower for protocol conversions and analytics. It caters to both internal and external API consumers. Microsoft Azure API Management stands out in integration, particularly within Azure services, offering a robust development portal and ease of use for standardized API management.

Room for Improvement: IBM API Connect can enhance its integration with Exchange Server and improve its user experience for configuring policies and monitoring. Users also seek more deployment assistance. Microsoft Azure API Management can improve integration with third-party solutions, simplify monetization capabilities, and offer better support in deployment, including an improved visual editor.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM API Connect offers flexible deployment across on-premises, hybrid, and private clouds, though it can be complex, with mixed customer experiences in support. Microsoft Azure API Management favors cloud-based deployments with Azure, offering more consistent customer service and quicker response times, though still with room for improvement in handling complex deployments.

Pricing and ROI: IBM API Connect is known for its extensive features but is perceived as expensive, prompting some users to explore cost-effective alternatives. It often provides high ROI due to security and integration strengths. Microsoft Azure API Management offers flexible pricing tiers suitable for various business scales, though costs can add up with additional services, affecting perceived value.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE REPORT
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
Download the complete report
Helped 872,846 peers since 2012

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
7.0
IBM API Connect streamlines integration, boosts security, and optimizes costs, providing significant ROI within two years.
Sentiment score
5.9
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.
I have seen a return on investment from using IBM API Connect, as we created multiple plans based on customer usage.
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.
It helps connect all multi-environment applications to a single dashboard and give beautiful reports.
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.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report
AC
SM
reviewer1260759 - PeerSpot reviewerSagar SampadMall - PeerSpot reviewerGagandeepSingh5 - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
IBM API Connect support is praised for expertise but experiences vary, with feedback noting delays and documentation improvements needed.
Sentiment score
6.5
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.
For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report
The documentation from Microsoft helps our company to solve issues on our own.
The initial support engineers are often not qualified.
I logged an incident, and it was resolved promptly within three hours.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report
AC
reviewer1260759 - PeerSpot reviewerAllan Møller - PeerSpot reviewerPraveen_Srivastava - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
IBM API Connect offers robust cloud scalability with high user ratings, supporting large transactions and diverse integrations effectively.
Sentiment score
7.7
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.
IBM API Connect's scalability is good, as you can handle it easily similar to how you manage cloud providers.
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.
It handles our current workload well, and I'm optimistic it can scale effectively as our needs grow.
There are no limitations to adding any number of devices.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report
AC
SM
Swapan Biswas - PeerSpot reviewerSagar SampadMall - PeerSpot reviewerGagandeepSingh5 - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
IBM API Connect is stable and reliable, with minor past issues resolved, rated highly in diverse sectors.
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.
If it is functioning well, you won't have a bad experience and your application becomes more reliable.
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.
Microsoft Azure API Management is very stable.
With high scalability and availability, it supports many users and endpoints without significant issues.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report
AC
SM
Sagar SampadMall - PeerSpot reviewerAllan Møller - PeerSpot reviewerPraveen_Srivastava - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek improvements in integration, documentation, security, cloud functionality, cost, scalability, and customization for IBM API Connect.
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.
You need to know when traffic peaks, so use auto-scaling when traffic comes.
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.
It's quite expensive, which could be a barrier for some users.
Documentations for the product should include examples of implementation.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report
AC
SM
Allan Møller - PeerSpot reviewerSagar SampadMall - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer1260759 - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Setup Cost

IBM API Connect is costly but feature-rich, with price negotiations possible; smaller firms might prefer open-source alternatives.
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.
For more quotes and insights, download the IBM API Connect report
It's an expensive solution.
However, once you scale up to your full volume, it'll be more expensive.
Microsoft Azure is an expensive solution not for the large enterprises but for medium and small.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report
AC
reviewer1260759 - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2520948 - PeerSpot reviewerRajendra Dhaundiyal - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Valuable Features

IBM API Connect offers robust security, flexible management, seamless integration, and efficient development, enhancing API lifecycle and control.
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.
We can add some policies to provide extra security, protect your backend, validate the consumers, and analyze based on the traffic limit to throw things out.
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.
The ability to create a subscription model for APIs allows companies to monetize valuable data and share it securely.
The analytics phase of API Management is very beneficial for tracking API usage and identifying suspicious users.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure API Management report
AC
SM
Dinesh Venkates - PeerSpot reviewerAllan Møller - PeerSpot reviewerPraveen_Srivastava - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM API Connect
Ranking in API Management
8th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (9th)
Microsoft Azure API Management
Ranking in API Management
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 5.8%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure API Management is 16.3%, down from 19.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Azure API Management16.3%
IBM API Connect5.8%
Other77.9%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

Shanmugasundaram Shanmuganathan - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Abdul Ghani Shahzaib - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensures compliance and security in API integrations with a plug and play setup
We are working on almost everything Microsoft Businesses, Dynamics CRM and Dynamics FinOps ERP. We are utilizing Microsoft Azure hosting platform. We are using API service, Azure functions, event grid, API Management, and all types of Azure services on a need basis The integration and API Connect…
Read full review
report
See which vendors are best for you
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which API Management solutions are best for your needs.
See recommendations
872,846 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Insurance Company
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise59
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise53
 

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 Logo
IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM API Connect
Compared 27% of the time
Apigee vs IBM API Connect Logo
Apigee vs IBM API Connect
Compared 20% of the time
Amazon API Gateway vs IBM API Connect Logo
Amazon API Gateway vs IBM API Connect
Compared 6% of the time
MuleSoft API Manager vs IBM API Connect Logo
MuleSoft API Manager vs IBM API Connect
Compared 6% of the time
Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM API Connect Logo
Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM API Connect
Compared 5% of the time
More IBM API Connect Competitors
Amazon API Gateway vs Microsoft Azure API Management Logo
Amazon API Gateway vs Microsoft Azure API Management
Compared 54% of the time
Apigee vs Microsoft Azure API Management Logo
Apigee vs Microsoft Azure API Management
Compared 12% of the time
Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Microsoft Azure API Management Logo
Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Microsoft Azure API Management
Compared 4% of the time
MuleSoft API Manager vs Microsoft Azure API Management Logo
MuleSoft API Manager vs Microsoft Azure API Management
Compared 4% of the time
WSO2 API Manager vs Microsoft Azure API Management Logo
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
October 2025
IBM API Connect reportDownload IBM API Connect product report
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure API Management
October 2025
Microsoft Azure API Management reportDownload 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
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM API Connect vs. Microsoft Azure API Management and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
872,846 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See our IBM API Connect vs. Microsoft Azure API Management report.
See our list of best API Management vendors.

We monitor all API Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.