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IBM API Connect vs Pipedream 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

IBM API Connect
Ranking in API Management
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (8th)
Pipedream
Ranking in API Management
21st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 6.2%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pipedream is 0.1%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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.
FrankHo - PeerSpot reviewer
A tool that ensures that its users see a return on investment from its use
The UI and the fact that the product is not easy to use are areas with shortcomings where improvements are required. Documentation isn't available for everything in the solution, so you may have to figure out a lot of things by yourself. Pipedream is easy to use for someone with tech skills or someone new who is trying to learn how to code. Though it is user-friendly for people with tech skills, it is not at all user-friendly for people who do not have any tech skills. The user interface of Pipedream is very simple compared to the user interfaces of some other products like monday.com or Asana. Asana and monday.com have visually appealing user interfaces. The user interface of Pipedream is not visually appealing at all. The aforementioned details need to be considered for improvement in the solution. I just wish there was a little bit more documentation on how everything worked when it came to deployment since I was a fairly new employee at the company at that time. Sometimes, the workflow wouldn't work fine in Pipedream, and I had to check it myself for errors. Finding the errors in Pipedream is hard to find. I think it would be good if Pipedream had the ability to send an email to notify you that there is an error with the code instead of having to go back in and then look every day or every hour if there was an error in the code.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"API Connect is a very good platform for the development of APIs."
"This solution is ready to scale and already supports our agile CICD."
"This is a very easy to use solution."
"The solution offers a pretty good SLA."
"In-built policies and security functions."
"The gateway is the most valuable aspect of this solution."
"The product gathers data to measure API performance."
"It is a developer-friendly platform that allows writing custom scripts."
"The most valuable features of Pipedream are the prebuilt integrations that require no coding."
"The solution enables users to integrate several things."
"The most valuable feature of Pipedream is the ability to use Python code in general."
 

Cons

"The solution is overly complex."
"The monetization of the API could be improved. The pricing for the consumer is also very important to improve this solution."
"The solution would be better if it had cloud functionalities."
"The platform’s integration with the payment gateway needs enhancement. The setup process and support services could be improved."
"The solution is not scalable."
"One thing about API Connect that could be improved is the security schemes. There are so many security schemes, and from a product perspective, IBM could improve the user experience of the configuration security scheme."
"There are some performance issues and issues related to asynchronous APIs."
"The developmental process is not quite user-friendly."
"Documentation isn't available for everything in the solution, so you may have to figure out a lot of things by yourself."
"We faced some server timeouts."
"They should give more information about trigger failure."
"There is a potential area for improvement in handling loop operations over items."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"API Connect was highly expensive for us, but the decision to switch was made before I joined the company. It seems like the company bought it, but they didn't know how to use it. After two years, they decided to reevaluate and conduct some cost estimates."
"It can be quite expensive. It's okay for large-scale usage but quite expensive for smaller-scale implementations."
"IBM API Connect could be cheaper."
"API Connect is expensive - I'd rate their pricing five out of ten."
"It should be cheaper. It has a yearly licensing."
"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."
"The price for IBM API Connect is reasonable. It's $20,000 to $30,000 yearly for a subscription, and the pricing could vary around $40,000 per year, per subscription. Its price is reasonable for customers who have around sixty million API calls yearly for unlimited environments."
"API Connect is quite pricey."
"The product price is fair and inexpensive than one of the competitors."
"Price-wise, for a company, it is a nice product, but for personal use, it is not very beneficial."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Insurance Company
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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?
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.
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...
What do you like most about Pipedream?
It is a developer-friendly platform that allows writing custom scripts.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pipedream?
The product price is fair and inexpensive than Zapier.
What needs improvement with Pipedream?
They could provide seamless integration with Jira, similar to classic code integration. Additionally, they should give more information about trigger failure.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM API Connect vs. Pipedream and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.