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

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
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (7th)
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 May 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 6.4%, up from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pipedream is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

KavitaChavan - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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

"WSRR is a powerful component for getting the endpoints."
"The management of the API and API portal is good."
"Policy configurations are pretty easy."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"DataPower Gateway holds significant value for us as it serves as the cornerstone of our enterprise security controls."
"IBM API Connect is a good product, and their technical support is excellent."
"This product is well integrated with other products. Its ability to interact with IBM Secure Gateway and other integration products is the core feature. Also, the lead time to put it into production is relatively short ."
"The solution's technical support team is good."
"The most valuable features of Pipedream are the prebuilt integrations that require no coding."
"It is a developer-friendly platform that allows writing custom scripts."
"The solution enables users to integrate several things."
"The most valuable feature of Pipedream is the ability to use Python code in general."
 

Cons

"Business applications could be exposed to users."
"Debugging could be improved."
"The new version is very unstable."
"It should be cheaper."
"We ran it on top of the Kubernetes cluster, so it wasn't a standalone service. In the worst-case scenario, API Connect couldn't stay online if all the containers went down. We had to restart all the services. We shut down all the containers automatically one by one."
"The monetization of the API could be improved. The pricing for the consumer is also very important to improve this solution."
"The developer portal could be easier to customize."
"Due to bugs in integration, we have to look for workaround on fixing and using DataPower as gateway."
"We faced some server timeouts."
"There is a potential area for improvement in handling loop operations over items."
"Documentation isn't available for everything in the solution, so you may have to figure out a lot of things by yourself."
"They should give more information about trigger failure."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay for the IBM API Connect monthly. We only need to pay the standard licensing fee."
"The price of the solution is expensive. However, there are a lot of customization capabilities."
"API Connect is expensive - I'd rate their pricing five out of ten."
"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."
"The pricing is significantly high."
"It is quite an expensive product."
"It is expensive when compared to other products in this class. There were no extra fees for add-ons or technical support."
"This is a licensed product. If your company is looking to obtain a license, you have to work with IBM partners."
"Price-wise, for a company, it is a nice product, but for personal use, it is not very beneficial."
"The product price is fair and inexpensive than one of the competitors."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which API Management solutions are best for your needs.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
24%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Insurance Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
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?
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 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: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.