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

IBM API Connect vs Red Hat Integration comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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)
Red Hat Integration
Ranking in API Management
33rd
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
2
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 Red Hat Integration 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

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.
CHEW YONG - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates seamless integration while offering room for OpenShift flexibility
I am still a reseller for IBM products today. I focus on integration solutions. For integration, my clients are using CP4I. For CP4I, I'm using ACE-S, API Connect, and MQ. These are the three products I'm selling from IBM. My clients are using IBM App Connect on-premises. I basically sell open source, specifically Red Hat Integration for integration purposes. Red Hat Integration is part of the Red Hat Integration bundle, which includes two different software solutions bundled together with Red Hat. It's bundled with the OpenShift plus the foundation. I am a Principal Solution Architect. I would be available for them to reach out by email for any questions or comments regarding my review. I want to be a reference for them. I rate Red Hat Integration an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I have found the API Management to be most valuable."
"This is a very easy to use solution."
"WSRR is a powerful component for getting the endpoints."
"The ability for all of our web applications to share standard functions and documents easily is valuable."
"API Connect's data gateway is one of the strongest in the market."
"The most valuable feature is the security we get from this solution. I know of a bank that uses it to ensure that everything is secure. The second feature I like is the retail environment, where we actually want to be able to provide as many suppliers and consumers with APIs as possible. If you are well-trained in the writing of RESTful API's, you can actually publish an API in a matter of minutes, test it, and publish it."
"The capabilities are very good."
"IBM API Connect is a good product, and their technical support is excellent."
"Real-time event streaming is good because you can do real-time data insight, monitor any event that happens, take the action, and provide a real-time dashboard based on certain data."
"The most valuable features of Red Hat Integration lie in its ease of customization for business needs and the flexibility to design workflows according to specific requirements."
 

Cons

"The design time setup has a lot of customizable fields, but we need certain standard fields to be added, such as what all of the consuming systems are. This needs to be very clearly articulated during the design time."
"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."
"It needs to be less taxing on compute resources."
"The developer portal could be easier to customize."
"The only downside where improvements are needed is probably on the licensing side."
"Our main pain points are in these two areas: creating a better developer portal and improving stability in terms of synchronization and monetization."
"There are issues with upgrading in the cloud version. The cloud version is extremely buggy. We prefer to use the on-premise version."
"In terms of what needs improvement, some of the product documentation could be better."
"The performance of a few computations for the message broker version could be more stable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"It is expensive when compared to other products in this class. There were no extra fees for add-ons or technical support."
"It can be quite expensive. It's okay for large-scale usage but quite expensive for smaller-scale implementations."
"We pay for the IBM API Connect monthly. We only need to pay the standard licensing fee."
"The price of the solution is very expensive, it can turn many customers away."
"It would be a good idea to bring down the pricing by at least 20 to 30 percent."
"The pricing is too expensive with IBM. Sometimes, we prefer to go with an open source or something more lightweight."
"It is an expensive solution. The licensing model is based on a per-subscription and per-subscriber end-user basis, meaning the price is determined by the end-users of the platform."
"It is an expensive platform and not suitable for small companies."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which API Management solutions are best for your needs.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

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 Red Hat Integration?
The most valuable features of Red Hat Integration lie in its ease of customization for business needs and the flexibility to design workflows according to specific requirements.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Integration?
It is an expensive platform and not suitable for small companies. It costs around $30,000 for standard support services and lacks flexibility.
What needs improvement with Red Hat Integration?
The performance of a few computations for the message broker version could be more stable. It requires highly secure functionality with optimal network coverage. We encounter failure issues during ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google and others in API Management. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.