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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) (9th)
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 October 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 6.0%, 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 Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM API Connect6.0%
Red Hat Integration0.1%
Other93.9%
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.
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

"API Connect's most valuable feature is its ability to act as a gateway. It's very easy to configure security and everything else in it. You don't have to kill yourself implementing custom configurations."
"The solution provides a common place for all APIs, allowing for easy sharing and exchange of information between internal and external stakeholders."
"Policy configurations are pretty easy."
"I have found the API Management to be most valuable."
"It gives a holistic environment for us to set up the APIs and that's the main value that it adds. It gives end to end for us."
"WSRR is a powerful component for getting the endpoints."
"Overall, I rate it nine out of ten."
"Security is well organized and managed within the solution."
"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

"Components, like caching, should be implemented as policies, not requiring dependency on an external solution."
"It needs to be less taxing on compute resources."
"The installation was difficult with the IBM toolkit."
"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."
"Support for this platform could still be improved. It also needs to have more levels of versatility. Its compatibility and integration with different platforms also need improvement."
"Firstly, the pricing model, when compared to other open sources, is high. Secondly, the availability of resources in the market, specifically the developers available in the market, is not so much."
"Like any typical IBM infrastructure setup, you need to learn to set it up yourself. It's not one of those simple zip files or an archive unzip and you're up and running in some few minutes. Knowledge to set it up is key."
"Documentation for the CLI is not very complete. Also, the support could be improved, and we have had several problems with backing up and restoring the product."
"The performance of a few computations for the message broker version could be more stable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is expensive. However, there are a lot of customization capabilities."
"Pricing for IBM API Connect varies, e.g. it could be subscription-based. Deploying it on private cloud also means you have to own most of the software licensing."
"It is quite an expensive product."
"It can be quite expensive. It's okay for large-scale usage but quite expensive for smaller-scale implementations."
"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 should be cheaper. It has a yearly licensing."
"We pay for the IBM API Connect monthly. We only need to pay the standard licensing fee."
"This is a licensed product. If your company is looking to obtain a license, you have to work with IBM partners."
"It is an expensive platform and not suitable for small companies."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Insurance Company
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise58
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 disadvantage of Red Hat Integration is that it has to be tightly coupled to the OpenShift platform, so I couldn't run it on any platform other than OpenShift.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM API Connect vs. Red Hat Integration and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.