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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
6.5
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (15th)
Red Hat Integration
Ranking in API Management
45th
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 March 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 4.8%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Integration is 0.4%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM API Connect4.8%
Red Hat Integration0.4%
Other94.8%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

SM
Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Have addressed performance challenges while benefiting from flexible subscription models and reliable user access
To improve IBM API Connect, based on customer experience, you could work on latency. You can increase scalability and availability. If you're connecting with any other cloud, it connects to the infrastructure which needs to be managed with the customers and cloud providers, so if you have a setup, we can handle it easily. I have faced latency issues on the server, related to our management. If you need to stabilize your server based on peak traffic, you need to configure the scalability model. You need to know when traffic peaks, so use auto-scaling when traffic comes. If the application is not in use, the value should be zero, and it starts from zero. Based on customer experience, the value will increase, and when there is no customer servicing, the peak would be reduced, making the value remain zero. Following this approach, you should be able to optimize costs and satisfy customer experience.
CHEW YONG - PeerSpot reviewer
Principle Solution Architect at beans
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

"The functionalities on offer are very good."
"We have the ability to secure, control, transform, catalogue and optimize access to our APIs for external and internal partners and developers."
"One of the most valuable features of this solution is that it protects our backend system, as we are exposing services to external parties and using this solution to protect the backend system and to have a navigation in between."
"The most valuable features are: 1. The centralized management: this provides a management module that can deploy and apply security policies to all APIs, including all the gateways that are deployed on-premises and on any cloud because the gateway component can run at a VMware or in a Kubernetes cluster."
"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."
"DataPower Gateway holds significant value for us as it serves as the cornerstone of our enterprise security controls."
"In-built policies and security functions."
"The technical support and the user interface are good."
"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

"Production traffic monitoring features can be better."
"It still does not support open API 3. Another problem is the designer; I want the whole solution to be on the cloud, but for the installation, I have to install locally."
"I rated it an 8/10 because it's not fully mature yet."
"The integration of an API gateway that implements the sidecar pattern, which can be deployed in cloud applications, and expose the microservices directly in each pod, this can be more decentralized components."
"IBM API Connect could improve the security of the application and the integration."
"The developer portal could be easier to customize."
"The only disadvantage I can see is that it requires heavy hardware support."
"Understanding the architecture, deployment criteria, and communication methods of the installation can be time-consuming."
"The performance of a few computations for the message broker version could be more stable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"I haven't seen anyone go from on-premise to the cloud. In fact, I am seeing people go from the cloud to on-premise because the costs can quickly grow on the cloud."
"We pay for the IBM API Connect monthly. We only need to pay the standard licensing fee."
"It would be a good idea to bring down the pricing by at least 20 to 30 percent."
"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."
"The price of the solution is expensive. However, there are a lot of customization capabilities."
"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."
"It should be cheaper. It has a yearly licensing."
"It is an expensive platform and not suitable for small companies."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Insurance Company
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise61
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM API Connect?
I do not handle the pricing, setup cost, and licensing details.
What needs improvement with IBM API Connect?
We are relatively new to IBM API Connect, so I do not have significant improvements to suggest at this time.
What is your primary use case for IBM API Connect?
My main use case for IBM API Connect is to connect APIs more quickly. A specific example of how I use IBM API Connect is that we have many APIs and IBM API Connect provides a one-stop solution.
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.
What advice do you have for others considering Red Hat Integration?
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 produ...
What is your primary use case for Red Hat Integration?
The use cases for Red Hat Integration are integration and transformation.
 

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: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.