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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
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (12th)
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 January 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 5.0%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Integration is 0.3%, 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 Connect5.0%
Red Hat Integration0.3%
Other94.7%
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 best features IBM API Connect offers in my experience are the middleware capabilities, as it can connect the front end, and you can be more secure using JWT tokens with IBM API Connect."
"The support is good and active. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten."
"IBM API Connect is a good product, and their technical support is excellent."
"It offers enhanced security features to protect APIs, enforce access control, and secure sensitive data."
"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."
"It has all of the tools that are needed for the specific mission."
"The solution offers a pretty good SLA."
"IBM API Connect has a designer and CLI features which can be used to completely automate the API, so if a business analyst has a basic understanding of what the input and output payload is, they can directly create the API."
"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

"We've had some issues upgrading to the latest version of the solution."
"We have asked IBM for scalability and for some other features that we wanted. We had a dialogue with them and in the end, they have agreed to provide us with features related to API setup and security."
"The only downside where improvements are needed is probably on the licensing side."
"Business applications could be exposed to users."
"The installation process could use improvement. I hope that in the next release, the installation process is easier."
"I would like to see support for non-Java based services. We struggle a bit to be able to deploy and connect our .NET services because of things like data types. We had to map a couple of things. For one solution provider, we had to move them to .NET Core before we could use it properly. I would like to see more agnostic tool service platforms rather than moving it more towards Java or open source."
"Debugging could be improved."
"I would like to see automation of the installation. If there could be a single-click function where you could automate everything, that would be helpful."
"The performance of a few computations for the message broker version could be more stable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay for the IBM API Connect monthly. We only need to pay the standard licensing fee."
"It should be cheaper. It has a yearly licensing."
"It would be a good idea to bring down the pricing by at least 20 to 30 percent."
"It's an expensive product."
"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 is expensive when compared to other products in this class. There were no extra fees for add-ons or technical support."
"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 of the solution is very expensive, it can turn many customers away."
"It is an expensive platform and not suitable for small companies."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Insurance Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
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 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?
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 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: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.