IBM API Connect vs SwaggerHub comparison

IBM and SmartBear are both solutions in the API Management category. IBM is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.3, while SmartBear is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.6. IBM holds a 5.8% mindshare in APIM, compared to SmartBear’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of SmartBear users who would recommend it.

IBM API Connect

Read 77 IBM API Connect reviews

6,620 Views
6,421 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

SwaggerHub

Read 12 SwaggerHub reviews

1,306 Views
1,306 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

IBM API Connect

SwaggerHub

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

IBM API Connect and SwaggerHub serve overlapping use cases in the API management sector, but IBM API Connect seems to have the upper hand for large enterprises due to its integration capabilities and scalability, while SwaggerHub is preferred for its superior design and ease of use.

Features: IBM API Connect provides robust lifecycle API management, secure gateway services, and detailed analytics, making it ideal for enterprises managing APIs in large environments. SwaggerHub focuses on collaborative API design with auto-generated documentation and seamless integration with popular development environments, making it essential for teams prioritizing precision.

Room for Improvement: IBM API Connect could enhance user interface simplicity and streamline excessive configuration steps, improving onboarding for new users. Expanding its documentation resources and enhancing tools for real-time monitoring are also areas to consider. SwaggerHub, while excellent in API design, could improve its scalability for larger enterprise needs, expand integration options beyond popular development environments, and offer more robust analytics capabilities to enhance decision-making insights.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM API Connect offers a flexible deployment model, supporting both cloud and on-premises setups, with extensive support for seamless integration. Its customer service is strong, ensuring smooth deployment processes. SwaggerHub's cloud-based approach simplifies deployment for agile teams, supported by efficient design-focused customer service channels.

Pricing and ROI: IBM API Connect involves a higher initial setup cost but offers substantial ROI through its comprehensive API management capabilities, particularly for enterprises with large-scale needs. SwaggerHub's more accessible pricing allows for quicker ROI through efficient design tools and faster deployment, appealing to budget-conscious organizations focused on rapid development.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM API Connect vs. SwaggerHub Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. SwaggerHub

September 2025

Download the complete report

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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

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (9th)

SwaggerHub

Ranking in API Management

16th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 5.8%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SwaggerHub is 1.4%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM API Connect	5.8%
SwaggerHub	1.4%
Other	92.8%

API Management

Featured Reviews

Shanmugasundaram Shanmuganathan

Solutions Architect at Synechron

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.

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Manish Indupuri

Senior Devops Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Has streamlined API documentation and integration workflows across cross-functional teams

Documenting SwaggerHub has a standard and consistent structure of API definitions, and it automatically generates interactive documentation which helps the developers to understand everything. There are certain areas where SwaggerHub can go beyond here as formatting options for documentation pages are restricted, and the import and export options of API collections are complex in SwaggerHub. It provides various collaboration tools where we can work and do it. The strong validation against the API maintains conformity and reduces errors. That part is very great in SwaggerHub. Overall, scalability and stability-wise, it varies high compared to the competitors, but there are still certain areas where competitors are providing various customizations. SwaggerHub can understand those aspects and implement them as well. The complex import and export of API calls and collaborations can be challenging in SwaggerHub. If they can make it easier for us, that would be great. Their performance is degraded if there is too much load on the API. The customization and doc formatting options for documentation pages are restricted in SwaggerHub. A few of my teammates have complained that they find the UI unintuitive where it requires multiple clicks for simple tasks. SwaggerHub is a great tool, but these limitations can be addressed to make things better and easier.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has all of the tools that are needed for the specific mission."

"IBM API Connect is a reliable and scalable solution."

"The technical support is good. Whenever we need anything, we have our IT team work with IBM to change whatever requirement is needed."

"Policy configurations are pretty easy."

"The developer portal has been the most useful feature."

"One of the most valuable features of this solution is that it protects our backend system. We are exposing services to external parties and using this solution to protect the backend system, and to have a navigation in between."

"Security is well organized and managed within the solution."

"One of the most valuable features is that we can seamlessly and harmoniously expose our capabilities, from a security point of view."

More IBM API Connect pros

"The tool's most valuable feature is licensing."

"I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten."

"It is a stable solution."

"It is quite a useful tool. It is quite good with the validation of the spec. It works quite well in terms of errors and conformity to the OpenAPI standard. It is better than Visual Studio Code in terms of editing."

"One of the best features of SwaggerHub is how it allows me to create APIs and control the evolution of APIs within an organization."

"You can click & play and add the notation in a human-readable form. Spotlight is also very good in the graphical design of APIs."

"SwaggerHub has significantly improved how my organization designs, documents, and manages APIs, centralizing API management so that all API definitions are stored in one location, which makes it easy for stakeholders, developers, QA, DevOps, and products to access the latest version."

More SwaggerHub pros

Cons

"The solution is not scalable."

"In the next version, I don't know if they've already been included it or not, but the designer and all the tools should be on the cloud. I don't want any external installation or local installation."

"Automation for our Domino applications could be improved."

"We have encountered challenges with IBM API Connect, particularly during significant upgrades. These upgrades demand substantial labour and financial resources, including consulting services from IBM. I'd like to see increased flexibility, more frequent updates with new features, an efficient upgrade process, and additional AI capabilities for future releases."

"The developer portal could be easier to customize."

"The developmental process is not quite user-friendly."

"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 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."

More IBM API Connect cons

"SwaggerHub could be improved with better integration for tools."

"SwaggerHub's UI needs to be improved as it looks very old school."

"The scalability aspect of SwaggerHub can be improved. It becomes a bit unreliable when the load is increased and isn't up to par with expectations for scalability."

"It has limited functionality...Unfortunately, some of its features are not what we need."

"In SwaggerHub, I appreciate that it is a powerful platform for API design and collaboration, but currently, the access control is somewhat limited."

"The customization and doc formatting options for documentation pages are restricted in SwaggerHub."

"The review process should be improved. There seem to be some gaps, at least for us, for the editing part because we would like to have a full request review mechanism. They support some comments, but it is really hard to manage those comments. We would like to use the full request. Therefore, we are now looking to integrate with repositories. It has integration with Bitbucket and GitHub, but we have some internal constraints, and we need to move some of the repositories to GitHub. Our source code is on-premise in Bitbucket, and it was a bit of a problem for us to integrate. Now we are transitioning our repositories to GitHub, and hopefully, we can enable the integration. This will probably solve the problem with the review and approval. Its customization should also be improved. There are limitations around the support for the developer portal. There should be more customization options for the website that you can use as a developer portal. Currently, it has only Swagger UI with minimal customization. You cannot actually add additional pages and documentation for explaining concepts and general things. That's why we have started to look around to see what other tools are doing. They should also allow tagging on the API. We would like to add some tagging on the API to reflect certain things. Currently, any metadata that you would like to have has to be a part of the spec. You cannot do anything else. It should also have support for Open API 3.1, which was released at the beginning of the year. It would be great to be able to switch to that."

"We have to use additional tools to test APIs."

More SwaggerHub cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is too expensive with IBM. Sometimes, we prefer to go with an open source or something more lightweight."

"API Connect was highly expensive for us, but the decision to switch was made before I joined the company. It seems like the company bought it, but they didn't know how to use it. After two years, they decided to reevaluate and conduct some cost estimates."

"The pricing is significantly high."

"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 would be a good idea to bring down the pricing by at least 20 to 30 percent."

"This is a licensed product. If your company is looking to obtain a license, you have to work with IBM partners."

"It is quite an expensive product."

"IBM API Connect could be cheaper."

More IBM API Connect pricing and cost advice

"It has a yearly subscription, but I am not sure."

"The tool is cheap."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Insurance Company

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	59

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Large Enterprise	8

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about SwaggerHub?

The tool's most valuable feature is licensing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SwaggerHub?

In SwaggerHub, I appreciate that it is a powerful platform for API design and collaboration, but currently, the access control is somewhat limited. I would love to see enhanced permissions allowing...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SwaggerHub?

I have worked for Arden University, University of Sheffield, and Nanyang Technological University. For those institutions, I used Amazon AppStream for backend validations. When working for Prolific...

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Compared 27% of the time

Apigee vs IBM API Connect

Compared 20% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM API Connect

Compared 13% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM API Connect Competitors

Microsoft Azure API Management vs SwaggerHub

Compared 23% of the time

Apigee vs SwaggerHub

Compared 18% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs SwaggerHub

Compared 11% of the time

Postman Enterprise vs SwaggerHub

Compared 9% of the time

Gravitee vs SwaggerHub

Compared 6% of the time

More SwaggerHub Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect

October 2025

Download IBM API Connect product report

Buyer's Guide

SwaggerHub

October 2025

Download SwaggerHub product report

Overview

IBM API Connect is an API management tool providing robust security, seamless REST and SOAP conversion, and flexible deployment options for diverse cloud environments. It aids organizations in securing and monetizing their APIs while streamlining the development process.

IBM API Connect offers features like a security gateway, API lifecycle management, and integration with DataPower. Its intuitive interface enhances ease of use, supporting extensive analytics and traffic management. However, there are areas for improvement in automation, system integration, and user configuration. Organizations can deploy API Connect on-premises or in the cloud, delivering secure access control and analytics for banking, financial services, and government sectors. Compliance with standards like PSD2 ensures secure external API exposure and integration with multiple systems.

What are the most important features of IBM API Connect?

Security Gateway: Provides robust protection and data security for APIs.
Seamless Conversion: Facilitates easy conversion between REST and SOAP protocols.
API Management: Supports full API lifecycle management for efficient development.
DataPower Integration: Integrates seamlessly with DataPower for enhanced functionality.
Developer Portal: Offers a user-friendly interface for managing APIs and developers.
Analytics: Delivers powerful insights through comprehensive API analytics.
Flexible Deployment: Supports deployment on different cloud platforms for versatility.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from IBM API Connect?

Traffic Management: Efficiently manages high volumes of API traffic without compromising performance.
Data Protection: Ensures data is protected during API communication.
API Monetization: Facilitates API monetization strategies to drive revenue.
Scalability: Provides scalable solutions to handle growing demands seamlessly.

In specific industries like banking, financial services, and government sectors, IBM API Connect plays a crucial role in API management, orchestration, and regulation tasks. It provides secure access, control, and compliance with industry standards, serving as an essential gateway for data exchange and integration across multiple systems.

IBM

SwaggerHub is an integrated API Development platform, built for teams, that brings the core capabilities of the Swagger framework to design, build, document and deploy APIs. SwaggerHub enables development teams to collaborate and coordinate the entire lifecycle of an API with the flexibility to integrate with the toolset of your choice.

SmartBear

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank

Sonic, Zuora, Woolworths, CrowdFlower

Buyer's Guide

IBM API Connect vs. SwaggerHub

September 2025

Free Report: IBM API Connect vs. SwaggerHub

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM API Connect vs. SwaggerHub and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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