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IBM API Connect vs TIBCO Cloud Integration comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 17, 2024

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 Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
API Management (8th)
TIBCO Cloud Integration
Ranking in Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 2.7%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO Cloud Integration is 1.5%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM API Connect2.7%
TIBCO Cloud Integration1.5%
Other95.8%
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
 

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.
NarendraThota - PeerSpot reviewer
A product that is easy to install and offers good stability to users
The API part of the solution is an area in the solution where improvements are made since I see that TIBCO is currently trying to revamp its tool by focusing more on redesigning it. There was a tool called Mashery, which is an API management tool that was acquired by TIBCO. TIBCO Cloud Integration is not a user-friendly tool when it comes to the installation phase or for maintaining the systems since its architecture is really complex. I think in the UK, one of the major telecom providers for whom I had done the infrastructure setup uses TIBCO Cloud Integration. Basically, TIBCO Cloud Integration is a bit difficult to install and manage the platform, but I feel there are improvements in the tool's latest version, especially on the API management side. Instead of moving to the higher version and converting the older version of TIBCO Cloud Integration or the legacy platform covered under TIBCO, they still use it because the architecture is completely different, and the components that the product has are completely different from what the new version of the product offers, making it one of the major reasons why TIBCO is coming up with a new version of the product that will be released in the upcoming year. The legacy platform of TIBCO will run on the cloud directly. TIBCO plans to develop a unified tool that is supported on the cloud and in an on-premises environment.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Overall, I rate it nine out of ten."
"One of the most valuable features is the easy-to-use web interface."
"IBM API Connect is a good product, and their technical support is excellent."
"We really like the runtime capabilities of IBM API Connect. The creation of products and the control of the monetization and hit rate are some of the features which we've found very valuable."
"It is a complete all-in-one solution."
"This product is well integrated with other products. Its ability to interact with IBM Secure Gateway and other integration products is the core feature. Also, the lead time to put it into production is relatively short ."
"The technical support is good. Whenever we need anything, we have our IT team work with IBM to change whatever requirement is needed."
"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."
"I like that it is a very good integration tool with many other things. TIBCO is very good for cloud integration"
"I am really impressed by TIBCO's integration of any level of complexity."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement regarding the connectivity of the DevOps."
"The solution is not scalable."
"Components, like caching, should be implemented as policies, not requiring dependency on an external solution."
"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."
"The implementation process could benefit from improvements, as it may take some time to become accustomed to the deployment."
"The only disadvantage I can see is that it requires heavy hardware support."
"We ran it on top of the Kubernetes cluster, so it wasn't a standalone service. In the worst-case scenario, API Connect couldn't stay online if all the containers went down. We had to restart all the services. We shut down all the containers automatically one by one."
"The administration of the user interface and the technical documentation are areas of concern in the solution where improvements are required."
"The deployment was rather complicated."
"Integrations could be better. Although integration is good, we have faced some block issues."
"TIBCO Cloud Integration is not a user-friendly tool when it comes to the installation phase or for maintaining the systems since its architecture is really complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's an expensive product."
"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."
"API Connect is expensive - I'd rate their pricing five out of ten."
"It is quite 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 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."
"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."
"We don't pay for a license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Insurance Company
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Consumer Goods Company
9%
Real Estate/Law Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

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 needs improvement with TIBCO Cloud Integration?
The API part of the solution is an area in the solution where improvements are made since I see that TIBCO is currently trying to revamp its tool by focusing more on redesigning it. There was a too...
What is your primary use case for TIBCO Cloud Integration?
I mainly use TIBCO Cloud Integration for iPaaS platforms, SaaS connectors, and SaaS connectivity that you have. The solution can be deployed on the cloud and on an on-premises model, so you can go ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank
NASA, T-Mobile, EagleView, Air France KLM, Caesars Entertainment
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM API Connect vs. TIBCO Cloud Integration and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.