IBM API Connect vs Tyk comparison

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IBM API Connect

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

IBM API Connect and Tyk are competing in the API management space. IBM API Connect leads in integration and enterprise-level support while Tyk surpasses in customization and developer experience.

Features: IBM API Connect offers comprehensive analytics, advanced security features, and extensive enterprise integration support, making it ideal for large-scale operations. Tyk features open-source architecture, flexible plugin support, and ease of customization, which benefit developer-centric environments.

Room for Improvement: IBM API Connect could improve in reducing initial setup complexity, expanding flexibility for smaller teams, and enhancing open-source capabilities. Tyk can enhance enterprise-level support, increase integration options with other enterprise solutions, and improve scalability for very large deployments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM API Connect uses a traditional deployment model with robust customer support suitable for large enterprises. Tyk supports cloud-native deployments, offering flexibility and drawing on ample community resources, catering to agile teams needing quick iterations.

Pricing and ROI: IBM API Connect typically has higher initial setup costs, justified by robust ROI through extensive features. Tyk's open-source options allow for lower upfront costs, appealing to smaller teams seeking cost efficiency.

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

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IBM API Connect vs. Tyk

September 2025

Helped 872,846 peers since 2012

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)

Tyk

Ranking in API Management

17th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

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 Tyk is 2.0%, up from 1.9% 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%
Tyk	2.0%
Other	92.2%

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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MarkDoherty

Founding Director at Point Group

Fastest to get up and running and fewer idiosyncrasies than competitors

In terms of our usage, the main area of concern is that they tend to build enhancements slightly ahead of the considerations for what those enhancements and extensions are. So it could be slightly better communication with the customer base that would be my main issue with them. But as a product, it's very difficult to find any major faults.

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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

"API Connect's data gateway is one of the strongest in the market."

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

"This is a very easy to use solution."

"API Connect is a good product, and everything works fine. All the analytics are good, and it is easy to follow up. I like it in that sense. I'm more focused on following up on analytics by seeing how many API calls we are getting and where we see a lot of problems. I was working on that API level."

"The solution is very scalable because it's on the cloud."

"Easy to configure security and generate API keys."

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

"It allows enterprises to expose some of their tech to outside stakeholders."

More IBM API Connect pros

"The scalability is very good. That was a key factor in the selection, like how it could be pushed to high volume and scalability, which seemed to be very good."

"The most valuable feature is the load balancing with the circuit-breaker function."

"It is a good product for API management."

"The feature I find most valuable is that this solution allows us to manage our security."

"You can set up workflows and write limited pieces of logic."

"The portal for developers that this solution provides has great functionality."

Cons

"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."

"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."

"Business applications could be exposed to users."

"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."

"The automation and the simplicity could be improved."

"The platform’s integration with the payment gateway needs enhancement. The setup process and support services could be improved."

"The solution would be better if it had cloud functionalities."

"Different versions of the same thing can mean unnecessary duplication."

More IBM API Connect cons

"Sometimes when new features are released, they are not immediately stable."

"It is a young product and does not have the kind of brand recognition that would make it a more popular solution with our clients."

"In terms of our usage, the main area of concern is that they tend to build enhancements slightly ahead of the considerations for what those enhancements and extensions are. So it could be slightly better communication with the customer base that would be my main issue with them."

"We ran it for a while, but then we decided to move away from Tyk, because Tyk's cloud version, the SaaS version, has a significant limitation of limited flexibility, so you can't program very much."

"I would like to see some additional features like having some extensions for .NET core because we use it for our back-end language."

"We would like a better tool for generating documentation for the APIs to be developed."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is expensive. However, there are a lot of customization capabilities."

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

"We pay for the IBM API Connect monthly. We only need to pay the standard licensing fee."

"API Connect is expensive - I'd rate their pricing five out of ten."

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

"It can be quite expensive. It's okay for large-scale usage but quite expensive for smaller-scale implementations."

"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."

More IBM API Connect pricing and cost advice

"There are different versions and plans available depending on the requirements, so there is flexibility in terms of the pricing."

"The price is low compared to other products of a similar type."

"We are using the open-source version of this product, so there are no licensing costs for its use."

"It had a free version, which suited many of our needs, but not all, but we were happy to go ahead with the licensed version as well, which is the paid version."

"The cost curve is far smoother, both in terms of volume and the number of calls it's running on, compared to most competitors. So it's a tad more expensive at the very low end, but the curve is nothing like Apigee or some of the others."

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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

25%

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

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 Tyk?

The scalability is very good. That was a key factor in the selection, like how it could be pushed to high volume and scalability, which seemed to be very good.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tyk?

The pricing is actually quite competitive. In Azure environments, it gets beaten by Microsoft API Gateway, but on the other hand, it offers some features that Microsoft lacks. So it really comes do...

What needs improvement with Tyk?

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM API Connect

Comparisons

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

Axway AMPLIFY API Management vs IBM API Connect

Compared 1% of the time

More IBM API Connect Competitors

Traefik Enterprise vs Tyk

Compared 14% of the time

Apigee vs Tyk

Compared 12% of the time

Apache APISIX vs Tyk

Compared 12% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs Tyk

Compared 11% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Tyk

Compared 4% of the time

More Tyk Competitors

Product Reports

Download IBM API Connect product report

IBM API Connect

October 2025

Download Tyk product report

October 2025

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

Tyk is an open source API Gateway that is fast and scalable, an API management platform featuring an API gateway, analytics, developer portal and dashboard. Available in three flavours to best suit your architecture and governance. We offer full cloud or on-premises options, and the best of both worlds with our unique hybrid model. www.tyk.io

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank

Trip Advisor, Juniper Networks, AT&T