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IBM API Connect vs Workato 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.9
IBM API Connect saves time and costs, enhances integration, and improves ROI, though microservices' profitability is still unclear.
Sentiment score
3.9
Workato offers quick integration, enhances productivity, consolidates systems, reduces manual tasks, optimizes costs, and ensures faster ROI.
Reducing development hours from eighty to four for an API was possible due to reusing existing scripts from DataPower.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
I have seen a return on investment from using IBM API Connect, as we created multiple plans based on customer usage.
Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
By replacing multiple legacy systems and teams with a single automated platform, organizations see significant cost savings and improved business operations.
Director at Infoteck Solutions
For main recipes, there are charges, so by focusing on creating as many callable recipes as possible based on requirements, we can improve cost efficiency for the business.
Integration Engineer
In my experience, we have seen a return on investment, with results visible within a week.
Integration and Solution Architect/AI Engineer (Boomi and Workday) at Tech Bridger
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
IBM API Connect's support is responsive and knowledgeable but can be slow, lacking documentation with varied customer service experiences.
Sentiment score
5.9
Workato's customer service is praised for responsiveness, though complex issues may face delays due to product and time zone constraints.
Support is excellent when it comes to APIC.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
Support is extremely good, especially with Sev 1 issues.
Software Engineer IV at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Whenever we faced issues with data volume, the support team helped us by suggesting solutions like breaking the data into chunks.
CTO at Atulya Abhinav Tech Private Limited
I reach out to the professional services team or customer success team for technical support, and they provide immediate responses.
Integration and Solution Architect/AI Engineer (Boomi and Workday) at Tech Bridger
Workato's support is robust, featuring first and second-level support.
Senior Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
IBM API Connect offers scalable API management, supporting large transactions and customizable deployments, making it ideal for enterprises.
Sentiment score
6.0
Workato is praised for its scalability, efficiently managing applications and cloud operations, though large datasets may impact performance.
With container versions, scaling up or down the gateways deployed into pods is a two to three-minute task for the operations team.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
It is distributed among IBM MQ, IBM Ace, IBM DataPower, and IBM API Connect.
Software Engineer IV at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
IBM API Connect's scalability is good, as you can handle it easily similar to how you manage cloud providers.
Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
There are scalability limitations with Workato.
CTO at Atulya Abhinav Tech Private Limited
Allows dynamic connection switching at runtime.
Technical Consultant at Intercede Solutions
Even when clients overutilize the product, Workato allows them to continue without interruption, charging accordingly rather than limiting usage.
Director at Infoteck Solutions
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
IBM API Connect is highly stable and reliable, with minimal issues, especially improved in recent versions, despite initial concerns.
Sentiment score
6.7
Workato is praised for stability and reliability, with minor issues occasionally reported, and generally receives high user ratings.
The runtime engine for the APIC Gateway is still a DataPower component, which has been stable in the industry for about fifteen years.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
If it is functioning well, you won't have a bad experience and your application becomes more reliable.
Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Once deployed, solutions do not break, making it more reliable than other solutions like Microsoft Power Automate that often disconnect.
Practice Manager at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
During the initial data loads with large volumes, Workato was unable to handle the data effectively, which indicates stability issues under high loads.
CTO at Atulya Abhinav Tech Private Limited
To handle more than 50,000 records, I use scripting actions like Python or JavaScript to process large data in chunks.
Senior Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

IBM API Connect requires improvements in integration, usability, scalability, support, monetization, documentation, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness across environments.
Workato requires improvements in user features, licensing clarity, complex integration, scalability, security, and AI for better functionality.
Examples include the lack of connectivity to MQ.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
You need to know when traffic peaks, so use auto-scaling when traffic comes.
Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Connectivity to MQ is not available in IBM API Connect.
Software Engineer IV at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The team is actively working on customizing the platform per client requirements and is rapidly releasing features to address these limitations.
Technical Consultant at IST Technology
Workato struggles with scalability when handling high volumes of data, such as terabytes, requiring chunking for initial data loads.
CTO at Atulya Abhinav Tech Private Limited
One area for improvement is the CI/CD pipeline, which lacks a version control system similar to GitHub for easier deployment.
Senior Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

IBM API Connect is pricey, favoring larger enterprises, but negotiating with IBM can reduce costs for smaller businesses.
Workato's enterprise pricing is based on usage with possible costs up to $130K annually, viewed as high but efficient.
Pricing depends on how many instances run across environments.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
Higher volume is less expensive, but in general, it is kind of pricey.
Principal Consultant at Grail Automation
While the upfront cost is high due to task-based pricing, the cost is relatively low in terms of development because Workato provides necessary connectors for integration use cases.
Senior Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Compared to other iPaaS solutions like Boomi, Workato’s pricing model charges per connection step, which increases the cost.
Technical Consultant at Intercede Solutions
 

Valuable Features

IBM API Connect provides secure, efficient API management with advanced analytics, multi-cloud support, and intuitive functionality for enterprises.
Workato offers user-friendly, no-code integration and automation, boosting business efficiency with pre-built connectors and flexible application connections.
It offers significant development efficiency, reducing man-hours from eighty to four when creating APIs.
Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.
We can add some policies to provide extra security, protect your backend, validate the consumers, and analyze based on the traffic limit to throw things out.
Works at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
IBM API Connect has a designer and CLI features which can be used to completely automate the API.
Software Engineer IV at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It allows app-to-app and real-time integrations, which significantly enhance process efficiency.
Integration and Solution Architect/AI Engineer (Boomi and Workday) at Tech Bridger
It comes with pre-built connectors, eliminating the need to write APIs.
Senior Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
The platform's ease of use for connecting to different integrations, like Salesforce and NetSuite, is very beneficial because development isn't necessary, and everything is readily available.
Technical Consultant at Intercede Solutions
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM API Connect
Ranking in Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
API Management (9th)
Workato
Ranking in Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) category, the mindshare of IBM API Connect is 2.2%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workato is 4.5%, up from 3.2% 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 (%)
Workato4.5%
IBM API Connect2.2%
Other93.3%
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
 

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.
SS
API Integration Architect, Sr Manager at Beauty Tech Retail Domain
Intuitive automation streamlines workflows with room for more deployment options
The best features I appreciate about Workato are how intuitive it is, its low-code, no-code feature, and its true cloud-native environment where we don't need to worry about infrastructure settings and fine-tuning. Though I find the task-based usage in Workato challenging, requiring careful workflow design. The benefits from using Workato include automating workflows using the low-code approach, demonstrating while creating workflows, and making changes on the go. These capabilities enable faster delivery compared to our earlier work environments when using hybrid integration platform or MuleSoft. The delivery time has drastically improved using Workato because of its low-code feature and pre-built connectors which are very easy to use compared to MuleSoft. The ease of deployment is a distinct feature when compared to Tipco, MuleSoft, or any other integration tool. The delivery time is drastically reduced, allowing changes to be made immediately and demonstrated.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Insurance Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise61
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise7
 

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 needs improvement with Workato?
In Workato, there are some limitations regarding very high transactional data in file formats. For instance, we have a 90-minute job timeout, and queues larger than 10,000 size will be purged. Addi...
What is your primary use case for Workato?
The usual use cases for Workato include real-time data processing from either SFTP or SAS, and we have implemented multiple use cases for our clients in the past 3.5 years. For example, the employe...
What advice do you have for others considering Workato?
I have been working with clients for Workato implementation, focusing on consulting and implementing solutions for their business needs. We automate basic workflows and handle various complexities ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Heineken, Tine, Finologee, Axis Bank
Panera Bread, Berkshire Hathaway, Salesforce, Box, Splunk, ComScore, IBM, Complex Media, Microsoft, Home Depot, Cisco, News Corp, Braille Institute
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM API Connect vs. Workato and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.