IBM App Connect vs IBM Cloud Pak for Integration comparison

IBM App Connect and IBM Cloud Pak for Integration are both solutions in the Cloud Data Integration category. IBM App Connect is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.3, while IBM Cloud Pak for Integration is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.5. IBM App Connect holds a 4.9% mindshare in CDI, compared to IBM Cloud Pak for Integration’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM App Connect users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration users who would recommend it.

IBM App Connect

Read 25 IBM App Connect reviews

1,534 Views
84 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Read 5 IBM Cloud Pak for Integration reviews

627 Views
405 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM App Connect

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

IBM App Connect and IBM Cloud Pak for Integration serve distinct integration needs, competing in the integration tools category. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration appears to have the upper hand due to its robust features and comprehensive support, making it suitable for enterprises with complex requirements, despite its higher cost.

Features: IBM App Connect offers pre-built connectors, quick integration with cloud services, and straightforward API management. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration includes AI-driven automation, multi-style integration, and strong security capabilities, making it appealing for enterprises requiring extensive integration.

Room for Improvement: IBM App Connect can enhance its scalability and complexity management for larger setups. It could also improve its connectors' capabilities for more diverse applications. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration might benefit from a simpler user interface and reduced deployment complexity, along with more competitive pricing options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM App Connect provides a simpler deployment process and commendable customer service, enabling rapid integration. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration involves a more complex deployment but offers extensive support and documentation for comprehensive integration setups.

Pricing and ROI: IBM App Connect is cost-effective with a low setup cost, delivering quick ROI for simpler integration needs. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, while having a higher initial cost, offers advanced capabilities and scalability, showing higher ROI for businesses willing to invest in extensive solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM App Connect vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM App Connect vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

June 2025

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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 App Connect

Ranking in Cloud Data Integration

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Ranking in Cloud Data Integration

15th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

API Management (26th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Cloud Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM App Connect is 4.9%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration is 2.0%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Data Integration

Featured Reviews

Emirhan Guven

Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

Transforms data efficiently and navigates licensing challenges with ease

The transition between version 12 and version 13 presents some challenges. While version 12 had approximately 10 features, version 13 includes around 200 features with cloud platform compatibility. The learning curve for developers moving from version 12 to 13 could be smoother. When using new components, better context explanations would be beneficial. In version 13, accessing new features requires connecting through a web browser, which can be challenging to understand. The explanation of new features could be more user-friendly.

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Igor Khalitov

Owner/Full Stack Software Engineer at Maraphonic, Inc.

Manages APIs and integrates microservices with redirection feature

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration includes monitoring capabilities to track the performance and health of your integrations. You can quickly roll back to a previous version if an issue arises. Additionally, it supports incremental deployments, allowing you to shift traffic to a new version of an API gradually. For example, you can start by directing 10% of traffic to the new version while the rest continue using the legacy version. If everything works as expected, you can gradually increase the traffic to the new version over time. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration has a client base that includes numerous organizations using AI and machine learning technologies. We leverage an open-source machine learning framework and integrate it with Kafka to help create and manage various products and data retrieval processes. For companies with private data, the framework first retrieves relevant data from a GitHub database, which is then combined with the final request before being sent to a language model like GPT. This ensures that the language model uses your specific data to generate responses. Kafka plays a key role by streaming real-time data from file systems and databases like Oracle and Microsoft SQL. This data is published to Kafka topics, then vectorized and used with artificial intelligence to enhance the overall process. It's like an old-fashioned approach. The best way is to redesign it with products such as Kafka. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's a powerful application for collaboration. It has many features for customization and integration."

"The solution is fast and supports Open UI 3.0 certification."

"Provides good security features."

"One of the most beneficial features is the ability to handle multiple communication technologies, like integrating Kafka flows, which is helpful as other teams heavily use it. Regarding error handling, I initially wrote most of the handling myself. While built-in features for error handling are built-in, it largely depends on the developer. We use a custom solution that catches all exceptions, logs them in a database, and replays them as needed. It has been effective for us for over twenty years."

"App Connect's best feature is that it can be deployed in a container."

"It's stable to use, connect with the cloud, and to deploy."

"The solution is very fast-paced when it comes to making things right. We can quickly download what we need if we need any app migrations for our software business. We can download it plenty of times when we need to use it. It gives us very high speed for delivering any development."

"It can handle API conversions with mapping and transformation rules, simplifying the development process."

More IBM App Connect pros

"The most valuable aspect of the Cloud Pak, in general, is the flexibility that you have to use the product."

"Cloud Pak for Integration is definitely scalable. That is the most important criteria."

"Redirection is a key feature. It helps in managing multiple microservices by centralizing control and access."

"It is a stable solution."

"The most preferable aspect would be the elimination of the command, which was a significant improvement. In the past, it was a challenge, but now we can proceed smoothly with the implementation of our policies and everything is managed through JCP. It's still among the positive aspects, and it's a valuable feature."

Cons

"Plugins for the repositories are difficult to find."

"IBM App Connect is scalable. From the administration side, they need to improve the RBAC model, as well as the clustering of this product. It will be good if we can start up the cluster, via IBM Connect Console. Some other products like MuleSoft, are providing this type of administration. MuleSoft is easy to use and user friendly."

"Finding developers for the product is difficult since it is a niche solution. I know the OpenShift environment is running well for the microservice environment. We had some issues with the other environment we tried to implement. It can be easily implemented internally, but we have some problems in practice."

"The interface could be better."

"I've been using IBM App Connect for about twenty-five years, and while I like it, there are some areas for improvement. The trace policy is ridiculous, and the biggest issue is the cost—it's expensive. People would use it much more if the price point weren't so high."

"IBM App Connect occasionally crashes for various reasons, requiring problem-solving intervention."

"The addition of string functionality would be a benefit, particularly in the ESQL space that IBM already uses internally."

"It is not easy to deploy. It requires someone with a high level of knowledge in the solution to deploy it, not just anyone can do it."

More IBM App Connect cons

"Enterprise bots are needed to balance products like Kafka and Confluent."

"The initial setup is not easy."

"Its queuing and messaging features need improvement."

"Setting up Cloud Pak for Integration is relatively complex. It's not as easy because it has not yet been fully integrated. You still have some products that are still not containerized, so you still have to run them on a dedicated VM."

"The pricing can be improved."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is very expensive if we want to scale."

"App Connect is not cheap."

"IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products."

"The solution's pricing isn't cheap, but you can get good discounts based on your competitive deal."

"The price could be better."

"The licensing cost for IBM App Connect is very high."

"Initially, App Connect was quite expensive because the cost was based on the number of processors we used. However, it's now based on containers, which means we can be more specific about our consumption and get a better price."

"The cost depends upon the consumer."

"It is an expensive solution."

"The solution's pricing model is very flexible."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

33%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM App Connect?

I like the adapters. The adapters help us achieve scalability. If you want to connect to SAP, there's an adapter. Salesforce? There's an adapter. You want to connect to another system? There's like...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM App Connect?

Configuration time varies by implementation. For insurance companies with simple JDBC connections, the process is straightforward. However, companies requiring multiple configurations for ODBC, JDB...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM App Connect?

I am a developer specializing in IBM App Connect. We have a customer interested in comparing ESB tools, such as webMethods, which was previously owned by Software AG company before IBM acquired the...

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Cloud Pak for Integration?

The most preferable aspect would be the elimination of the command, which was a significant improvement. In the past, it was a challenge, but now we can proceed smoothly with the implementation of ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Integration?

Enterprise bots are needed to balance products like Kafka and Confluent.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Cloud Pak for Integration?

It manages APIs and integrates microservices at the enterprise level. It offers a range of capabilities for handling APIs, microservices, and various integration needs. The platform supports thousa...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 33% of the time

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs IBM App Connect

Compared 10% of the time

TIBCO BusinessWorks vs IBM App Connect

Compared 9% of the time

SAP Process Orchestration vs IBM App Connect

Compared 4% of the time

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM App Connect

Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Compared 7% of the time

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Compared 7% of the time

webMethods.io vs IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Compared 6% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM Cloud Pak for Integration Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM App Connect

June 2025

Download IBM App Connect product report

Buyer's Guide

API Management

May 2025

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Integration product report

Also Known As

IBM Cast Iron

No data available

Overview

Rapidly connect public clouds, private clouds and on-premises application

App Connect Professional is IBM’s cloud integration offering which delivers an integration solution
• With ease-of-use, flexibility and increased responsiveness to the evolving business needs, while removing the daunting complexities of integration.
• Provides the powerful combination of a ‘simple integration experience’ for business users looking to automate how their applications talk to each other; coupled with a ‘configuration based integration’ approach for IT.
• App Connect Professional is for the teams and integration developers who need to solve more complex problems and need powerful tooling for integration scenarios

IBM

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration gives you complete, flexible integration using capabilities you need to move at today's speed of business, including the tools to help you achieve your application modernization goals as part of your journey to the cloud.

IBM

Sample Customers

United Way of Allegheny County, Saint-Gobain CPS, Ricoh, SunTrust Banks Inc.

CVS Health Corporation

Buyer's Guide

IBM App Connect vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

June 2025

Free Report: IBM App Connect vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM App Connect vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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