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IBM Business Automation Workflow vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 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 Business Automation Wor...
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
14th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
31st
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of IBM Business Automation Workflow is 2.2%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM is 0.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

Ateeq Rehman - PeerSpot reviewer
Customizable features empower seamless workflow automation
The system is fully customizable, very resilient, and fault-tolerant. We have first-line support from IBM, so there are no issues. We have integrations with different banks, ERP systems, and other human resource management systems by integrating through different systems. It provides many ways to integrate, and we are utilizing it effectively.
Ray Ochieng - PeerSpot reviewer
Powerful workflow definition enhances operational stability and efficiency
TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM is powerful for defining workflows. It is low code, so you don't need a lot of coding, and tasks are just drag and drop. It is also very stable as we haven't had issues with it going down or encountering any operational issues for a long time. The stability and rich features in workflow definition make it a valuable tool.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It helps develop applications very quickly. Once clients get used to it and familiar with the methodology, then they don't feel so locked in. It is able to add this element of agility to our clients' software development lifecycle. That is my favorite thing about it: You're not so locked in as you used to be when developing applications."
"It's a flexible solution."
"The most important aspect is that it helped us focus on the business process perspective."
"It has had a positive effect on decision-making in my organization. It helps us with our dispute process."
"Its interface is well-designed and user-friendly"
"IBM has spent a lot of time on the connections between the rules engine and its other product, the core BPM platform. They've really centralized the suite as one offering now."
"No matter what somebody's technical experience level is, the tool can start adding value immediately. Even if that is just an analyst who doesn't have any technical background, they can use some of these no quote accelerators to get things from ideation to deployment in a matter of minutes."
"It performs the basic tasks that are required for the BBM solution as part of the overall integration with ECM or enterprise contact management."
"The capacity for distributing the jobs in a workflow is an important feature."
"It is the best product because of its stability. ActiveMatrix 5.x is highly stable in production, and the downtime is very low. I have worked on a lot of service projects, and the engine is very stable, robust, and scalable. The development and change requests can be pushed quickly, and the mapper activity and SSLT kind of features are also good. It is easy to do changes, testing, and deployment. Its deployment is very easy, and we can automate a lot of scripts for our on-premises solution. I work for an investment bank, and we have automated a lot of processes for our customers. Previously, we used to develop scripts and tools. With version 6.x, everything is moved to Maven and other things. Environment handling is done mostly through DevOps tools. As compared to Mulesoft, the deployment and configuration are very easy in TIBCO."
"For specific situations this can be a good solution and a simplified interface to work with."
"The product's initial setup phase is straightforward."
"The scheduling and the calendar are very useful."
"TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM is powerful for defining workflows."
"TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM is powerful for defining workflows."
 

Cons

"The development UI is sometimes a little slow."
"If the issue needs escalation to level two or level three, it can take time on a case-by-case basis."
"The main areas which need improvement are specifically around reporting and analytics."
"Every client is moving to the cloud. We are still a little behind with IBM, but we are catching up from my point of view."
"The UI of the solution is not good. They should work to update the solution and make it better and fresher."
"I feel that the features are not user-friendly."
"IBM Business Automation Workflow could improve the integration."
"The monitoring features must be improved."
"The maintenance of the package could be improved."
"The product is missing some means of addressing more complex BPM constructs and should interface with more platforms easily."
"It is not lightweight and requires a lot of disk space, memory, and CPU."
"My experience with tech support has not been very good. Most of the time, issues are escalated to level three, where they are either unresolved or take two weeks to address."
"Technical support needs to be streamlined."
"ActiveMatrix is in the middle field. MuleDB is more on the engineering side with Java and other things. SnapLogic is there are on the higher side with very low coding. TIBCO stays in the middle like IBM or Oracle. TIBCO can move towards IBM's way of doing. IBM has a big market and many varieties of products and good integration, which TIBCO doesn't have. It can have better integration. TIBCO's transition to the cloud is a little slow. As compared to Dell, Boomi, and Mulesoft. TIBCO took the steps a little later. TIBCO's ID was far better and easier to work with previously. TIBCO's 5.x ID was very good, and the development environment and the transition were easy. Version 6.5 onwards, it is a stable product, but it would be good if they can do something similar to version 5.4 with version 6. They should concentrate on this API market. It will give them the strength and the ability to grab the market back."
"The scalability of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Nowadays, clients are looking at pricing as one of the major factors. For IBM products, they always think it is expensive for them. We are still educating our clients on the IBM FlexPoints licensing."
"While it can be quite costly, it offers significant benefits for users."
"Our license is on a three-year term."
"When you compare with Laserfiche and M-Files, IBM is expensive."
"The product is expensive."
"There is still a relatively high total cost of ownership to actually implement, support, and stand up solutions."
"It is on the expensive side, but it provides excellent supportability and an ecosystem that is proven to be a great fit for our organization."
"Licensing varies by use-case."
"There are some discussions about perpetual licenses and conversions, but I'm not much familiar with them."
"TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM is an expensive tool compared to others."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
36%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
6%
Insurance Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
40%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better, IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation Workflow?
We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow. IBM BPM has a good user interface and the BPM coach is a helpful tool. The API is very useful in providing en...
What do you like most about IBM Business Automation Workflow?
It performs the basic tasks that are required for the BBM solution as part of the overall integration with ECM or enterprise contact management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Business Automation Workflow?
The price of IBM Business Automation Workflow is on the higher side compared to the features it offers.
What do you like most about TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM?
The product's initial setup phase is straightforward.
What needs improvement with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM?
It is not lightweight and requires a lot of disk space, memory, and CPU. Making it lightweight so it can run on a minimum processor and less memory would be beneficial. Additionally, the current wo...
What is your primary use case for TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM?
We are using TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM for network deployment workflows. For example, if a customer is interested in getting a NetWorker, there is a workflow where we log in, get the customer details,...
 

Also Known As

Business Automation Workflow
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Key Bank, Barclays, Control€xpert, MIR Insurance Brokers, Conqord Oil
ADIS, Citi, Bank of Montreal, First Citizens Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Business Automation Workflow vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.