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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)
13th
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 August 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of IBM Business Automation Workflow is 2.1%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM is 0.6%, up from 0.5% 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 provides a solution for integration orchestration. This solution is for any organization in the banking, telecommunications, healthcare, manufacturing, and all domains and industries."
"It is the only product that includes capture content management and a process suite, as well as rules in RPA."
"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."
"The workflow of BAW's automation is handled inside of BPM, so we can see what state it is at and how things are processing through."
"The system is fully customizable, very resilient, and fault-tolerant."
"One of the most valuable features is the way that they are adapting to the market. Initially, it was doing only workflow. Now it has started bringing all the other components like rules within the workflow and then the integration with RPA."
"This product is tightly integrated with the RPA automation process."
"It performs the basic tasks that are required for the BBM solution as part of the overall integration with ECM or enterprise contact management."
"For specific situations this can be a good solution and a simplified interface to work with."
"TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM is powerful for defining workflows."
"The capacity for distributing the jobs in a workflow is an important feature."
"TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM is powerful for defining workflows."
"The scheduling and the calendar are very useful."
"The product's initial setup phase is straightforward."
"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."
 

Cons

"The main improvement would be to make it easier to implement and deploy so that customers can kick it off and run quickly."
"Requires a lot of customization code writing which could be reduced."
"One significant challenge is the lack of accessible forums or resources to seek help or information when problems arise."
"The main areas which need improvement are specifically around reporting and analytics."
"Improvements could be made in debugging and troubleshooting."
"From what I understand, in the next release they're actually going to combine all of this together as one integrated solution... If we could have one unified way to build a solution, that would really help."
"IBM Business Automation Workflow could improve the integration."
"IBM Business Automation Workflow could be more intuitive, with more advanced low-code features and services definition."
"Technical support needs to be streamlined."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"It is not lightweight and requires a lot of disk space, memory, and CPU."
"The scalability of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution has saved us time."
"When you compare with Laserfiche and M-Files, IBM 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."
"IBM Business Automation Workflow has a flexible pricing mode, but the price is expensive. The price of the solution reflects the quality of the solution which is very high. The technical support is an additional cost."
"Our license is on a three-year term."
"Licensing varies by use-case."
"While it can be quite costly, it offers significant benefits for users."
"TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM is an expensive tool compared to others."
"There are some discussions about perpetual licenses and conversions, but I'm not much familiar with them."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
33%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
36%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

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: July 2025.
865,484 professionals have used our research since 2012.