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IBM Cloud Pak for Integration vs Zapier comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 11, 2025

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 Cloud Pak for Integration
Ranking in Cloud Data Integration
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
API Management (27th)
Zapier
Ranking in Cloud Data Integration
14th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (24th), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (18th), AI Software Development (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Cloud Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration is 1.6%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zapier is 2.5%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Data Integration Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Zapier2.5%
IBM Cloud Pak for Integration1.6%
Other95.9%
Cloud Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Igor Khalitov - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
RL
Product Owner | Integration
Diverse integration options support workflow automation while pricing and support need improvements
You can build similar or dependent automations in one Zap, which helps with understanding the process without switching between different records. I would appreciate quicker response times and more direct interactions. It would be great to have a direct contact person for support, but bigger companies usually have solution partners handling support. I do not have a solution partner for Zapier due to using it for small use cases.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is a stable solution."
"Redirection is a key feature. It helps in managing multiple microservices by centralizing control and access."
"The most valuable aspect of the Cloud Pak, in general, is the flexibility that you have to use the product."
"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."
"Cloud Pak for Integration is definitely scalable. That is the most important criteria."
"I recommend Zapier because there is demand and it is easy to use."
"The main thing I appreciate about Zapier is that it has maximum availability of apps, with most tools being available compared to different solutions."
"The ability to connect web applications to trigger actions in another app after having enriched, formatted, delayed, grouped, and filtered is really valuable for many businesses."
"The most valuable feature of Zapier is it saves me time doing repetitive tasks."
"The product's most valuable feature is automation."
"The solution is time efficient and has saved considerable development effort."
"The product's initial setup phase was very easy."
"Zapier handles everything under the sun that you would think you need in automation. It is the most mature integration platform and service on the market."
 

Cons

"The pricing can be improved."
"Enterprise bots are needed to balance products like Kafka and Confluent."
"Its queuing and messaging features need improvement."
"The initial setup is not easy."
"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."
"I would like to see them improve the Quickbase integration. Currently, it only allows triggering actions when records are added, but it would be more useful if we could also trigger actions when records are modified or deleted."
"My biggest concern with Zapier would be their pricing strategy."
"The pricing could be a little cheaper."
"The pricing of the solution is quite expensive."
"With Zapier, improvements are required in the areas of concerns like bugs, ease of use, and documentation."
"It could support various languages along with Python."
"The user interface for Zapier could be improved. It also takes some time to sync the data between different environments."
"There is room for improvement in the support. They are not responsive, and they don't take much time to get resolved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing model is very flexible."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The price of Zapier is approximately $75 monthly."
"It's very straightforward licensing. There's only one cost you have to pay, and if you want a relevant pricing plan, I think you have two or three different models or packages which include the number of notifications or Zaps, as they call it, that you can program."
"There is a free plan that is, of course, limited. However, it allows you to understand and check true scenarios for a while."
"Per task, there is a monthly plan involving 15 euros...Also, in different forms, they just give you the ability to use different features. They charge 18.58 euros for the first standard plan, which includes 750 tasks. So, it is about 25 cents per task."
"The product is reasonably priced."
"Think your Zaps through to make sure you don't use more Zaps than you need."
"Zapier is a paid service. Its license renews monthly, and Zapier will downgrade your subscription to the free version when your credit card doesn't have funds. That significantly impacts your service because everything halts completely. Zapier doesn't have any hidden costs."
"The least expensive plan is $24 a month, and you can go all the way to $800 a month if you're a huge company using many tasks."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
12%
Insurance Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Retailer
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Integration?
Enterprise bots are needed to balance products like Kafka and Confluent.
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...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Cloud Pak for Integration?
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. Addition...
What do you like most about Zapier?
The product's most valuable feature is automation.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zapier?
The pricing is in accordance with market standards and even lower in some cases. The license setup cost is reasonable.
What needs improvement with Zapier?
In my opinion, what could be improved in Zapier is its UI, which operates as a one-line system. Compared to Make.com and other tools that have a drag-and-drop system, this is lacking. If the scenar...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CVS Health Corporation
BuzzFeed, Groupon, Spotify, Columbia University, FOX
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cloud Pak for Integration vs. Zapier and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.