IBM DataPower Gateway vs IIS comparison

IBM and Microsoft are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. IBM is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.5, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2. IBM holds a 4.6% mindshare in AIS, compared to Microsoft’s 11.1% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

IBM DataPower Gateway

Read 29 IBM DataPower Gateway reviews

5,878 Views
647 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

IIS

Read 57 IIS reviews

3,221 Views
2,061 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

IBM DataPower Gateway

IIS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

IBM DataPower Gateway and IIS compete in the field of application hosting and gateway solutions. IBM DataPower Gateway stands out in pricing and support, while IIS is often regarded as superior due to its comprehensive features.

Features: IBM DataPower Gateway is recognized for its robust security features, advanced protocol handling, and transformation capabilities. It's designed for organizations prioritizing security-driven infrastructure enhancements. IIS offers seamless integration with Microsoft products, is known for its high performance, and provides versatile hosting solutions for web applications.

Room for Improvement: IBM DataPower Gateway could improve its user interface for easier navigation and reduce complexity in deployment scenarios. Increasing documentation accessibility would enhance user experience. IIS could benefit from expanding support for non-Microsoft environments, improving scalability for large-scale applications, and advancing security features to match more complex requirements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM DataPower Gateway requires specialized skills for deployment and offers robust customer service to assist users. IIS, on the other hand, provides a straightforward deployment process with strong support via Microsoft's ecosystem, accommodating users looking for simplicity.

Pricing and ROI: IBM DataPower Gateway offers competitive pricing, providing significant returns through enhanced security features justifying initial costs for security-conscious enterprises. IIS delivers a cost-effective solution with a notable return on investment by leveraging existing Microsoft infrastructure, offering efficient web application management at a lower entry cost.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM DataPower Gateway vs. IIS Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. IIS

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,140 peers since 2012

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 DataPower Gateway

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (6th), SOA Application Gateways (2nd), API Management (12th)

IIS

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Server (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 4.6%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IIS is 11.1%, down from 12.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

Mehdi El Filahi

Co-Founder at tenekit

Security features meets compliance needs and offers MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) that simplifies integration efforts

While I like IBM products, I'm not an evangelist. I work with Java, Microsoft ASP.NET, and various technologies. I'm not tied to any specific vendor. However, I do find IBM to be a bit greedy. It's a large, profit-driven company. The support team is mostly based in India, and they follow a very structured process and protocol. Sometimes, it feels like playing ping pong with them – lots of back and forth before the problem gets escalated. You might even have to get your sales rep involved to push things along. For me, the support it could be better. Indian support teams aren't inherently bad, but with IBM, it feels impersonal. They respond, sure. But if it's a complex technical issue, they might ask you a lot of questions that just seem designed to waste your time. Sometimes it feels like they hope you'll get frustrated and solve the problem yourself.

Read full review

VikramSingh6

Operations Executive at Quess

A simple and easy-to-use solution but not recommended for public apps

I would rate the overall solution a six out of ten. We have around five to six developers and engineers for the solution’s deployment and maintenance. You can use the solution if your website is not too big or complicated. However, if it is big and complicated, then you need to use Apache or Red Hat. This tool can be used for internal purposes. But if you plan to host a public app, then I wouldn’t recommend the tool.

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

"The solution is straightforward and for large organizations, it functions well."

"You don't have to have a separate DMC proxy because DataPower Gateway is an appliance and will take care of a lot of security features. These include data validations, encryption, as well as XML or any type of scripting or security threats that are present."

"If you have an API application in your organization that you want to make safe and secure, in addition to your existing WAF or load balancer, this product comes with all those capabilities:"

"The most valuable features for our business include the ability to monitor and log data transactions and handle multiple request at an enterprise level."

"The most valuable feature is the security appliance, it's very secure."

"The solution is robust."

"Since it is a gateway, it provides a lot of security features."

"The solution is stable."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pros

"It's good and offers good usability."

"The solution is simple and very easy to manage compared to Linux."

"The tool is very easy to use and efficient."

"We use the solution for our customer's web applications."

"The product's initial setup phase is straightforward."

"It's very easy to publish."

"The solution integrates well with most Microsoft products."

"The graphical user interface makes it easy for users to configure the sites."

More IIS pros

Cons

"An area for improvement in IBM DataPower Gateway is its price point because it's a relatively expensive product. Sometimes, when the customer use case is just a very small subset of what's being offered in IBM DataPower Gateway, then the product can be expensive, making my company lose some of the opportunities because of the expensive pricing. A lower price point for IBM DataPower Gateway, even if that results in a less feature-rich version, would be appreciated. In terms of additional features that I'd like to see in the next release of IBM DataPower Gateway, nothing specific comes to mind because IBM constantly improves its standards and provides quarterly updates to the product, so it's quite fine."

"The user interface or the application development perspective and customization of the tool could be a little better."

"In terms of OEM support, it is poor. If I raise a CBRT one, as per the SLA, they should respond in one hour, however, sometimes it takes four or five hours to respond."

"The product should be more adapted to the DevOps process."

"Its support services could be better."

"The DCDR process should be less complex."

"They should add features to manage API integrations."

"For the workloads that are not too high, appliance is a little bit expensive."

More IBM DataPower Gateway cons

"Compared to Linux, the solution’s Windows patching is slower. I would like to improve it."

"IIS could improve the error logging. There are times we are not able to see the errors. More details would be helpful. Additionally, the configuring of the IIS should be allowed through coding instead of the classic view."

"The product could be more compatible with Linux and macOS, particularly when applying user configuration policies."

"Finding different settings can be difficult if you don't know where to look."

"The platform's stability could be better."

"Sometimes, we encounter difficult issues, and getting support from Microsoft to resolve those issues is not easy."

"The solution must improve the integration between its databases."

"The areas of this solution that need improvement are monitoring, debugging, and troubleshooting."

More IIS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This product is a bit expensive as IBM products are costly assets. However, for enterprise customers it is a worthwhile investment."

"The licensing cost is very expensive."

"IBM DataPower Gateway is quite expensive to get resources to work on this product. If the price could be cheaper, I think that will make it a little bit better and easily accessible to smaller clients. Then it could compete with other solutions that are available in the market. There's a whole lot of other solutions available that work well and are cheaper than IBM's products."

"Most customers' use case budgets are not inlined with the price of IBM DataPower Gateway. It is too expensive."

"It is an expensive solution."

"The product is expensive."

"The solution is expensive in comparison to other products."

"The appliance is a bit on the expensive side for the workloads that are not too high."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pricing and cost advice

"I think it's part of the Windows Server, so you won't have any other costs to add in order to use the IIS service."

"They offer a one-time payment model for the product license, and we pay annually for support."

"The solution provides multiple licensing options."

"IIS's pricing is reasonable."

"IIS's pricing is not expensive."

"This solution comes included with Windows Server."

"I didn't need to get an additional license for the solution since it was included in my server."

"IIS is expensive."

More IIS pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Infrastructure solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

865,140 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

29%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM DataPower Gateway?

The MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) is great because it allows you to easily expose services using various protocols – web services, REST (JSON), and others. This flexibility simplifies things.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM DataPower Gateway?

I would rate the pricing a two out of ten, with one being high price, and ten being low price. It's high-priced for smaller companies. But it is okay for enterprises. So, the price could be more fl...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?

The DCDR process should be less complex. AI should improve developer efficiency and effort. Whenever I am writing code, it should give recommendations automatically by incorporating AI so I can wri...

See all answers

Which is better - IIS or NGINX Plus?

IIS is a flexible, secure, and manageable web server to host anything on the web. IIS’s scalable and open architecture can handle the most demanding tasks. From media streaming to web applications,...

See all answers

What do you like most about IIS?

The product is flexible.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IIS?

If you have a Windows license, there is no additional cost for IIS. However, you may need to pay for SSL publishing at times.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM API Connect vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 34% of the time

Apigee vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 7% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM DataPower Gateway Competitors

Apache Web Server vs IIS

Compared 28% of the time

NGINX Plus vs IIS

Compared 27% of the time

Tomcat vs IIS

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle WebLogic Server vs IIS

Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) vs IIS

Compared 6% of the time

More IIS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway

August 2025

Download IBM DataPower Gateway product report

Buyer's Guide

IIS

August 2025

Download IIS product report

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower

Windows Server IIS

Overview

IBM DataPower Gateway is a robust, secure next-generation enterprise-grade single multichannel API gateway that supplies dynamic access, integration, control, and outstanding security. The solution is available in a broad range of workload capabilities, including application programming interface (API), service oriented architecture (SOA), B2B, cloud, web, and mobile. These dynamic capabilities ensure users are able to quickly increase the reach of an organization's critical IT resources to new channels, which will provide shareholders, team members, and clients with safe, secure access at all times.

DataPower Gateway is very flexible and is widely available in virtual, cloud, traditional, physical, Docker, and Linux form factors.

IBM DataPower Gateway Features

IBM DataPower Gateway has many value-added features. Some of these features are included below:

Control: The solution provides decision point authorization and authentication for all standards, including Lightweight Direct Access Protocol (LDAP) and Open Authorization (OAuth), which allow for better access control across an organization’s entire network.
DataPower dashboard: The dashboard is specifically designed to enhance performance and determine problematic processes. The solution provides intuitive real-time performance transparency to diagnose operational and performance anomalies and offer repair and restoration recommendations.
Enhanced messaging: Users are able to easily mediate messaging and protocols by incorporating the best of today’s traditional and modern application standards.
Integration: IBM DataPower Gateway offers super fast mainframe connectivity, database connectivity, transport protocol bridging, content-based routing, and any-to-any message transformation, ensuring secure and immediate connect service.

IBM DataPower Gateway Benefits

IBM DataPower Gateway provides many benefits. Some of those benefits include:

Flexibility: The solution is easy to use and configure and provides for a pleasant, intuitive overall user experience. The solution can immediately be used out of the box, which makes overall process management simple.
Protection: The solution provides sturdy continuous service protection and application performance using robust powerful routing and traffic control.
Security: The solution’s enterprise-grade De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) ready gateway enables users to enforce the desired runtime application security across all messaging protocols.
Profitability: The solution’s design ensures significant reduction of development costs in addition to the streamlining of overall operations. Users are able to achieve reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and experience a near-immediate ROI.

Reviews from Real Users

“My company has a good impression of IBM DataPower Gateway. What I like about it is that because it's an appliance, it's a turnkey solution that's very fast and out of the box. Another valuable feature of IBM DataPower Gateway is that it's easy to integrate with other products.”- Bálint T., Solution Manager at Intalion

“You don't have to have a separate DMC proxy because DataPower Gateway is an appliance and will take care of a lot of security features. These include data validations, encryption, as well as XML or any type of scripting or security threats that are present. From a security point of view, being an appliance in the DMC zone, IBM DataPower Gateway will take care of the entire security angle for the infrastructure.” - Sathyan K., Founder/Director at perfTech Solutions Pvt Ltd

IBM

Internet Information Services (IIS) provides a secure, easy-to-manage, modular and extensible platform for reliably hosting websites, services and applications. With IIS, you get choice and control without giving up reliability or security.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity

Erste Bank Group, NJVC, Samsung Electronics, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe, Urban Software Institute

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. IIS

July 2025

Free Report: IBM DataPower Gateway vs. IIS

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DataPower Gateway vs. IIS and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

865,140 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our IBM DataPower Gateway vs. IIS report.

See our list of best Application Infrastructure vendors.

We monitor all Application Infrastructure reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.