IBM DataPower Gateway vs Microsoft Azure API Management comparison

IBM and Microsoft are both solutions in the API Management category. IBM is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.5, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.9. IBM holds a 3.7% mindshare in APIM, compared to Microsoft’s 16.5% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

IBM DataPower Gateway

Read 30 IBM DataPower Gateway reviews

5,657 Views
4,243 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure API Management

Read 82 Microsoft Azure API Management reviews

18,017 Views
18,017 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM DataPower Gateway

Microsoft Azure API Management

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

IBM DataPower Gateway and Microsoft Azure API Management are products in the API management and integration solutions category. Microsoft Azure API Management is often chosen for its extensive feature set, making it a preferred option for organizations seeking comprehensive capabilities.

Features: IBM DataPower Gateway is known for robust security, traffic management, and integration capabilities, ideal for enterprises needing high security and performance. Microsoft Azure API Management offers broad API lifecycle management features including developer portals and analytics, appealing to those needing comprehensive API insights and developer community support.

Room for Improvement: IBM DataPower Gateway could enhance its cloud deployment capabilities and simplify initial setup processes. Microsoft Azure API Management could improve pricing structure clarity and further develop offline support for scenarios with limited internet access. Both solutions would benefit from enhanced user interface intuitiveness and better cross-platform integration.

Ease Of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure API Management provides a cloud-native deployment model, aligning well with organizations using Azure ecosystems, and offers extensive documentation plus an active online community for support. IBM DataPower Gateway offers flexibility for on-premises environments but may require substantial initial setup.

Pricing and ROI: IBM DataPower Gateway is recognized for competitive initial setup costs, making it favorable for security-centric deployments. Microsoft Azure API Management may incur higher subscription fees but offers a clear ROI through its scalable cloud model and comprehensive features, which can justify its cost for businesses leveraging its advanced functionalities.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft Azure API Management Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft Azure API Management

September 2025

Download the complete report

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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 DataPower Gateway

Ranking in API Management

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (6th), Application Infrastructure (12th), SOA Application Gateways (1st)

Microsoft Azure API Management

Ranking in API Management

1st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 3.7%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure API Management is 16.5%, down from 19.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Azure API Management	16.5%
IBM DataPower Gateway	3.7%
Other	79.8%

API Management

Featured Reviews

AkshaySawant

Manager at CSB Bank Ltd

Security features excel but development limitations emerge

We are using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes. As per the development perspective, there are some limitations with IBM DataPower Gateway because it only supports XML and XSLT language, but it does not support the Java language. This is the only limitation of the IBM DataPower Gateway. For the authentication and authorization purpose, we can use the IBM DataPower Gateway. It's a very good product. We are mostly using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes and load balancing purposes. If we are handling the load for a particular server, then we can use the IBM DataPower Gateway. The IBM DataPower Gateway is mostly used for security purposes. If we have some APIs and we are using some security for those APIs, then we can use it. It can also be used as a load balancer. It's also used for certificate management, user management purposes, authentication, and authorization. For routing, the IBM DataPower Gateway has multiple URL-based routing and content-based routing capabilities. If we have multiple URLs, then we can use an XML script. Using the XSLT language, we can configure multiple URLs and implement URL-based routing. Content-based routing means if we have multiple requests, we can route the request to a particular URL. For this, we need to use the XSLT language only. We can't use XML, Java, or other scripting languages. With IBM DataPower Gateway, we are using all the APIs. All APIs have been configured on the gateway. We have configured the particular TLS profile and some TLS client profiles as well. Using that TLS profile, we have configured the APIs and authentication. We have configured some tokens also, including JWT tokens and different types of auth tokens. There is also a rate limiting feature which we use for handling API loads.

Read full review

Praveen_Srivastava

Solution Architect at Cognizant

Streamlined operations with gateway and authentication features

Azure API Management has helped streamline our operations by acting as a gateway for upstream and downstream applications. It provides authentication and authorization, ensuring that both verified and suspicious users are managed efficiently. The use of analytics within API Management is also valuable for tracking user behavior and ensuring security.

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

"Its initial setup was straightforward."

"I like the API Gateway feature."

"It is a scalable solution."

"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 scalable, our customers are mostly South African banks and they handle mostly transactions with this solution."

"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."

"It's high-speed and it can be remotely administered via an API."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pros

"The most valuable feature is the developer portal, which has source code examples in various programming languages to help developers learn the API."

"Everything is already available and ready to operate without a lot of preparation work."

"Easy to integrate API management platform. It is a stable and scalable solution."

"It's a valuable tool for API lifecycle management"

"There were no scalability issues."

"Microsoft Azure API Management is 90 to 99 percent scalable. We have three instances running in parallel."

"The analytics phase of API Management is very beneficial for tracking API usage and identifying suspicious users."

"The price is pretty reasonable for us."

More Microsoft Azure API Management pros

Cons

"Scripting needs improvement. It's hard for our customers."

"The two biggest issues of this solution are the complexity and the maintenance procedures."

"The solution requires a lot of training manuals in order to get to know it better and to be able to use it effectively."

"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."

"We are always looking for more features wherein it could be easily integrated with cloud applications. We are looking for either a cloud solution or a cloud integration option."

"Additional documentation needs to be provided for complex automations."

"The product's cost for data appliances or hardware is quite high. It needs improvement."

"Making it more user-friendly would be an improvement."

More IBM DataPower Gateway cons

"What would make Microsoft Azure API Management better are more APIs. They keep updating their APIs, but it would be better if the solution had more APIs for the services and more integration with other platforms."

"From my understanding, there are some constraints around governance and service-to-service intercommunication managing priorities and our own governance."

"Support for GraphQL could be better."

"Microsoft Azure API Management needs to improve stability."

"The licensing part of Microsoft is always higher than other platforms, like Amazon services and other cloud services. Microsoft should work on reducing the cost."

"Multi-tenant functionalities is missing from the system, especially when it comes to the developer code of features."

"Documentations for implementing certain product features are very difficult to find"

"Microsoft Azure API Management could be improved by enhancing the visual editor of the development portal."

More Microsoft Azure API Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an expensive solution."

"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."

"The licensing cost is very expensive."

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

"The solution has a return on investment but is a little expensive."

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

"The tool's initial costing is expensive for small banks and financial institutions."

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

More IBM DataPower Gateway pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft Azure is an expensive solution not for the large enterprises but for the medium and small."

"We are paying standard fees to use Microsoft Azure API Management."

"Azure is a pay-as-you-go model. You build out your virtual environment and pay a monthly price depending on CPU cores, storage, etc."

"Based on the resources that we are leveraging, the price we are paying to use this solution is slightly higher than other competitors. In a few cases, it has its own advantage in some resources."

"The product pricing is reasonable."

"The price of the solution is reasonable compared to others."

"There are additional costs to the standard licensing fees."

"Compared to other solutions the cost is a seven out of ten."

More Microsoft Azure API Management pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

29%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	52

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

How does Apigee differ from Azure API Management?

Apigee offers both cloud-based and on-prem options while Microsoft Azure API Management currently only offers a cloud-based solution. Both solutions are easy to use. Apigee allows for the ability...

See all answers

Which is better - Azure API Management or Amazon API Gateway?

If you use Azure products, API Management is a great solution. It solves many of the problems of externalizing web services. For example, when you need versioning, establish a developer portal and ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure API Management?

Microsoft Azure API Management is a good, comprehensive solution for enterprise implementation.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM API Connect vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 37% of the time

Apigee vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 10% 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

Mule ESB vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM DataPower Gateway Competitors

Amazon API Gateway vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 50% of the time

Apigee vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 15% of the time

IBM API Connect vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 5% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 4% of the time

SAP Integration Suite vs Microsoft Azure API Management

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Azure API Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway

September 2025

Download IBM DataPower Gateway product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure API Management

August 2025

Download Microsoft Azure API Management product report

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower

Azure API Management, MS Azure API Management

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

Microsoft Azure API Management is essential for managing APIs, facilitating integration, and ensuring secure internal and external communication.

Organizations leverage Microsoft Azure API Management for seamless integration and effective API management. It supports microservices, legacy modernization, and platform orchestration in sectors like healthcare, telecom, and finance. Features such as developer portals and centralized libraries simplify usage. While it showcases strengths in hybrid cloud support and scalability, improvements are suggested in versioning and multi-tenancy.

What key features does it offer?

Integration with Microsoft services ensures robust access control and user-friendly deployment.
Developer portal and documentation improve usability and learning.
Hybrid cloud support offers seamless on-premise connectivity.
Scalability and security features are well-regarded.
Centralized API library simplifies management.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Facilitates API lifecycle management enhancing user experience.
Simplifies authentication and subscription models.
Enhances data exchange and real-time monitoring.
Streamlines API mapping and orchestration across platforms.
Promotes flexibility and transparency in system integration.

Microsoft Azure API Management aids modernization across healthcare, telecom, and financial services by enabling legacy system updates and facilitating smooth platform orchestration.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH, Opensistemas

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft Azure API Management

September 2025

Free Report: IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft Azure API Management

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