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IBM DataPower Gateway vs Microsoft Azure API Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 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 DataPower Gateway
Ranking in API Management
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (5th), Application Infrastructure (8th), SOA Application Gateways (1st)
Microsoft Azure API Management
Ranking in API Management
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 4.0%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure API Management is 17.1%, down from 19.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

Mehdi El Filahi - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Praveen_Srivastava - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is easy to use, easy to install, and it's resilient for high availability."
"The solution is stable."
"It's high-speed and it can be remotely administered via an API."
"The product is stable...The product is scalable."
"I like all of the features in this product and it does what it's supposed to do."
"The performance is good. It's been very stable."
"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. Compared to other gateways, I also like that IBM DataPower Gateway is function-rich. For example, for one of the projects, there was a need for specific transformation and security features available in IBM DataPower Gateway out of the box, so my team just needed to configure the appliance. There was no need for separate development, and I found it quite neat. Another valuable feature of IBM DataPower Gateway is that it's easy to integrate with other products."
"The solution is robust."
"The ability to easily connect back to Service Fabric is the most important for us."
"The simplicity to learn and apply using API Management is valuable."
"Azure API Management is an API gateway that can be used for different purposes, for example, to monetize APIs."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Azure API Management are the easy configuration and deployment with automation."
"It is easy to use."
"Most of the features are valuable to me."
"Microsoft Azure API Management has many valuable features. One is the developer portal, that's very useful for teams. The tool also provides layers of security. I also found the caching, automatic documentation, and version management functionalities most valuable."
"The solution is quite stable. We have no issues with it. there have been no crashes and we haven't experienced bugs or glitches. It's been quite reliable."
 

Cons

"IBM DataPower Gateway is quite big for smaller organizations, looking at different types of clients who are virtually assisted in this, I would say it's not really a good product for smaller firms."
"Its support services could be better."
"The user interface or the application development perspective and customization of the tool could be a little better."
"Small and medium-sized companies might look for cloud-hosted applications due to the cost."
"Scripting needs improvement. It's hard for our customers."
"The DCDR process should be less complex."
"Some pre-packaged connectors for integration with various applications, such as SaaS offerings, would be a useful addition."
"The product should be more adapted to the DevOps process."
"I could that the UI could be improved."
"Microsoft Azure API Management could be improved by enhancing the preview feature, specifically the workspaces."
"The integration with other API gateways is where they might try to improve."
"The initial setup of Microsoft Azure API Management is somewhat complex, but having eight years of experience, it is simple for me as we use it regularly."
"I would like to see better scalability and better performance."
"There is room for improvement in the user interface and workflow for hosting APIs, especially third-party APIs."
"The licensing part of Microsoft is always higher than other platforms, like Amazon services and other cloud services."
"Other products have more customization options."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is 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."
"The solution is expensive in comparison to other products."
"It is an expensive solution."
"This product is a bit expensive as IBM products are costly assets. However, for enterprise customers it is a worthwhile investment."
"The cost of this product varies from customer to customer and the relationship with IBM, including how many offerings from IBM are already being used."
"As far as I know, they have a perpetual license for this product. They are paying perpetual fees rather than an annual subscription or annual pricing."
"The total cost of IBM DataPower Gateway would depend on the configuration, but in my experience, it can amount to 60,000 Euros per box, even for the virtual version. Usually, customers need high availability and a non-production environment, so the total price for IBM DataPower Gateway can be quite a lot. It can be 200,000 Euros or a similar figure."
"This is an expensive solution."
"Compared to other solutions the cost is a seven out of ten."
"We pay for a yearly license."
"It's free for less than ten users. If you want to go beyond that, it's around $3.50 per user per month. If you want a DevOps integration, it's about $7.50 per user per month. Costs depend on the size, complexity, usage, and what facility you want to integrate. So, we use Microsoft Azure and have the entire DevOps and Visual Studio on the cloud. We get all three flavors for $7.50 per user per month."
"It is an expensive solution, but any API solution will be expensive."
"We are paying standard fees to use Microsoft Azure API Management."
"The solution is highly expensive. Our customers worry about the costs. The price should be a lot less."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
30%
Insurance Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Insurance Company
7%
 

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.
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure API Management?
Microsoft Azure API Management is a good, comprehensive solution for enterprise implementation.
 

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower
Azure API Management, MS Azure API Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH, Opensistemas
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft Azure API Management and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.