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IBM DataPower Gateway vs SAP Integration Suite 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
6.5
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (5th), Application Infrastructure (12th), SOA Application Gateways (1st)
SAP Integration Suite
Ranking in API Management
13th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 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 SAP Integration Suite is 1.0%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM DataPower Gateway3.7%
SAP Integration Suite1.0%
Other95.3%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

AkshaySawant - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
AhmedHaridy - PeerSpot reviewer
Has many add-on services and supports different authentication methods
The SAP Integration Suite can work with different authentication methods. It supports physical authentication, certificate-based integration, and mTLS authentication. This allows customers to choose the best integration approach based on their policies and procedures. Additionally, the suite offers both push and data integration capabilities. The SAP Integration Suite has different add-ons and services that are easy to activate. You can create chatbots and integrate them with websites and apps. You can also build custom customer apps from scratch using various technologies. These apps can be based on databases or programming languages like Java. The suite also supports special intelligence like machine learning, although we haven't used it yet. It offers various methods, such as API management. You can easily access data files in formats like JSON or Excel, depending on your needs.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the API Gateway feature."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The API Connect gateway service and the SQL injection feature is good."
"Support for PCA and non-PCA services is valuable."
"The product's most valuable features are AAA policies and security features."
"What I like most is the stability."
"The scalability of the solution is good."
"I like that it is very stable, and we never experience any downtime."
"The most beneficial feature for our clients is the easy access to their information, achieved effortlessly through integration."
"The most beneficial feature of SAP Integration Suite for our operation is its capability to enable API-based cloud applications to integrate seamlessly with SAP S/4HANA."
"The technical support services are good."
"The SAP Integration Suite can work with different authentication methods. It supports physical authentication, certificate-based integration, and mTLS authentication. This allows customers to choose the best integration approach based on their policies and procedures. Additionally, the suite offers both push and data integration capabilities."
"The solution is easy to use."
 

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."
"The initial setup isn't so easy, you need who has experience working with the solution to help."
"The programming language is only supported in XSLT and Gateway script."
"For the workloads that are not too high, appliance is a little bit expensive."
"DataPower isn't the most user-friendly tool. It is not an easy tool to use. Some things could use better wizards to guide you through processes."
"They should improve the solution's clustering features."
"Traceability could be improved, especially for business operations. The traceability of the transactions could be an improvement point for DataPower to work on. It would be better if they provided JSON support. JSON protocol data has changed format. It started performing internal transformation to JSONx. This might be an additional complexity."
"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 setup process for the SAP integration Suite is not straightforward. It involves some technical aspects and can be complex."
"They could provide graphical data for over-viewing metrics such as payments, receipts, creditors, and refunds."
"I believe there are areas where SAP Integration Suite could be improved, such as enhancing message transformation capabilities and simplifying conditional routing features compared to the on-premise tool SAP PO (Process Orchestration)."
"The instances are costly."
"The product's UI could be faster."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive in comparison to other products."
"It's expensive when you compare it with others."
"The cost is very high and requires all five components in the API management solution."
"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."
"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."
"The licensing cost is very expensive."
"This product is a bit expensive as IBM products are costly assets. However, for enterprise customers it is a worthwhile investment."
"I'm not well-versed in the details of pricing and standard licensing for SAP Integration Suite as I primarily focus on technical aspects. As far as I know, clients can choose between different levels of offerings based on their messaging frequency and business requirements, with premium levels offering more features and customization options."
"I rate its pricing a five out of ten."
"It is inexpensive for smaller businesses and expensive for larger businesses."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
29%
Insurance Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Media Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise16
No data available
 

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?
This product is definitely expensive because if any issue occurs in the live environment or production environment, and our organization faces some issue with the IBM DataPower Gateway, then the IB...
What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?
I have significant experience with the IBM DataPower Gateway. As a security product, it is very good. However, from the development perspective, it has limitations because it only supports the XSLT...
What do you like most about SAP Integration Suite?
The SAP Integration Suite can work with different authentication methods. It supports physical authentication, certificate-based integration, and mTLS authentication. This allows customers to choos...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Integration Suite?
I'm not well-versed in the details of pricing and standard licensing for SAP Integration Suite as I primarily focus on technical aspects. As far as I know, clients can choose between different leve...
What needs improvement with SAP Integration Suite?
I believe there are areas where SAP Integration Suite could be improved, such as enhancing message transformation capabilities and simplifying conditional routing features compared to the on-premis...
 

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DataPower Gateway vs. SAP Integration Suite and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.