No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

IBM DataPower Gateway vs Squid Proxy Cache Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.1
IBM DataPower Gateway offers financial benefits by consolidating features and saving costs, despite being perceived as expensive.
Sentiment score
3.3
Squid Proxy Cache Server offers mixed ROI perceptions with potential cost savings and efficiency, but lacks uniform financial benefits.
I can provide some examples of return on investment by saying that we are running different APIs which we are using, and we are charging customers.
Deputy director at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
I have seen a return on investment with Squid Proxy Cache Server because money is definitely saved.
Owner For Data Center Operations Dns Cache at Proximus S.A.
With Squid Proxy Cache Server, you can save money because you don't need to pay for more bandwidth as you concentrate the web access in Squid Proxy Cache Server.
Cybersecurity Tenure Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Technically, if I think about the implementation cost, the cost of use, of adjustments, over time, and maintenance, it has certainly already paid for itself.
Analista de Segurança Senio at Optanet
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
IBM DataPower Gateway support is generally positive but varies in cost, response time, and client engagement quality.
Sentiment score
3.9
Squid Proxy Cache Server requires minimal support due to strong community resources, documentation, and Linux-based user familiarity.
In terms of OEM support, it is poor.
Middleware Administrator at Pronteff IT Solutions
I would rate the technical support of IBM as an eight on a scale from one to ten.
Software Engineer at EJADA
I would evaluate customer service and technical support as a little bit weak, so I give it a seven out of ten.
Deputy director at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
It would be great to have support similar to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Security Infrastructure Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
We were managing it on our own, and it was totally open-source.
Microsoft System Administrator at National Bank of Pakistan
There is an open-source community available on the internet, or the manual pages themselves are very helpful.
Dev Ops Technical Lead at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
IBM DataPower Gateway is scalable and ideal for large enterprises but may be costly and less flexible for smaller firms.
Sentiment score
5.4
Squid Proxy Cache Server provides robust scalability, efficiently managing traffic, configurable IP ranges, and easy deployment on Linux.
Once you install the product, we can't scale the resources on the IBM DataPower Gateway.
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
Scalability-wise, it is stateless, so it could be scaled.
Senior Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Scalability of Squid Proxy Cache Server is extremely high.
Analista de Segurança Senio at Optanet
We can increase the number of end users without the limitations found in other proxies, simply by configuring Squid Proxy Cache Server to allow specific users and IP ranges.
Linux System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
IBM DataPower Gateway is praised for high stability and reliability, especially in finance, with minimal configuration and strong performance.
Sentiment score
8.0
Squid Proxy Cache Server is stable and reliable, with exceptional logging, though users occasionally face crashes and connection issues.
IBM DataPower Gateway does not handle all the traffic on a single node.
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
Importantly, there has been no major outage in the 10 years I have used Squid Proxy Cache Server.
Linux System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It sometimes crashes, and it cannot handle too many connections.
Senior Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Squid Proxy Cache Server is stable; I have been using it for twenty years, and it has remained stable throughout that time.
Works at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

IBM DataPower Gateway needs simplified scripting, user-friendly design, flexible pricing, enhanced integration, and improved maintenance and customization.
Squid Proxy could enhance usability with a user interface, AI features, better security, and optimized caching for broader adoption.
Whenever I am writing code, it should give recommendations automatically by incorporating AI so I can write the code in a few minutes or seconds.
Middleware Administrator at Pronteff IT Solutions
However, from the development perspective, it has limitations because it only supports the XSLT language.
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
My experience with the pricing of this product is that pricing is too high and should be reduced.
Deputy director at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Control of information is needed so that sensitive actions are not cached, which would violate local security laws, such as in Brazil with LGPD, and in other places around the world as well.
Analista de Segurança Senio at Optanet
With the rise of cloud systems and OpenShift, enabling such features in Squid Proxy Cache Server would be very beneficial for customers, allowing for better management.
Linux System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
By default, Squid cannot see inside HTTPS traffic. It only sees the destination domain name, which poses a risk as users can bypass URL filters or download malware over encrypted connections.
System Auxiliary at Base Camp Data Solutions
 

Setup Cost

IBM DataPower Gateway is costly, especially for smaller firms, yet valued by enterprises; more flexible pricing would broaden accessibility.
Squid Proxy Cache Server is open-source, offering cost savings with support through Red Hat or community resources.
I think it costs around 5 Crore in Indian Rupees.
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
The costs are low because it is open-source software.
Works at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
I have seen a cost saving since implementing Squid Proxy Cache Server because then I don't have to really go for something such as a Blue Coat proxy.
Owner For Data Center Operations Dns Cache at Proximus S.A.
For our environment, we are using the free open source Squid Proxy Cache Server, so there is no licensing cost.
Security Infrastructure Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

IBM DataPower Gateway excels in security, integration, performance, and API management, offering robust features like SSL management and load balancing.
Squid Proxy Cache Server is valued for its easy installation, open-source nature, compatibility, and comprehensive caching, security, and management features.
No other Gateway offers this as part of the integration offering.
Middleware Administrator at Pronteff IT Solutions
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.
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
IBM DataPower Gateway's multi-protocol transformation is important for my integration needs because all the API traffic is coming from this API data gateway.
Deputy director at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Squid Proxy Cache Server is very good in hiding your IP address and exposing the IP address list that it has, which is very good for the scraping use case.
Senior Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Squid Proxy Cache Server has positively impacted my organization because I can filter internet access, which protects my company from users accessing malicious sites.
Data Engineer at Ericsson
Squid Proxy Cache Server has had a considerable positive impact on my organization, since a large part of internet traffic needs to be filtered to remain within the company's policies, as well as to reduce the amount of necessary traffic.
Analista de Segurança Senio at Optanet
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM DataPower Gateway
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (7th), SOA Application Gateways (1st), API Management (15th)
Squid Proxy Cache Server
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 4.0%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Squid Proxy Cache Server is 0.0%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Squid Proxy Cache Server0.0%
IBM DataPower Gateway4.0%
Other96.0%
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

AkshaySawant - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Mayashankar Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Owner For Data Center Operations Dns Cache at Proximus S.A.
Caching and reverse proxy have boosted performance and improved secure web and mail access
I think Squid Proxy Cache Server can be improved by having a nice front-end, one similar to Blue Coat for access management, view management, and direct configuration instead of doing it all through the CLI. It's best to have everything done through the GUI, which is what I think can improve the product. I don't want to implement third-party GUIs on Squid Proxy Cache Server. So that's what would be on my wish list—that Squid Proxy Cache Server by itself provides a GUI, which will give more confidence to users. I haven't actually used AI with Squid Proxy Cache Server, but I think it might be very interesting to have the AI capability built-in. However, I do think we need some GPU or something to boost the performance on Squid Proxy Cache Server as natively running. I think we need to add some GPU cards so that it works more natively with AI. I don't have experience using AI features yet, but I think it would be great if it could do some live scanning of the websites that are getting blocked on a daily basis and perform some sampling analysis. Especially in the case of reverse proxy, if there are any attacks happening, it would be beneficial if it scrapes through its own log files and provides some nice dashboards showing where the attacks are coming from. That would be really great to have as a handy troubleshooting tool. One more feature I would ask for is if AI can provide the best possible configuration and do a review of Squid Proxy Cache Server just to make sure that no other ports or anything by default are missed in configuration. It would also be great if the proxy server acts as a load balancer in a cluster mode that shares the cache, and the configuration is best set.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Infrastructure solutions are best for your needs.
909,153 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
8%
Government
7%
Construction Company
24%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM DataPower Gateway?
I don't know if the current licensing cost of IBM DataPower Gateway is high, but I think it's acceptable. I don't have any complaints about it.
What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?
I noticed that the Gateway Script libraries could be improved, as they are not covering everything I need.
What is your primary use case for IBM DataPower Gateway?
The primary purposes for which IBM DataPower Gateway is used include security purposes, and sometimes you need to put some configurations and mapping into the process.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Squid Proxy Cache Server?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing involves using an open-source Squid Proxy product, so the costs are low because it is open-source software.
What needs improvement with Squid Proxy Cache Server?
I believe that Squid Proxy Cache Server could see improvements with updates to incorporate the latest kernel. Nowadays, there are many competitors available, but I want to emphasize that Squid Prox...
What is your primary use case for Squid Proxy Cache Server?
My main use case for Squid Proxy Cache Server is that it's an open source application implementation, with a frontend being an Apache server and a backend using MySQL databases. Squid Proxy Cache S...
 

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. Squid Proxy Cache Server and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,153 professionals have used our research since 2012.