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IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs NGINX Plus comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

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 WebSphere Message Broker
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
16th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (8th)
NGINX Plus
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of IBM WebSphere Message Broker is 1.9%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 10.1%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

BrajendraKumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers large-sized business information processing with a time-saving setup and impressive stability
I primarily use two previews of the product for Dev and two for QA as part of the production process. Whatever tools our company is using, the cost of a license in IBM WebSphere Message Broker is about 80% of all these software or tools. The message routing capabilities satisfy workflow efficiency. The product supports message formats of XML, JSON, and SSID, which are around 24 KB to 50 KB in size. The solution supports communication protocols like STTP and TCP. Features like DataGraph need to be introduced in IBM WebSphere Message Broker. Some of the clients of our organization are using an outdated version of IBM WebSphere Message Broker for which the vendor doesn't provide direct support anymore. For the aforementioned version, our company professionals can solve the queries on their own without seeking support from IBM. During the installation of a prior version of IBM WebSphere Message Broker, sometimes I have to configure the failovers through the cluster, where issues arise, and I often seek help from the support team. The solution is being used by some medicine companies in our organization that receive sales orders from the EDR or JDE. I would not recommend the product to others as its becoming obsolete and they can rather choose a middleware solution from Amazon or Azure. But I would overall rate the product a nine out of ten.
Michael Olayemi - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables public access and secure configurations through reverse proxy
The primary valuable feature of NGINX for me is its ability to provide a reverse proxy. I have found that this feature supports our local server, and I am able to connect through our DNS system, making it accessible publicly. Additionally, the integration with SSL certificates and the configuration capabilities make it a valuable solution for my use case. Without NGINX, users would not be able to access our application, which means there is positive ROI from using NGINX as it is crucial for the functioning of my organization.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has many interfaces and you can connect to any backend source that has another format, and convert it to the desired format."
"It's reliable for our day-to-day operations, ensuring fast and secure data integration across different systems."
"The solution has good integration."
"Message Broker is valuable because most of the applications are using MQ. Even in my current engagement, the few applications which I audit to onboard the bank are using MQ."
"Integration and mapping are easy, which is a major advantage."
"The most valuable feature of IBM WebSphere Message Broker is the ability to facilitate communication with legacy systems, offering a multitude of great capabilities. For example, if there is a mainframe system in place with a web service serving as the front end. In that case, the solution enables efficient protocol transformations to convert all request payloads into a format that the legacy systems can accept, rendering the integration and transformation processes seamless and highly effective."
"It is a scalable solution...The setup is easy."
"We only use the basic features, but the most valuable one for us is the Publish-subscribe pattern."
"​Zero Downtime has always been a strength in recommending infrastructure web services. NGINX allows me to execute such infrastructure with less complications and the ability to switch from server to server easily.​"
"​The flexibility of its modules allow it to be scalable.​"
"NGINX Plus also has NGINX App Protect. It's a separate module, which is inspired by the F5 apps."
"Nginx is simple to configure, very stable in a highly utilized environment and very modular, allowing DevOps to create it's own modules for interactive use with Nginx."
"With NGINX, I appreciate its ability to route traffic geographically."
"The web proxy and the database proxy are excellent."
"This solution has everything."
"The load balancing module, which is equivalent to LTM, is the focus of the PSE. So far, the features of both are identical. I believe NGINX has more features for securing these services, but in terms of load balancing, both are massive solutions."
 

Cons

"The user interface is designed mainly for experts, much in the way a BPM or another integration tool is."
"There is some lag in the GUI. There have been some performance issues and maybe it's because of the application data."
"It is currently a weighty product."
"The installation configuration is quite difficult."
"The product's features are not being upgraded or enhanced by the vendor"
"As our business requirements evolve, we require more dynamic capabilities to adapt and scale our services accordingly."
"Technical support is good but they could have a better response time."
"The solution can add container engines such as docker."
"I would like to see the Grafana integration in NGINX which is already present in HAProxy. Grafana integration will help the solution visualize all the data analytics on the dashboard which is currently not present."
"Our most challenging part was to run an older PHP website reverse-proxied through NGINX. That was not fun."
"One area of improvement could be that NGINX could provide a means to generate self-signed SSL certificates."
"I would like it to have a more user-friendly graphical interface."
"Initially, I experienced hiccups whenever I installed the application."
"NGINX is a very basic load balancer and cannot do as many customizations as F5."
"They should do in the open source version of what they did to Advanced HTTP, TCP, and UDP load balancing."
"If NGINX brings some features for health check in the open source version, it would be better. ​"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I feel with IBM, when you want certain functions or features, you have to continuously purchase add-ons. There are always additional fees."
"The licensing cost of IBM WebSphere Message Broker needs to be reduced"
"The solution is expensive."
"This product is more expensive than competing products."
"The solution is expensive."
"IBM products are generally more stable and have more features, but also come at a greater cost."
"The price is very high and it's the main reason that we are searching for alternatives."
"IBM software can be costly, but having a contract has helped manage and potentially lower costs over time."
"The list price of NGINX Plus is close to $5,500."
"​NGINX is a free tool in Brazil. There are some companies which do support it.​"
"It's an open source solution, so it's free."
"Nginx is free. I don't have experience with the Plus version."
"There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free."
"You pay for each feature that you want."
"I use the solution's community edition which is free of cost."
"The price is the cost to contract support with a specialized company, usually during consulting hours.​"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM WebSphere Message Broker?
IBM software can be costly, but having a contract has helped manage and potentially lower costs over time.
What needs improvement with IBM WebSphere Message Broker?
There could be greater flexibility and agility in service creation for the product. As our business requirements evolve, we require more dynamic capabilities to adapt and scale our services accordi...
What is your primary use case for IBM WebSphere Message Broker?
We use the product for exposing services at the application level, integrating with various architectures like WebSphere, and handling static service creation.
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,...
What do you like most about NGINX Plus?
It performs very well. That's one of the primary reasons we use NGINX.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX Plus?
My use case involves using the free and open-source version of NGINX, making it cost-effective as I haven't incurred any costs.
 

Also Known As

WebSphere Message Broker
NGINX
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

WestJet, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Sharp Corporation, Michelin Tire
Locaweb, AppNexus, Wix, Reliam, Montana Interactive, MuleSoft, Warpwire, Discovery Education, InkaBinka, WordPress.com, Gogo, GOV.UK, NASA
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs. NGINX Plus and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.