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IBM MQ pros and cons

Vendor: IBM
4.2 out of 5
Badge Ranked 1
1,545 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

IBM MQ is highly reliable, ensuring critical business applications function smoothly without message loss.
The scalability and robustness of IBM MQ make it an excellent choice for handling high transaction volumes while maintaining stability.
IBM MQ offers strong security features, including SSL, TLS, and RBAC, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
The integration capabilities of IBM MQ facilitate communication across different applications and platforms, enhancing operational efficiency.
Setting up and managing IBM MQ is straightforward, with technical support readily available to assist users.

CONS

IBM MQ needs improved integration capabilities with modern messaging platforms like Kafka or RabbitMQ.
High availability and scalability aspects of IBM MQ require enhancements to handle larger volumes and address connection dropouts.
Training and marketing for IBM MQ need to be increased as there is a lack of awareness and interest in its functionalities.
IBM MQ is perceived as expensive, and its pricing compared to competitors like open-source solutions is a concern.
IBM MQ should provide better support for public cloud platforms such as Azure and AWS, as its current compatibility is lacking.
 

IBM MQ Pros review quotes

SS
Apr 1, 2020
Whenever payments are happening, such as incoming payments to the bank, we need to notify the customer. With MQ we can actually do that asynchronously. We don't want to notify the customer for each and every payment but, rather, more like once a day. That kind of thing can be enabled with the help of MQ.
reviewer1302078 - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 1, 2020
What is quite useful is the asynchronous function which means we don't lose everything in the bank. Although we use a lot of things synchronously, asynch is the best thing so that no banking information is ever lost, even when the network goes down and comes up.
it_user632751 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 22, 2017
There are a lot of extensible options for security, i.e., various things you can do. It's pretty easy to navigate.
Learn what your peers think about IBM MQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
LL
Jan 4, 2022
A stable and reliable software that offers good integration between different systems.
reviewer1579410 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 29, 2021
I have found the solution to be very robust. It has a strong reputation, easy to use, simple to configure in our enterprise software, and supports all the protocols that we use.
RJ
Oct 21, 2022
I haven't seen any issues with respect to the message loss.
reviewer2721285 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 11, 2025
IBM MQ is a choice to create a relation between the Mainframe and distributed servers, allowing applications running on Linux or Windows to interface with Mainframe applications and enable more development of easier and open applications in a distributed environment.
AA
Apr 22, 2020
The most valuable feature is the Queue Manager, which lies in the middle between our application and our core banking server.
reviewer1688772 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 6, 2021
IBM is still adding some features and coding some other systems on the security end. However, it has the most security features I've seen in a communication solution. Security is the most important thing for our purposes.
it_user1332093 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 17, 2020
The most valuable feature is that it's a very strong integration platform but it is quite a monolithic solution. It's got everything.
 

IBM MQ Cons review quotes

SS
Apr 1, 2020
I would like to see it integrate with the newer ways of messaging, such as Kafka. They might say that you have IBM Integration Bus to do that stuff, but it would be great if MQ could, out-of-the-box, listen to public Kafka.
reviewer1302078 - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 1, 2020
The scalability is the one area where IBM has fallen behind. As much as it is used, there is a limit to the number of people who are skilled in MQ. That is definitely an issue. Places have kept their MQ-skilled people and other places have really struggled to get MQ skills. It's not a widely-known skillset.
it_user632751 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 22, 2017
Presenting and maybe having some different options for different user experiences based on the administrative duties that you have to do as an app manager or configure the server or security would be an improvement.
Learn what your peers think about IBM MQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
LL
Jan 4, 2022
Sometimes, not all messages are consumed in the queues. File transfers need improvement.
reviewer1579410 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 29, 2021
Everything in the solution could be simplified a little. We have trouble with the configuration and cost which is mostly an internal issue, but nevertheless, the errors do come up when there are configuration changes across a specific version. We have slightly different versions, which may have slightly different configurations which cause issues.
RJ
Oct 21, 2022
While there is support for API, it's not like the modern API capabilities.
reviewer2721285 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 11, 2025
The customer service or technical support from IBM is not as good as we expected; it could be better. They don't meet our standards due to the timing to get a person with knowledge.
AA
Apr 22, 2020
The memory management is very poor and it consumes too much memory.
reviewer1688772 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 6, 2021
There are many complications with IBM MQ servers.
it_user1332093 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 17, 2020
It's hard to put in a nutshell, but it's sort of developed as more of an on-premise solution. It hasn't moved much away from that.