IBM API Connect vs. Swagger Open Source, supported by SmartBear

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM API Connect
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
IBM API Connect is a scalable API solution that helps organizations implement a robust API strategy by creating, exposing, managing and monetizing an entire API ecosystem across multiple clouds. As businesses embrace their digital transformation journey, APIs become critical to unlock the value of business data and assets. With increasing adoption of APIs, consistency and governance are needed across the enterprise. API Connect aims to help businesses…N/A
Swagger Open Source, supported by SmartBear
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Supported by SmartBear, Swagger is a set of tools used by developers to design, document, build, and test APIs in the OpenAPI Specification.N/A
Pricing
IBM API ConnectSwagger Open Source, supported by SmartBear
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM API ConnectSwagger Open Source, supported by SmartBear
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM API ConnectSwagger Open Source, supported by SmartBear
Features
IBM API ConnectSwagger Open Source, supported by SmartBear
API Management
Comparison of API Management features of Product A and Product B
IBM API Connect
8.3
Ratings
0% above category average
Swagger Open Source, supported by SmartBear
7.4
Ratings
11% below category average
API access control8.60 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Rate limits and usage policies8.10 Ratings7.00 Ratings
API usage data8.60 Ratings7.00 Ratings
API user onboarding8.30 Ratings7.00 Ratings
API versioning8.30 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Usage billing and payments7.30 Ratings7.00 Ratings
API monitoring and logging8.90 Ratings7.00 Ratings
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IBM API ConnectSwagger Open Source, supported by SmartBear
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Score 9.2 out of 10
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Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.2 out of 10
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Score 9.2 out of 10
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User Ratings
IBM API ConnectSwagger Open Source, supported by SmartBear
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM API ConnectSwagger Open Source, supported by SmartBear
Likelihood to Recommend
Overall, it can be stated that IBM API Connect has many benefits and can easily manage complicated integrations. The platform performs best in large environments, especially where microservices and processing of multiple API dependencies are required. On average, we have processed thousands of API calls within a second with good response time.
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To my opinion Swagger Open Source is a very good tool to quickly produce an api documentation, that how I use it.Swagger can also produce an open api file to generate an api for our application server (Inersystems Iris) but we don't use this functionality for now. We plan to use more Swagger features in the future.
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Pros
  • API discovery feature is very helpful to allow us to scope the work required before diving into things.
  • The ability to set permissions and rulesets at a user level is essential to restrict access to specific datasets.
  • Ability for external users (those from outside our organisation) to leverage the API in more restrictive manner.
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  • Produce documentation
  • user interface to create api definition
  • reusability of data description
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Cons
  • That being stated, every thing you own will have both positive and negative aspects to its use. It can be perplexing at times, particularly when navigating between different functions.
  • However, based on my usage of this application up until this point, I've discovered that the only time it lags is when it's downloading updates. Otherwise, it's excellent to utilise for all other customs.
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  • for me the UI can be more simple
  • too many functionnalities when just want to produce doc, can be a separate app
  • A french documentation will be apreciated
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Usability
IBM API Connect may be less appropriate for small-scale projects with minimal API management requirements, where simpler and more cost-effective solutions suffice. Organizations lacking the necessary technical expertise or resources to harness its full potential may face implementation challenges. In static environments with infrequent API changes or limited developer engagement, the platform's comprehensive features may be excessive for the task at hand.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Our decision to adopt IBM API Connect was driven by its comprehensive end-to-end API lifecycle management, which proved to be exceptionally well-suited to our B2B, Open Banking, and multi-fintech integration requirements. When compared with other solutions, API Connect stood out for its ability to externalize and govern APIs at scale, while offering enterprise-grade capabilities critical for our regulated environment. IBM App Connect serves as our internal integration middleware, focused on backend orchestration and data transformation. IBM watsonx acts as a complementary AI and data platform for exposing intelligent services especially with the code assistant functionality, it is API Connect that provides the crucial layer for external API exposure, management, and monetization. IBM DataPower is an incredibly secure and performant runtime, and lacks key enterprise features such as developer engagement, full API governance, and analytics. API Connect fills that gap seamlessly, offering a unified, secure, and scalable API management experience.
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We use swagger only to generate the API documentation, for testing the APIs, we use Postman. We don't find an other tools for producing API documentation in web pages and also in pdf files. Postman is a good complement for testing APIs on InterSystems IRIS (a powerful application server and DB manager) which implements these APIs.
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Return on Investment
  • It has decreased the average development time of an API by 15%.
  • It has simplified the monitoring and tracking of development, keeping it simple and in one place.
  • It has reduced the time wasted looking for information; it has reduced the mail loop sharing status and questions.
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  • Less time to produce our documentation
  • Documentation can be accessed online, this is a plus for our customers and partners
  • Great tools to communicate with other project actors
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ScreenShots

IBM API Connect Screenshots

Screenshot of API tests and insightsScreenshot of API Manager customization interfaceScreenshot of the API designer