Every category where a model named IBM API Connect for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.

Category	Function	Share	Rank	Negative rate	Labels	Quadrant
API management	Developer platform	0%	41 of 55	35%	17	criticized challenger
API gateways	Developer platform	0%	39 of 51	50%	2	under 10 labels · led by Kong Gateway at 61%

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for IBM API Connect yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.

By model

How each model treated IBM API Connect across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Twelve models, six prompts per category.

Model	Alternative	Mention	Negative	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	1	1	0	2
GPT-5.4 mini	2	0	0	2
Gemini 3.5 Flash	0	0	1	1
Perplexity Sonar	0	1	1	2
Grok 4.1 Fast	1	1	1	3
Mistral Small	0	0	1	1
DeepSeek V4 Flash	0	2	0	2
Llama 4 Maverick	1	0	0	1
Qwen 3.7 Flash	0	1	2	3
Kimi K2	0	0	0	0
GLM 4.7 FlashX	0	0	1	1
MiniMax M2.5	0	1	0	1

By framing

Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.

FramingLabels by classFirst choices

Direct12 labels1

Paraphrase3 labelsNone

Comparative21 labels1not counted in share

Budget-constrained2 labelsNone

Scale-constrained4 labelsNone

Negative26 labels1not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative68 labels in all, every segment counted; 1 of the 3 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.

What the models said for it

Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.

“IBM API Connect makes sense if you need deeper enterprise governance and you're already in the IBM ecosystem.” GPT-5.4 mini · API management · direct prompt · alternative

“Choose IBM API Connect if you’re in a large enterprise or regulated environment” GPT-5.4 mini · API management · comparative prompt · alternative

“Leader, #1 in 4/6 Gartner use cases; ideal for regulated industries, on-prem/hybrid.” Grok 4.1 Fast · API management · comparative prompt · alternative

“Need enterprise features? Consider IBM API Connect's free tier” Claude Haiku 4.5 · API management · budget prompt · alternative

And against it

Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.

“Complex deployment, expensive, and has had performance issues in some cases” GLM 4.7 FlashX · API management · negative prompt · hard negative

“avoid it if you do not need legacy/mainframe integration” Perplexity Sonar · API management · negative prompt · hard negative

“Avoid these unless you are an established legacy enterprise” Gemini 3.5 Flash · API management · negative prompt · hard negative

“IBM API Connect, for example, is strong in regulated industries but may be overkill or less flexible for other use cases.” Mistral Small · API management · negative prompt · soft negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as IBM API Connect, over the 68 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and IBM API Connect was named but was not.

ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

Kong Gateway62 of 6815Not in the top three

Apigee61 of 6817Not in the top three

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform59 of 686Not in the top three

Amazon API Gateway57 of 683Not in the top three

Azure API Management50 of 681Not in the top three

Tyk37 of 681Not in the top three

WSO2 API Manager23 of 680Not in the top three

Gravitee18 of 682Not in the top three

Postman11 of 680Not in the top three

Zuplo10 of 683Not in the top three

A head-to-head page exists where both products are in a category's top three. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.

What carried it into the answer

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named IBM API Connect. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, four of the twelve in this edition, so these counts come from 62 of the 68 answers that named IBM API Connect and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

zuplo.com41

gartner.com34

improvado.io34

integrate.io31

moesif.com31

g2.com28

digitalapi.ai25

api7.ai24

blog.axway.com18

checkthat.ai18

284 of the 284 domain citations in answers naming IBM API Connect came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

improvado.io/blog/top-api-management-tools33

gartner.com/reviews/market/api-management32

integrate.io/blog/api-management-tools29

moesif.com/blog/technical/api-development/Top-API-Managers29

zuplo.com/learning-center/best-api-management-platforms-202622

blog.axway.com/learning-center/apis/api-management/list-api-management-vendors18

rajeshkumar.xyz/blog/api-management-platforms18

geekflare.com/guides/best-api-gateways16

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Names read as IBM API Connect

What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as IBM API Connect; a claim can dispute any of them.

IBM 3IBM's API Connect 1

Is this your product?

Claim this page

Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when IBM API Connect's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as IBM API Connect, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.

It does not get any change to labels, shares or verdicts, any preview, or any say over which quotes appear. A verification link goes to your work email; an address at ibm.com is approved on the spot, any other address is reviewed by hand.

Your name and company appear on the claimed page, or the company alone if you ask below. A title and a LinkedIn address appear there too if you give them, and are left off if you do not. Your email address is never published.