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In today’s fast-paced IT world, managing data flow and streamlining processes across different systems and applications is more important than ever, and that’s where iPaaS solutions come in: they’re becoming an essential solution for keeping everything connected and running smoothly.

But here’s the thing: while traditional iPaaS are powerful, an embedded iPaaS solution (Integration Platform as a Service) can take things to the next level, as it integrates directly into your existing applications and systems, giving you even greater agility and control.

In this article, we’ll dive into the basics of embedded iPaaS, explore its features, and look at how it stacks up against traditional iPaaS solutions. Plus, we’ll give you some tips on choosing the right embedded iPaaS to boost your enterprise’s integration capabilities.

Let’s dive in!

What is Embedded iPaaS?

Embedded Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) is a cloud-based integration solution designed to be embedded directly into a company’s existing applications, products, or services. It enables seamless data integration and workflow automation across various systems, applications, and data sources within an organization.

To help you understand better, here are some examples of what an embedded iPaaS can do:

• CRM data integration: Automatically sync customer data from various sources into a CRM platform.
• E-commerce & inventory: Connect e-commerce platforms with inventory systems to update stock levels.
• SaaS workflow automation: Enable users to automate workflows between different business apps, like HR and payroll systems.

Embedded iPaaS vs iPaaS

Unlike traditional iPaaS, which acts as a separate platform for connecting multiple applications, embedded iPaaS is built right into an organization’s existing software or service infrastructure. This makes everything run more smoothly and naturally within the tools you’re already using.

Let’s break down how these two approaches differ in some real-world scenarios, especially for large companies.

Aspect	Traditional iPaaS	Embedded iPaaS
Integration Approach	Acts as a standalone hub for all integration needs, requiring switching between main systems and the iPaaS platform	Blends seamlessly into existing software, allowing integration management within familiar environments
User Experience	Requires managing integrations outside of primary workflow tools, potentially needing additional training	Embedded directly into existing applications, providing a smoother and more intuitive user experience
Customization and Control	Offers robust tools for managing integrations but customization is within the platform’s constraints	Allows deeper customization within the host application, tailoring integrations and workflows more precisely
Deployment and Maintenance	Requires its own deployment, configuration, and ongoing maintenance, involving multiple vendors and platforms	Integrated with existing systems, reducing complexity and overhead for simpler deployment and maintenance
Scalability and Flexibility	Scales independently as a dedicated integration solution, suitable for extensive, high-volume integrations	Scales within the context of the host application, growing alongside existing systems for aligned flexibility

Embedded iPaaS benefits

For large organizations, embedded iPaaS solutions offer game-changing benefits that can make a big difference.

So, let’s take a look at what they bring to the table.

Streamlined integration

Embedded iPaaS makes real-time data synchronization and automation a breeze across all your on-premises and cloud-based environments. By cutting down on the complexity of managing multiple point-to-point integrations, it keeps your workflows running smoothly and ensures data is always available where you need it.

Enhanced security

Security is a top priority nowadays, and embedded integration platforms have you covered. They typically come packed with built-in security features like encryption, tokenization, and compliance with industry standards like GDPR and HIPAA. This is a huge help for SecOps teams, who need to make sure that sensitive data stays protected as it moves between different systems.

Operational efficiency

Nobody likes dealing with the hassle of maintaining custom integrations and scripts. This is why embedded iPaaS reduces that burden by offering tools that let you monitor, manage, and troubleshoot integrations from one centralized interface. This means quicker issue resolution and less downtime, keeping everything running smoothly.

Scalability

As your organization grows, so do your integration needs. Embedded iPaaS is designed to scale right along with you, handling high volumes of data and an increasing number of integration points without adding extra operational headaches.

Customization and control

While embedded iPaaS offers plenty of out-of-the-box connectors and templates, it also gives you the flexibility to customize integrations to meet your specific business needs. This is especially valuable for DevOps teams that need to tailor workflows to fit unique operational requirements.

Reduced time to market

Speed is key nowadays, and by leveraging embedded iPaaS systems capabilities directly within your software, you can provide end-users with a seamless experience, cutting down the time it takes to roll out new services or connect to third-party applications.

Embedded iPaaS key features

When you’re choosing the right embedded integration platform for your organization, there are a few key features you’ll want to keep an eye on.

Here’s a list of the most important ones.

Pre-built connectors and APIs

Look for a platform that comes with a wide range of pre-built connectors for popular enterprise applications and APIs. These make it much easier to integrate various systems without having to start from scratch.

End-to-end encryption

Security is always on top of mind, so end-to-end encryption is fundamental. This feature ensures that your data is secure both during transit and at rest: this helps you meet compliance requirements and protects sensitive information as it moves across all your integrated systems.

Centralized monitoring and management

A good embedded iPaaS platform should offer a centralized dashboard where you can monitor everything in real-time. This includes logging and troubleshooting for all your integration workflows. With everything in one place, you can manage your integrations more efficiently and respond to any issues quickly, keeping downtime to a minimum.

Scalable architecture

As your business grows, so will your data and integration needs. A scalable architecture is key, as it ensures that your platform can handle increasing data volumes and demands without missing a beat. This way, you’ll maintain seamless operations even as things get busier.

Customizable workflow automation

Finally, customizable workflow automation is a real must. This feature allows you to design and deploy integration workflows that are tailored to your specific business processes and operational needs. Whether you have unique requirements or just want things to run exactly how you envision, this flexibility is invaluable.

7 best embedded iPaaS

Now, let’s consider a list of the best embedded iPaaS and compare them.

n8n

n8n as an embedded iPaaS integrates its workflow automation capabilities directly into other applications, allowing users to manage workflows within their existing environments. This approach enhances user experience by providing seamless automation management without needing to switch platforms. It simplifies deployment and maintenance while aligning scalability with the host application’s growth.

Key features:

• Connects multiple services: n8n is fantastic for connecting a wide variety of services. It comes with pre-built integrations for popular tools across different categories like cloud platforms, databases, CRMs, marketing tools, and social media. This means you can easily create workflows that link up your favorite tools, making it simpler to automate tasks across different platforms without a hitch;
• Custom integrations: Need to connect to something that’s not covered by the pre-built integrations? No problem! n8n lets you create custom integrations using the HTTP request node or by writing your own JavaScript code. This flexibility means you can connect to any API, opening up endless possibilities for tailoring integrations to fit your specific needs;
• Data manipulation: When it comes to getting your data in shape, n8n got you covered. The platform includes nodes for transforming and processing data. Whether you need to format text, parse JSON, or modify data structures, these tools help ensure that different services can communicate effectively, even if they don’t natively play nice with each other;
• AI integration capabilities: users can automate complex workflows that involve multiple AI processes, such as data preprocessing, model training, and inference, by chaining together different AI services and processing steps within n8n.

Pricing:

• Embed license pricing starts at $50,000/year for an embedded license. For a detailed quote contact our sales team.

If you want to try n8n as an automation tool for the sake of testing it, we provide different cloud plans as well as a self-hosted one. Try it today, benefiting from free templates to help you get started:

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Prismatic

Prismatic is an embedded integration platform that’s tailor-made for B2B software companies looking to build integrations and offer their customers a top-notch integration experience.

For developers, Prismatic provides everything you need to write, deploy, and manage integrations, including a development API, CLI, and a custom coding environment based on TypeScript. If you’re not a developer, Prismatic offers a low-code designer and a full suite of tools for managing customer integrations, complete with logging and alerts. This way, your team can handle simple integrations without needing deep technical skills, while developers can focus on more complex projects.

Key features:

• Custom or code components: In Prismatic, a component is a portion of reusable code that accomplishes a specific task, or connects with an outside service. It offers a wide array of built-in components to accomplish a variety of things, like serializing data formats, invoking REST endpoints, or interacting with commonly used SaaS platforms. The majority of your integrations can be developed using these standard components, but for the integrations that are specific to your industry or product, they provide the ability to run custom code as part of your integration;
• Low-code builder and code-native integrations: You can build your integrations in the low-code builder or as a TypeScript project in your favorite IDE. An integration built with the low-code builder consists of a series of steps that execute one after another in series. A code-native integration, instead, is a set of flows written in TypeScript that run when a trigger is activated;
• Embedded marketplace: Prismatic allows you to build productized, reusable integrations that can be configured differently for each customer. Setting up your integrations with config variables also allows your customers to self-activate their integrations via the embedded marketplace which is the place where you can present your integrations to your customers​;
• Safe test environment: The integration designer provides a sandbox for testing integrations. From the designer, you can invoke a test instance of your integration, configure test values for config variables, and view test logs in real time.

Pricing:

• A pro plan providing everything you need to begin building, deploying, and managing embedded integrations for your customers – contact them for price;
• A scale plan with enhanced capabilities and higher usage limits to manage the integration needs of a growing customer base – contact them for price;
• An enterprise plan providing more tailored solutions with extended limits and advanced features for every integration scenario – contact them for price.

Tray

Tray offers an enterprise integration platform as a service (iPaaS) that’s built to automate complex workflows across different systems and applications. It’s designed to help large organizations manage their data efficiently and scale their operations smoothly.

For developers, Tray Embedded has some limitations as it doesn’t include a CLI and only offers partial API functionality. Non-developer teams, on the other hand, can take advantage of a drag-and-drop designer and app connectors, but when it comes to custom or non-standard integrations, they’re mostly limited to using low-code HTTP connectors.

Key features:

• Configuration wizard: This feature allows end users to configure your integration for their usage by creating authentications for the services involved and setting any required configuration data;
• Templetized projects: Tray provides the so-called “solutions” that are projects that have been templatized. With this feature, anyone can activate an instance of a solution and personalize it for their use;
• Auth-only dialog: This feature allows users to complete the authentication step using an auth-only dialog, instead of the configuration wizard. This is useful for integrations that do not require users to carry out any personalization beyond authenticating with services;
• End user data mapping: This feature allows you to set up data mapping scripts to map a record from one service to another. A common use case for data mapping is to automate the creation of records in two services. For example, you could need to automatically create an account in Hubspot which is pulled in from an ‘original’ account in Salesforce.

Pricing:

• The pricing is not publicly available. You can request their embedded bundle.

Workato

Workato is an enterprise iPaaS with a secondary focus on its embedded offering, Workato Embedded. In particular, Workato Fully Embedded allows you to build and manage customer integrations directly within your product by embedding an iframe in the UI.

It provides a low-code designer with over 1,000 connectors, making it easy for non-developers to build and manage integrations. Developers, on the other hand, can use an SDK for custom connectors, though it’s limited to a subset of Ruby and lacks support for fully code-native integrations.

Key features:

• Pre-built connectors: Workato Embedded comes with over 400 pre-built connectors for a wide range of SaaS applications and databases. On top of that, it offers hundreds of thousands of automation templates. These connectors and templates are like ready-made building blocks that make it super easy to integrate different systems and get your automation up and running quickly, without needing to build everything from scratch;
• Low-code UI: The platform features a low-code user interface that allows even less technical teams to create integrations and automation in minutes. With its intuitive drag-and-drop design, anyone on your team can jump in and start automating processes;
• Patented workbot: One of Workato’s standout features is its patented Workbot. This allows you to create chatbots that can be integrated directly into your product’s workflow automation. These chatbots can handle tasks, answer questions, and interact with users in real time, all within the flow of your existing processes. It’s a great way to enhance user experience and streamline operations by bringing automation right where your users need it;
• Embedded connection widget implementation: With Workato’s embedded connection widget, you can build and maintain integrations on behalf of your customers. This means your customers don’t have to worry about the technical details: they can enjoy the benefits of seamless integrations without getting involved in the setup or maintenance.

Pricing:

• Not publicly defined: you have to talk to sales.

Paragon

Paragon is all about B2B SaaS integrations, and it’s got some interesting features to help with that. It offers a low-code builder, which is great for putting together integrations without needing a lot of coding know-how. Plus, it provides a TypeScript-based framework for creating custom connectors. However, this framework does have some limits and restrictions on npm packages, so it might not cover everything you need.

One thing to note is that while customers can activate and configure integrations from the marketplace, Paragon doesn’t have an embedded integration builder. So, if you’re looking for that feature, you might need to explore other options.

Key features:

• Connect portal: Paragon offers something called the Connect Portal, which is where your users go to link their third-party app accounts to your application. This feature is all about giving you control over the integration experience for your users. You can customize it to match your brand and make sure it fits seamlessly into your app, making it easier for users to connect their accounts without any hassle;
• Developer-friendly SDK: For the tech-savvy folks, Paragon provides a developer-friendly SDK that you can drop into your front-end JavaScript. This SDK lets you embed the Connect Portal right into your application and trigger workflows effortlessly. It’s perfect if you want to integrate Paragon’s features directly into your app without needing to reinvent the wheel;
• Low-code workflow builder: If you’re looking to create custom integrations, Paragon’s low-code workflow builder is a great tool. It lets you design and deploy integrations that your users can activate themselves. You don’t need to be a coding whiz to set up these workflows; the low-code builder simplifies the process so you can focus on getting your integrations up and running quickly;
• Connected users dashboard: The connected users dashboard is your go-to spot for keeping track of your users and their connected integrations. Here, you can see which workflows your customers have enabled, manage their integrations, and even disconnect or uninstall integrations if needed. It’s also useful for handling user accounts—like disabling users or workflows for those who might not be paying any more. This dashboard helps you stay on top of everything and ensures you can manage integrations efficiently.

Pricing:

• A pro plan for businesses that need to rapidly scale their integrations – contact them for price;
• An enterprise plan providing on-premise hosting and enterprise-scale performance contact them for price.

Cyclr

Cyclr is an embedded iPaaS designed to make integration a breeze with its low-code approach. It comes with over 400 pre-built connectors, which means you’ve got a lot of options right out of the box.

For those who aren’t developers, Cyclr makes life easy with its low-code builder and management console. You can put together and manage integrations without needing to dive into complex code. Plus, it features an embedded, white-labeled marketplace where your customers can activate integrations on their own.

Key features:

• A wide range of connectors: Cyclr offers a collection of over 500 pre-built connectors. These connectors are the bridges that link your application to a wide array of third-party services. Plus, if you need something more specific, Cyclr’s “connector creation toolkit” lets you build your own connectors. This means you can tailor integrations exactly to your needs, opening up even more possibilities for connecting with various apps and services;
• Customizable flows: With Cyclr’s low-code environment, you can create custom integrations and workflows without needing to be a coding expert. This flexibility is perfect for teams who want to streamline their processes and connect with a diverse range of applications and services. You can design and adjust workflows easily, making it simpler to meet your specific integration needs;
• Templates: Cyclr also offers templates, which are pre-designed integrations you build using the drag-and-drop builder. Once you’ve set up these templates, you can install them directly into your end users’ accounts. This feature speeds up the deployment of integrations and ensures that your users get a consistent and reliable experience;
• Robust API: For developers, Cyclr provides a powerful API that opens up a lot of possibilities. This API allows you to extend and enhance Cyclr’s capabilities by creating and managing accounts, setting up and installing connectors, and handling data on demand. Whether you need to automate tasks or integrate deeper functionalities, the robust API gives you the tools to get it done.

Pricing:

• A growth plan – 1,795 €/Mo with 2 weeks trial;
• A scale plan – 5,295 €/Mo with 2 weeks trial;
• A self-hosted enterprise plan –  contact them for price;
• A Managed Hosted Enterprise plan –  contact them for price.

Boomi

Boomi offers both iPaaS and embedded iPaaS solutions, giving you powerful tools to integrate across a wide range of systems and applications.

Whether you need real-time data synchronization or workflow automation, Boomi’s embedded iPaaS is here to help. For developers, Boomi’s solution is flexible and robust, offering detailed APIs and custom coding options. Its low-code interface, particularly suitable for non-developers, lets you create and manage integrations with minimal coding, which is great if you want to streamline processes without getting bogged down in technical details.

Key features:

• Pre-built connectors: Boomi’s pre-built connectors are a game changer when it comes to integrating data between different applications and sources. These connectors save you from the tedious task of manual data exchange, letting you set up connections quickly and easily;
• Hybrid deployment: Boomi’s single instance, multi-tenant architecture ensures that your integrations stay synchronized no matter where they’re deployed. This means you don’t have to worry about your systems falling out of sync, no matter where your data is or how it’s being used;
• Regression-tested integrations: To help you avoid issues from software updates, Boomi offers an option to upload test versions of your integrations to “Boomi Assure”. This feature helps you catch and fix any regressions or bugs before they affect your live environment, giving you peace of mind that your integrations will continue to run smoothly even after updates.
• Self-managed: Boomi takes care of automatic platform updates, ensuring that changes to your integration processes are deployed and synchronized without you having to lift a finger. This means you can stay focused on innovation and improving your business, while Boomi handles the technical updates and maintenance for you;
• Crowdsourced troubleshooting: When it comes to fixing common errors, Boomi also uses a crowdsourced approach. This means that issues resolved within the user interface are based on contributions from both the Boomi support team and the broader user community. It’s a collaborative effort that helps you get solutions faster and benefit from the collective knowledge of other users.

Pricing:

• Contact them for the price, but it provides a 30-day trial.

How to choose the right embedded iPaaS?

When it comes to choosing the perfect embedded iPaaS for your needs, it’s important to consider a few key factors to ensure it’s a great fit for your business.

Here’s a guide to help you navigate the decision-making process:

Understand your business needs

Before diving into the features and options, take a step back and think about what your business truly needs:

• Identify use cases: Start by pinpointing the specific integration challenges you’re facing. Are you looking to automate internal processes, connect various applications, or offer integration capabilities directly to your customers? Understanding your use cases will help you choose a platform that fits your needs like a glove.
• Scalability: Think about how the platform will grow with your business. You want to make sure it can handle your current demands and scale up as your business expands. This will save you from having to switch platforms down the road.

Consider user experience and accessibility

A platform’s usability can make a big difference in how effectively you can integrate and manage your systems:

• Ease of use: Take a close look at the user interface. A visual, drag-and-drop workflow builder can be a huge help, especially for non-technical users who need to create and manage integrations.
• Developer-friendliness: For more complex tasks, check if the platform offers robust developer tools like SDKs, APIs, and detailed documentation. These resources can make it easier for developers to build and customize integrations.
• Collaboration features: Consider whether the platform supports collaboration features. Being able to work together with your team on building and maintaining integrations can enhance productivity and ensure everyone is on the same page.

Deployment and hosting options

Finally, think about how and where you want the platform to be deployed:

• Cloud vs. on-premises: Decide if you need a cloud-hosted solution or if an on-premises deployment is better for your business. Some organizations prefer the control and security that come with a self-hosted solution.
• Hybrid solutions: Look into whether the platform offers hybrid deployment models. This can provide a balance between cloud and on-premises solutions, offering flexibility to meet various needs.

Wrap Up

Embedded iPaaS offers a seamless integration approach, enhancing connectivity and operational efficiency compared to traditional iPaaS.

Its benefits include robust security, streamlined workflows, and quicker market readiness, thanks to pre-built connectors and APIs. Key features like centralized monitoring, scalable architecture, and customizable automation make it a standout choice.

When choosing an embedded iPaaS, consider your business needs, user experience, and deployment options. Leading solutions such as n8n, Prismatic, Tray, Workato, Paragon, Cyclr, and Boomi can elevate your integration strategy effectively.

What’s next?

Now that you have everything you need to understand embedded iPaaS and how to choose the one that suits your needs, you can start with n8n embedded. Or take a look at these case studies and see how to use n8n workflows in your case!