B2BITS is the closest thing to a like-for-like comparison for Quazar among the established FIX vendors, because its FIXEdge product is also a gateway with rule-based routing and normalisation rather than a bare engine. B2BITS, EPAM Systems' capital markets unit since 2008, sells FIX Antenna engine libraries in C++, Java and .NET, the FIXEdge application server, and a family of monitoring and log analysis tools.1,2,8 Quazar, built by Quod Financial, is an AI-native FIX fabric that unifies routing, transformation, session management and monitoring into one platform configured in plain language or through a REST API.
The difference is less about what each product can express and more about how a counterparty gets onboarded, who writes the rules, and how the platform is priced and operated.
Quazar vs B2BITS at a glance
| Criteria | B2BITS (EPAM) | Quazar |
|---|---|---|
| Category | FIX Antenna engine libraries; FIXEdge application server and gateway; FIXICC monitoring; FIXEye and FIX Grep log analyzers1,2,3 | AI-native FIX fabric: routing, transformation, session management and monitoring in one platform |
| Delivery | Software components integrated by the customer or through EPAM services4 | Downloadable platform; on-premise, cloud-hosted or fully managed by Quod Financial |
| Deployment | On-premise, Docker, Kubernetes clusters, AWS and Azure Marketplace; HA clustering with failover2,4 | On-premise or cloud-hosted; independent hubs interconnected over native FIX, each with isolated storage |
| Licensing and pricing model | Commercial perpetual and annual licences, tiered by support level, machine count and environment; 30-day trial; figures not published5,1 | Free for the buy side up to 10 inbound connections; fixed price for the sell side, no per-connection, plug-in or network fees |
| FIX versions | FIX 4.0 to 5.0 SP2 and FIXT 1.1 with extension packs; FAST 1.1; FIXML2,5 | FIX 4.x and 5.0, with cross-version conversion inside a single flow |
| Languages | Engines in C++, Java, .NET and .NET Core, plus Python and Rust per the engine family page1 | Written in C++; configured through a visual rule builder, plain-language AI or a REST API, no coding required |
| Transformation and normalisation | FIXEdge: rule-based routing and normalisation through an XML-based DSL, JavaScript business logic and XSLT mapping2 | Rule-based transformation of versions, tags, values and repeating groups; rules generated by AI from a counterparty's specification; reusable functions and templates |
| Counterparty onboarding and certification | Session administration through FIXICC; B2BITS became one of four official FIX Protocol Ltd. certification vendors in 2004; no onboarding-as-a-service line found3,6 | AI-driven automated certification and testing, template library; onboarding available as a managed service |
| Monitoring | FIXICC and FIXICC H2 consoles, REST admin API, Prometheus integration, Splunk logging, alerting2,3 | Grafana-based dashboards, latency tracking, real-time alerting, audit trail, message-level tracing |
| AI | "AI Agent Skills" that help coding assistants generate, validate and explain FIXEdge configurations7 | AI-native: rule generation from plain language, automated triage, automated certification; bring your own LLM; MCP for your own agents |
| Support | 24/7 enterprise support, L1 to L3 global coverage4 | Maintained by Quod Financial on every deployment; managed operations against defined service levels |
| Company | Founded 2000; acquired by EPAM Systems, April 20086,8 | Built and maintained by Quod Financial, a trading technology company with more than twenty years of FIX infrastructure |
What is B2BITS, and what does it do well?
B2BITS was founded in 2000 around FIX services and became part of EPAM Systems in April 2008, operating since as EPAM's capital markets competency centre.6,8 Its FIX Antenna engines are library-based: high-throughput FIX implementations that a firm links into its own applications, available in C++, Java and .NET with a 30-day trial.1 FIXEdge is the product closest to Quazar in scope. B2BITS describes it as an application server providing FIX connectivity to buy-side and sell-side institutions, exchanges and clearing houses, usable as an order entry gateway, aggregator, quote distributor or message router with configurable rules and normalisation.2
Its strengths are breadth and operational maturity. FIXEdge covers FIX 4.0 to 5.0 SP2 with FIXT 1.1, FAST 1.1 and FIXML, runs on-premise, in Docker or on Kubernetes clusters in the major clouds, and clusters for high availability.2 The FIXICC consoles give operations teams session control, sequence-number management and alerting across many servers, and the FIXEye and FIX Grep analyzers reconstruct sessions from logs.3 B2BITS also publishes AI Agent Skills that let coding assistants generate and validate FIXEdge configurations, which is a developer-productivity feature rather than an onboarding engine.7
How does Quazar differ from B2BITS FIXEdge?
Quazar differs from FIXEdge in who writes the rules and how a counterparty goes live. In FIXEdge, routing and transformation are expressed in an XML-based DSL, JavaScript and XSLT, which an engineer authors, tests and deploys.2 In Quazar, the rule set for a new counterparty is generated by AI from that counterparty's specification, or loaded from a validated template, then checked by AI-driven automated certification and testing before cutover. The rule language exists, but the engineer reviews it rather than writing it from a blank file.
The second difference is operational. Quazar applies routing and transformation changes through the REST API or GUI with no restart, supports data dictionary changes without a session restart, and rolls back to the last known-good configuration. Automated triage groups an error with its related messages and logs so an operator sees the inbound message, the rules applied and the outbound result in one view. The third difference is the commercial structure. B2BITS licenses per product on perpetual or annual terms, tiered by support level, machine count and environment.5 Quazar is free for the buy side up to 10 inbound connections and priced at a fixed rate for the sell side, with no per-connection billing.
What Quazar does not offer is an engine library. B2BITS sells FIX Antenna to firms that want to embed a FIX session inside their own code in C++, Java or .NET; Quazar has no equivalent SDK product, and does not try to.
When is B2BITS the right choice, and when is Quazar?
Choose B2BITS when you need an engine library for your own application, when your team already runs FIXEdge and has invested in its DSL and scripts, or when EPAM's professional services are part of the plan. Choose Quazar when the cost of onboarding and the pace of specification changes are the problem: a sell-side desk normalising hundreds of inbound client dialects, or a buy-side firm that wants to connect its broker list without an engineering project.
They also coexist. A FIXEdge or FIX Antenna deployment is a FIX-capable system, and any FIX-capable system connects to Quazar as a standard session. Firms migrating gradually can route new counterparties through Quazar while leaving existing FIXEdge flows untouched.
Questions firms ask when comparing Quazar and B2BITS
Is FIXEdge the same kind of product as Quazar?
Closest of the established vendors, yes. Both are gateways with rule-based routing and normalisation. The differences are AI-generated rules and automated certification in Quazar, and B2BITS's engine libraries, which Quazar does not sell.
Does B2BITS do message transformation?
Yes. FIXEdge describes rule-based routing and normalisation through an XML DSL, JavaScript business logic and XSLT mapping, including FIX version conversion and field changes. In Quazar the rules are generated by AI from a counterparty's specification.
Which one is cloud-native?
Both run in the cloud. FIXEdge is listed on AWS Marketplace, B2BITS states Azure Marketplace availability, and FIXEdge deploys on Kubernetes. Quazar runs on-premise or cloud-hosted, and can be operated end to end by Quod Financial as a managed service.
Does B2BITS use AI?
B2BITS publishes AI Agent Skills that help coding assistants generate and validate FIXEdge configurations. Quazar is AI-native: rule generation, triage and certification run inside the product, with bring-your-own-LLM and MCP support.
Who owns B2BITS?
EPAM Systems, which acquired B2BITS Corp. in April 2008. Quazar is built and maintained by Quod Financial, a trading technology company headquartered in London.
Can Quazar connect to a FIXEdge deployment?
Yes. FIXEdge is a FIX-capable system, so it connects to Quazar as a standard FIX session. Quazar then handles dialect translation and routing to the counterparties on the other side.
Sources
- B2BITS, "FIX Engines", b2bits.com/trading_solutions/fix_engines, accessed 22 September 2026.
- B2BITS, "FIXEdge", b2bits.com/trading_solutions/fixedge, accessed 22 September 2026.
- B2BITS, "FIXICC", b2bits.com/trading_solutions/fixicc, and "FIX Log Analyzers", b2bits.com/trading_solutions/fix_log_analyzers, accessed 22 September 2026.
- B2BITS, home page, b2bits.com, accessed 22 September 2026.
- B2BITS, "FIX Antenna .NET", b2bits.com/trading_solutions/fix_engines/fix_enginenet, accessed 22 September 2026.
- B2BITS, "History", b2bits.com/about/history, accessed 22 September 2026.
- B2BITS, "B2BITS Introduces Agent Skills", b2bits.com/about/news, accessed 22 September 2026.
- B2BITS, "EPAM Systems Acquires B2BITS Corp.", press release dated April 2008, b2bits.com/about/news/news_02apr08, accessed 22 September 2026.
Quazar statements are taken from quazar.org product and FAQ pages and from Quod Financial's launch announcement of 16 September 2026, accessed 22 September 2026. FIX and the other terms used here are defined in the glossary. B2BITS, FIX Antenna, FIXEdge and FIXICC are trademarks of their owner; this page describes publicly stated capabilities and makes no claim about relative cost.