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Apache Kafka vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache Kafka
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
Streaming Analytics (7th)
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Message Queue (MQ) Software (3rd), Business-to-Business Middleware (2nd), Workload Automation (9th), Cloud Data Integration (4th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Apache Kafka and MuleSoft Anypoint Platform aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Apache Kafka is designed for Streaming Analytics and holds a mindshare of 2.0%, down 2.0% compared to last year.
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, on the other hand, focuses on Business-to-Business Middleware, holds 13.7% mindshare, up 13.8% since last year.
Streaming Analytics
Business-to-Business Middleware
 

Featured Reviews

AT
Apr 25, 2023
Real-time processing and reliable for data integrity
One of the major areas for improvement, which I have to check out, is their pulling mechanism. Sometimes, when the data volume is too huge, and I have a pulling period of, let's say, one minute, there can be issues due to technical glitches, data anomalies, or platform-related issues such as cluster restarts. These polling periods tend to stop messaging use, and the restart ability part needs to be improved, especially when data volumes are too high. If there are obstructions due to technical glitches or platform issues, sometimes we have to manually clean up or clear the queue before it eventually gets sealed. It doesn't mean it doesn't get restarted on its own, but it takes too much time to catch up. At that point, one year ago, I couldn't find a solution to make it more agile in terms of catching up quickly and showing that it is real-time in case of any downtime. This was one area where I couldn't find a solution when I connected with Cloudera and Apache. One of our messaging tools was sending a couple of million records. We found it tough when there were any cluster downtimes or issues with the subscribers consuming data. For future releases, one feature I would like to see is a more robust solution in terms of restart ability. It should be able to handle platform issues and data issues and restart seamlessly. It should not cause a cascading effect if there is any downtime. Another feature that would be helpful is if they could add monitoring features as they have for their other services. A UI where I can monitor the capacity of the managed queue and resources I need to utilize more to make it ready for future data volumes. It would be great to have analytics on the overall performance of Kafka to plan for data volumes and messaging use. Currently, we plan the cluster resources manually based on data volumes for Kafka. If they can have a UI for resource planning based on data volume, that could be a great addition.
SM
May 29, 2023
Scales well, high availability, and convenient to use
The initial setup of the Mule Anypoint Platform is simple. My team was trained in only a few weeks. The process of deployment took a couple of hours. My advice to others is for them to use the catalyst service. They help you get started and gradually let you be on your own. Mule Anypoint Platform is also highly convenient since my team was able to quickly set up the new team for the initial implementation. Within a few weeks, they began developing independently, gradually reducing the need for external support and focusing on efficiently running the system with internal resources. I rate the initial setup of the Mule Anypoint Platform a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Apache Kafka is its versatility. It can solve many use cases or can be a part of many use cases. Its fundamental value of it is in the real-time processing capability."
"The most important feature for me is the guaranteed delivery of messages from producers to consumers."
"The connectors provided by the solution are valuable."
"It is a useful way to maintain messages and to manage offset from our consumers."
"It's an open-source product, which means it doesn't cost us anything to use it."
"This is a system for email and other small devices. There has been a relay of transactions continuously over the last two years it has been in production."
"The most valuable features of the solution revolve around areas like the latency part, where the tool offers very little latency and the sequencing part."
"Apache Kafka is scalable. It is easy to add brokers."
"It can scale."
"The initial setup is quite easy because the solution has a good interface through which the configuration, mapping, and so on can be done."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is a huge list of available connectors for a lot of different platforms, which we can use very easily."
"The API toolkit is the solution's most valuable aspect at this time, for our organization."
"The product is very user-friendly."
"The solution is very scalable with solid performance and the capability of extending it using any custom Java in case you don't have anything out of the box. MDP is strong. It is good compared to other products regarding its capabilities in managing or orchestrating the issue load."
"We are very satisfied with the DevOps support."
"We use simple queues and exchanges to route messages to multiple queues. The publish/subscribe model is also helpful."
 

Cons

"The UI is based on command line. It would be helpful if they could come up with a simpler user interface."
"One complexity that I faced with the tool stems from the fact that since it is not kind of a stand-alone application, it won't integrate with native cloud, like AWS or Azure."
"We struggled a bit with the built-in data transformations because it was a challenge to get them up and running the way we wanted."
"The initial setup and deployment could be less complex."
"The manageability should be improved. There are lots of things we need to manage and it should have a function that enables us to manage them all cohesively."
"Maintaining and configuring Apache Kafka can be challenging, especially when you want to fine-tune its behavior."
"The solution can improve by having automation for developers. We have done many manual calculations and it has been difficult but if it was automated it would be much better."
"There have been some challenges with monitoring Apache Kafka, as there are currently only a few production-grade solutions available, which are all under enterprise license and therefore not easily accessible. The speaker has not had access to any of these solutions and has instead relied on tools, such as Dynatrace, which do not provide sufficient insight into the Apache Kafka system. While there are other tools available, they do not offer the same level of real-time data as enterprise solutions."
"Technical support needs to be improved, especially when you need help with more technical aspects of the solution."
"Better documentation, in particular with respect to the initial setup, would be helpful."
"It's extremely expensive to change things in Anypoint MQ. There's also this issue of slow output of messages, and that needs to be improved."
"It has different types of subscriptions. For platinum or lower subscriptions, there are not too many things that can be done. We don't see many features. They should release a basic version that has logging and monitoring features. These features should come with Mule Anypoint Platform for free instead of making customers pay separately for these features. Its dashboard can be improved to have a lot of charts so that it is easy to visualize information. The utilization part can be improved. The dashboard is good currently, but it can be better. Other solutions like Elastic have a good dashboard, and they allow you to administer the product from the UI. Currently, for RTF, there is a different dashboard or utility. It would be good to include the same utility in the cloud solution. It would be good if there is a centralized repository that includes the links to the information about various troubleshooting issues. The documentation is there currently, and it is good, but the troubleshooting information is too scattered. We have to go to different links to find troubleshooting information. This kind of centralized repository would be helpful for new customers who are implementing this solution. It will be helpful to see different kinds of issues that can occur."
"The price could be improved."
"The solution's licensing methodologies could be improved."
"Mule Anypoint Platform is complex for beginners. Users without programming skills will find it complex. It should also improve its pricing."
"The product does not provide a priority level for the message."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would not subscribe to the Confluent platform, but rather stay on the free open source version. The extra cost wasn't justified."
"Kafka is an open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs."
"Running a Kafka cluster can be expensive, especially if you need to scale it up to handle large amounts of data."
"The price of the solution is low."
"We are using the free version of Apache Kafka."
"Apache Kafka is an open-source solution."
"The solution is open source."
"I was using the product's free version."
"Mule Anypoint Platform pricing is slightly higher compared to Dell Boomi."
"The product's price seems to be competent in comparison to other products in the market."
"I can't give you a straightforward answer because sometimes it depends on the usage. If you're going to have fewer than 5 million messages, it is free of cost. If you're going to have more than 5 million messages, they're going to charge $100 per month"
"The solution is the priciest in the market which is an issue for some clients."
"The product comes complete at one set price including support."
"The tool is heavily bundle-priced. I rate the solution’s pricing five on a scale of ten, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap."
"Price-wise, it is a good product since it is reasonably priced."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing as four or five out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
31%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Retailer
6%
Educational Organization
20%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are the differences between Apache Kafka and IBM MQ?
Apache Kafka is open source and can be used for free. It has very good log management and has a way to store the data used for analytics. Apache Kafka is very good if you have a high number of user...
What do you like most about Apache Kafka?
Apache Kafka is an open-source solution that can be used for messaging or event processing.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Kafka?
As for pricing, Kafka is open-source, so it's free to install and use.
What advice do you have for others considering Mule Anypoint Platform?
I architected solutions using Oracle SOA/OSB, Spring Boot, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform on cloud / on-premises and hybrid modes; What I see is though if you are an enterprise and have enough money th...
How does TIBCO BusinessWorks compare with Mule Anypoint Platform?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether TIBCO BusinessWorks or Mule Anypoint platform integration and connectivity software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Mule...
What can Mule Anypoint Platform be used for and what do you use it for most often?
This is a very flexible solution that comes with multiple uses. My organization mostly uses Mule Anypoint Platform for API management, as it lets us build new APIs easily and design new interfaces...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Data Integrator, Anypoint MQ
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Uber, Netflix, Activision, Spotify, Slack, Pinterest
VMware, Gucci, MasterCard, Target, Time Inc, Hershey's, Tesla, Spotify, Office Depot, Intuit, CBS, Amtrak, Salesforce, Gap, Ralph Lauren
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Web Services (AWS), Databricks, Microsoft and others in Streaming Analytics. Updated: August 2024.
801,394 professionals have used our research since 2012.