IBM App Connect vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform comparison

IBM and Salesforce are both solutions in the Cloud Data Integration category. IBM is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.2, while Salesforce is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.1. IBM holds a 4.4% mindshare in CDI, compared to Salesforce’s 6.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

IBM App Connect

Read 23 IBM App Connect reviews

1,813 Views
1,009 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Read 57 MuleSoft Anypoint Platform reviews

3,222 Views
2,078 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM App Connect

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform and IBM App Connect compete in the integration solution category. MuleSoft appears to have an advantage due to its comprehensive integration options and ease of use.

Features: MuleSoft Anypoint Platform offers a powerful combination of API management, iPaaS, and a solid ESB, allowing for efficient API and microservices management. It includes over 200 connectors and provides rapid API development and cloud deployment support. IBM App Connect is recognized for its strong security, scalability, and extensive integration with IBM products, offering many connectors that simplify integration tasks.

Room for Improvement: MuleSoft could enhance its batch processing component, accelerate its feature release cycle, and improve pricing models. Simplifying initial setup and documentation could also benefit smaller organizations. IBM App Connect should focus on improving its user interface, container installation process, event streaming support, and logging and CI/CD capabilities. Enhancing integration with external systems and user experience is also recommended.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: MuleSoft Anypoint Platform supports flexible deployment across public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises environments, but users desire better response times. IBM App Connect is primarily on-premises with hybrid and cloud options, providing customer service praised for its responsiveness even if its deployment options are less varied.

Pricing and ROI: MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is seen as expensive but provides significant value with its API-led model, offering strong ROI, especially for large enterprises. Its pricing structure can be complex for smaller firms. IBM App Connect also has a high cost justified by reliability, priced based on containers, delivering strong ROI for enterprise-level deployments.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

March 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

IBM App Connect

Ranking in Cloud Data Integration

11th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Ranking in Cloud Data Integration

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Message Queue (MQ) Software (4th), Business-to-Business Middleware (1st), Workload Automation (8th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Cloud Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM App Connect is 4.4%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is 6.9%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Data Integration

Featured Reviews

Mehdi El Filahi

Co-Founder at tenekit

Offers flexible adapters, good scalability but logging can be difficult at times

There is room for improvement in the logging messages. Sometimes, if you put someone new into App Connect, they can abandon it the same day. The logging is really painful. However, IBM has made efforts to integrate with Elasticsearch for logging, so that's an improvement. Overall, the logging can be difficult at times. One more important point is that if IBM improves its CI/CD capabilities, it will make a big difference. Right now, I have to create my own CI/CD setup from scratch for every client, which is inefficient. Back in 2013, I worked with Sonic ESB, and even then, it had CI/CD with Maven. With App Connect, you need to build everything yourself when using tools like Jenkins, Bamboo, or CircleCI. IBM really needs to provide official support for this.

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Vijay Subramanyam

Delivery Head at cblsolutions

Robust, reliable, and stable, ensuring high availability for critical integrations

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten; it is a highly scalable solution. We have around 200 end users using this solution in our company. We use it to its maximum capacity. However, it's not for P1 applications, but definitely for severity two cases (P2 level). It integrates critical applications, but it's not a platform that, if it stops, the entire system would come down. So, it's more like a severity two level. However, it has the potential to eventually become a P1 platform. Not exactly P1 applications, but a P1 platform. Because now we are still in the transition to migrate everything, all the integrations to Mule Anypoint Platform. But once it's done, then this platform becomes critical. Because even now, we have point-to-point connections.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is fast and supports Open UI 3.0 certification."

"One of the most beneficial features is the ability to handle multiple communication technologies, like integrating Kafka flows, which is helpful as other teams heavily use it. Regarding error handling, I initially wrote most of the handling myself. While built-in features for error handling are built-in, it largely depends on the developer. We use a custom solution that catches all exceptions, logs them in a database, and replays them as needed. It has been effective for us for over twenty years."

"When using IBM stacks, IBM App Connect is suitable and integrates well with other IBM products like WebSphere."

"The most valuable feature is the user-friendliness of the application."

"It's stable to use, connect with the cloud, and to deploy."

"I like the adapters. The adapters help us achieve scalability. If you want to connect to SAP, there's an adapter. Salesforce? There's an adapter. You want to connect to another system? There's likely an adapter for that."

"It's a powerful application for collaboration. It has many features for customization and integration."

"Very scalable, flexible, and user-friendly."

More IBM App Connect pros

"When we talk about the APIs, there are multiple policies one can apply on APIs, like rate limiting policies, OWASP policies, and OWASP security policies, that can be easily configured in Mule Anypoint Platform."

"MuleSoft's integration with Salesforce products makes it a preferred choice for those setups."

"The solution's deployment and proxy processes are very good."

"The most valuable features of the Mule Anypoint Platform are the Flex Gateway, API management, easy-to-use, and connectors. Additionally, they are coming out with improvements to the solution when required."

"The product is very user-friendly."

"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 most valuable feature of Anypoint MQ is it comes with MuleSoft so we don't have to maintain separate components."

"We use simple queues and exchanges to route messages to multiple queues. The publish/subscribe model is also helpful."

More MuleSoft Anypoint Platform pros

Cons

"IBM needs to enhance and have a stronger offering for the event streaming part because this is the future needed for the containerization and the new integration requirement."

"Plugins for the repositories are difficult to find."

"Updates are constantly delayed."

"The product should improve its support."

"One more important point is that if IBM improves its CI/CD capabilities, it will make a big difference. Right now, I have to create my own CI/CD setup from scratch for every client, which is inefficient."

"It is not easy to deploy. It requires someone with a high level of knowledge in the solution to deploy it, not just anyone can do it."

"The user interface of IBM App Connect can be a little bit more user-friendly, I would say because the first-time developer is onboarded while using IBM App Connect, he or she may get a little intimidated or daunted looking at all the options available or the pipelines, et cetera."

"IBM App Connect should improve security features."

More IBM App Connect cons

"Although the solution's proxy design and process are good, it faces connecting issues because it lacks data integration."

"Mule Anypoint Platform could improve by having more up-to-date adapters to do work in a digital space."

"Adding connectors for new upcoming applications would add extra value to this product."

"The price could be improved."

"From a monitoring point of view, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform can improve on tracking transactions. When dealing with multiple transactions or trading, the system can lose control, and tracking becomes hectic."

"Technical support needs to be improved, especially when you need help with more technical aspects of the solution."

"The terms of use and how it's priced has become very difficult to manage, which is forcing us to look for alternatives already - and we haven't even been using it for that long just yet."

"Over the years, Mule Anypoint Platform has undergone significant improvements. When I first started using it, the API gateway capabilities were fairly basic."

More MuleSoft Anypoint Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price could be better."

"It is very expensive if we want to scale."

"App Connect is not cheap."

"The licensing cost for IBM App Connect is very high."

"The solution's pricing isn't cheap, but you can get good discounts based on your competitive deal."

"Initially, App Connect was quite expensive because the cost was based on the number of processors we used. However, it's now based on containers, which means we can be more specific about our consumption and get a better price."

"The cost depends upon the consumer."

"IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products."

"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."

"Licensing can be complex as is the case with most iPaaS/cloud offerings."

"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."

"Making changes in Anypoint MQ is expensive."

"The product comes complete at one set price including support."

"The solution has a high price."

"The solution is the priciest in the market which is an issue for some clients."

More MuleSoft Anypoint Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

54%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

23%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM App Connect?

I like the adapters. The adapters help us achieve scalability. If you want to connect to SAP, there's an adapter. Salesforce? There's an adapter. You want to connect to another system? There's like...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM App Connect?

IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM App Connect?

Our company has a big project for delivery and e-commerce sites. We use IBM App Connect to deliver information to our end users after they buy our products. We get information from many places, suc...

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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...

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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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM App Connect

March 2025

Download IBM App Connect product report

Buyer's Guide

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

March 2025

Download MuleSoft Anypoint Platform product report

Also Known As

IBM Cast Iron

Data Integrator, Anypoint MQ

Overview

Rapidly connect public clouds, private clouds and on-premises application

App Connect Professional is IBM’s cloud integration offering which delivers an integration solution
• With ease-of-use, flexibility and increased responsiveness to the evolving business needs, while removing the daunting complexities of integration.
• Provides the powerful combination of a ‘simple integration experience’ for business users looking to automate how their applications talk to each other; coupled with a ‘configuration based integration’ approach for IT.
• App Connect Professional is for the teams and integration developers who need to solve more complex problems and need powerful tooling for integration scenarios

IBM

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is used for integration and API management, connecting enterprise applications across retail, e-commerce, and supply chain. It supports cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-on-premises scenarios with real-time and asynchronous messaging.

Users leverage MuleSoft Anypoint Platform for diverse integrations including cloud-based and on-premises, enabling data transformations, middleware functions, and hybrid integrations. It seamlessly connects systems like SAP, Salesforce, and Oracle, facilitating data transfers and integrating legacy systems. The platform offers a graphic interface, quick implementation, and a variety of connectors, contributing to its popularity for robust and scalable solutions. Despite its strengths, users seek better technical support, more connectors, simplified runtime management, and improved documentation.

What are the key features of MuleSoft Anypoint Platform?

Marketplace for integration platforms: Provides pre-built connectors and templates.
API management: Efficient management and monitoring of APIs.
Graphic interface: User-friendly design for ease of use.
Monitoring capabilities: Comprehensive monitoring and observability features.
Quick implementation: Rapid deployment of integrations and APIs.
Pre-built templates: Ready-to-use templates for common integrations.
Stability and performance: Reliable and high-performing platform.
Data transformation with DataWeave: Powerful tool for data mapping and transformation.
Support for hybrid deployments: Flexibility to integrate cloud and on-premises systems.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Increased connectivity: Seamless integration of multiple systems.
Operational efficiency: Streamlined processes and data flows.
Scalability: Ability to grow with business needs.
Cost savings: Reduced development time with pre-built components.
Enhanced visibility: Improved monitoring and management of integrations.

Enterprises in retail, e-commerce, and supply chain implement MuleSoft Anypoint Platform to connect various applications and systems. It supports real-time messaging for inventory management, synchronizes customer data across platforms, and integrates with legacy systems for smooth data migration. Users benefit from quick deployments and a marketplace that accelerates integration projects.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

United Way of Allegheny County, Saint-Gobain CPS, Ricoh, SunTrust Banks Inc.

VMware, Gucci, MasterCard, Target, Time Inc, Hershey's, Tesla, Spotify, Office Depot, Intuit, CBS, Amtrak, Salesforce, Gap, Ralph Lauren

Buyer's Guide

IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

March 2025

Free Report: IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

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