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IBM App Connect vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 4, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM App Connect
Ranking in Cloud Data Integration
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
Ranking in Cloud Data Integration
4th
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), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Cloud Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM App Connect is 3.6%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is 9.1%, up from 8.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Mehdi El Filahi - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 17, 2024
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.
Corydon Hinton - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 19, 2024
Can seamlessly translate protocols and produce fairly quick results
Using the solution was great. It was part of the project that we didn't worry that much about. What I also liked about it was that even though I'm not that technical, I could go in and look at thoughts and events and confirm that the information we were looking for was making it across. I could check at the interface level and lessen the burden on validation within the application. The instrumentation within the solution is important. The ease of implementation is very important. Our partner development team had little trouble dealing with these diverse systems, with JSON on the one hand and SOAP on the other. The product’s ability to seamlessly translate protocols is great. The API-led connectivity is great. The reason that we took on the product was that we wanted to learn about it. We wanted to figure out how to use it. A big payoff for this will be in EHR integrations. These systems are all alike, yet they are all different. They all use EPIC, and each installation is a little bit different. It’s a challenge when we go to different hospitals. MuleSoft has made a name for itself in using the integrations.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support is good."
"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."
"App Connect's best feature is that it can be deployed in a container."
"The solution is fast and supports Open UI 3.0 certification."
"Provides good security features."
"It's a powerful application for collaboration. It has many features for customization and integration."
"It's stable to use, connect with the cloud, and to deploy."
"There is a friendly interface for configuration, and integration is made easy."
"The most valuable feature is the variety of characters Anypoint Platform has. It is very scalable and customizable."
"We use simple queues and exchanges to route messages to multiple queues. The publish/subscribe model is also helpful."
"The most valuable feature of Mule Anypoint Platform is rapid development."
"The most valuable feature of Anypoint MQ is it comes with MuleSoft so we don't have to maintain separate components."
"The flexibility has been great overall."
"The use of ACK is valuable."
"Initially, we faced challenges managing numerous scheduled jobs and duplicate entries in our SAP system. To address this, we developed a reusable component in Mule that all applications could use to interact with SAP."
"We are very satisfied with the DevOps support."
 

Cons

"Finding developers for the product is difficult since it is a niche solution. I know the OpenShift environment is running well for the microservice environment. We had some issues with the other environment we tried to implement. It can be easily implemented internally, but we have some problems in practice."
"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."
"The setup time for App Connect could be improved."
"I've been using IBM App Connect for about twenty-five years, and while I like it, there are some areas for improvement. The trace policy is ridiculous, and the biggest issue is the cost—it's expensive. People would use it much more if the price point weren't so high."
"When we do a version upgrade of the system, the platform is kind of complicated."
"IBM App Connect should improve security features."
"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 interface could be better."
"The solution is very costly. The solution should provide a package with fewer capabilities at a lower price for specific companies that don’t have a big IT budget. Not every customer requires all the capabilities of the software. It will be a good fit in the market, and they will easily sell it more."
"Anypoint MQ's capabilities are mainly used for messaging purposes, but it doesn't have typical use cases that extend as far as other Message Queue software."
"The solution's licensing methodologies could be improved."
"In order to set up a storefront, we currently rely on a third-party solution. It would greatly enhance our operations if this feature was integrated into their existing solution."
"An on-premise setup requires special skills and you need a lot of professional services."
"The solution is very expensive. They need to work on the pricing."
"The runtime management and connectors could use some work and are vulnerable to breakage after upgrades."
"The inclusion of GenAI in the tool can be good since it is an area that is currently unavailable in the solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost for IBM App Connect is very high."
"The price could be better."
"The cost depends upon the consumer."
"App Connect is not cheap."
"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."
"It is very expensive if we want to scale."
"IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products."
"The solution's pricing isn't cheap, but you can get good discounts based on your competitive deal."
"MuleSoft Anypoint Platform really needs to work on its pricing model because it's very complicated."
"The solution's pricing, as per the old approach, is expensive."
"The product's price seems to be competent in comparison to other products in the market."
"The product is still very expensive."
"Mule Anypoint Platform is an expensive solution."
"The pricing of our solution is highly competitive. While it may not be categorized as exceptionally low, it is certainly more affordable compared to IBM."
"Regarding pricing, I believe there could be room for improvement to align with user expectations."
"Mule Anypoint Platform is affordable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
57%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
3%
Educational Organization
21%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM App Connect?
IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products.
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...
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

IBM Cast Iron
Data Integrator, Anypoint MQ
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.