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IBM B2B Integrator vs Mule ESB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 B2B Integrator
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Business-to-Business Middleware (6th)
Mule ESB
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Application Integration solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM B2B Integrator is designed for Business-to-Business Middleware and holds a mindshare of 7.3%, up 7.3% compared to last year.
Mule ESB, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), holds 25.5% mindshare, up 24.9% since last year.
Business-to-Business Middleware
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
 

Featured Reviews

Nagasaikiran Kesana - PeerSpot reviewer
Fast, easy to use, and useful for integration purposes
In the initial stage, I used only business processes to build code. As I used the product more and more, I learned that we could monitor, perform support activities, and install and upgrade servers. We can learn how to manage the clients to get business. We must get into a call with customers and get their requirements. We must pass all the test cases, both positive and negative. We need to manage our team as well. We use various protocols for data security, like SFTP, FTP, and HTTP. We follow the security levels based on the customer’s requirements. We encrypt the file, and the customers decrypt it using the public and private keys we provide. Customers who need high security opt for HTTP certificates and AS2. I have also worked on AWS and Azure to pass files to the buckets. I also work on single sign-on authentication. External users can access our dashboard with a few details. For example, if our customers need to see whether a file is transferred from our end, they can easily log in to the details and monitor it. They can also perform health checks. I will recommend the tool to others. People who want to use the tool must not do anything blindly. They must analyze, learn the concept, and understand the purpose of the tool. There are other products in the market, like MuleSoft, that have the same functionality. We must understand why we are using IBM B2B Integrator. We must gather some information. I take some introductory classes for the new joiners in my organization. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
PurbayanSaha - PeerSpot reviewer
Has API-led architecture and provides a unique, user-friendly, and scalable architecture for hosting APIs
There's room for improvement in multi-file transfer functionality. It's not convenient when using MuleSoft, and it should have better capability for handling large amounts of data. For example, applications like GoAnywhere can handle huge chunks of data, so the tool should also have something to facilitate that aspect of integration.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Everything from the order to fulfillment to the payment process, except for physical packing and shipping, is fully automated for some customer orders."
"The most valuable features are the flexibility and the range of EDI standards that IBM Sterling can handle."
"The solution is useful for transferring files from one format to another format. Also, the solution is useful in translation."
"Out-of-box process orchestration yields quick implementations."
"B2B Integrator is multi-platform, so it can be integrated with Windows, Unix, or whatever, and it can work with almost all programming languages. It can also transfer a lot of data in a short time. For instance, a system I recently implemented exchanges about 20 million files a day."
"This solution allows for easy integration with heterogeneous applications."
"It is easy of use and it's easy to maintain. It's also faster to on-board partners."
"It can scale horizontally as well as vertically as a cluster."
"It was pretty fast to develop APIs on this platform, which is something I liked about it. So, the time to value was pretty good."
"Once it is started, we don't see any problems on a day to day basis."
"Scalability and load balancing."
"Mule ESB has a user-friendly design, and everything is in one place. The API and architecture are popular right now. Also, MuleSoft has a large and supportive online community."
"We can use Java expressions anywhere in the flow."
"It's open source, and there are a lot of community resources. Mule ESB makes it easy to connect to other software applications."
"I like that it's user-friendly. Compared to other ESBs, I find it easier to use. I like it better than other ESBs. I like the connectors, which make calling the APIs through the routers easier."
"The most beneficial features of Mule ESB are the control plane and runtime plane."
 

Cons

"End-to-end visibility and monitoring application required. The control center is available and covers this area, but it still fails in many monitoring scenarios."
"The tool requires you to write a lot of code in Java and XSLT, which makes development tough."
"Map translator needs more enhancements."
"When working on an elaborate rule, I end up creating it in notepad and then pasting it into the Extended Rule window, which is not convenient."
"IBM B2B Integrator could improve the business process itself, there is no resignation of duties and in terms of the console should be changed in a way that is more user-friendly."
"The dashboard is not integrated and should be bundled by the product vendor."
"There is no related transaction stored in the database because it's an OLTP application."
"They do not have a solid partner ecosystem, and they do not have a clear roadmap for down the line; they're missing that clear roadmap."
"Limitation on external subscribers to listen to the messages on the bus."
"Mule ESB is more into the latest REST APIs, not much into the SOAP web services. Developing is all about web services and not easy with Mule."
"Community editions need more attention."
"Mule ESB could be more user-friendly. I think users must learn about the architecture before they start coding. The price could be better. In the next release, I would like to see an EDIFACT integration."
"The solution isn't as stable as we'd like it to be. There are some ongoing issues and therefore Mule has to provide frequent patches. Mule's core IP should be more stable overall."
"The solution's setup needs to be a bit more straightforward and its support needs to respond faster."
"Documentation is cryptic, product releases are far too frequent, and upgrades become troublesome."
"It would be beneficial if users could navigate the UI easily without extensive training or learning curves."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is based on how many cores are used and the type of cores."
"The solution is priced at $20,000 to $30,000 per year with no extra costs."
"The product costs more than 40K."
"The price of IBM B2B Integrator is too high. However, IBM may be willing to give a discount if there are negotiations. If they see that there is a good opportunity for them they can provide a discount."
"Licensing depends upon the package you opt for within the solution. The solution is a bit costly compared to the other integration tools in the market."
"We pay an annual fee based on the number of VPUs. It's fairly reasonable. We're in the middle of analyzing other products, and they're all pretty much in the same range."
"This product is cheaper than some offered by other vendors, although there is a problem because you have to pay for some third-party adapters."
"You will not get any support from Mule ESB's team for the tool's community edition...You can get support with the licensed version of Mule ESB."
"The pricing must be improved."
"The price of the Mule ESB commercial version is expensive. However, they have a free community version."
"This is expensive. In my next project, we had to go to other vendor."
"I think the price is very high. If you use TIBCO BW, the license is for the CPU usage, then the IPS, and support. I also think the license for the product is a one-time expense."
"The licensing is yearly, and there are additional fees for services."
"The solution is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Healthcare Company
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM B2B Integrator?
IBM B2B Integrator is a great tool, robust, reliable, low-maintenance, and ideal solution.
What needs improvement with IBM B2B Integrator?
It supports many of our use cases but falls short in some areas as technology evolves, especially with data transfer between edge locations and the cloud or on-premise systems. The solution doesn’t...
Migration from IBM Integration Bus to Mulesoft ESB for a large enterprise tech services company
I was previously part of the Oracle SOA/OSB development team. In my current capacity I architected solutions using MuleSoft Anypoint Platform on cloud / on-premises and hybrid modes and on PCE/RTF ...
IBM Integration Bus vs Mule ESB - which to choose?
Our team ran a comparison of IBM’s Integration Bus vs. Mule ESB in order to determine what sort of ESB software was the best fit for our organization. Ultimately we decided to choose IBM Integratio...
What do you like most about Mule ESB?
The solution's drag-and-drop interface and data viewer helped us quite a lot.
 

Also Known As

IBM Sterling B2B Integrator, Sterling Gentran Integration Suite
No data available
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bonnie Plants, Toshiba Europe, Florida Hospital
Ube, PacificComp, University of Witwatersrand, Justice Systems, Camelot
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