Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Mule ESB vs WSO2 Enterprise Integrator comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 3, 2025

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

Mule ESB
Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
WSO2 Enterprise Integrator
Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
7th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (31st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category, the mindshare of Mule ESB is 17.0%, down from 21.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WSO2 Enterprise Integrator is 6.6%, up from 4.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Mule ESB17.0%
WSO2 Enterprise Integrator6.6%
Other76.4%
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
 

Featured Reviews

Srinivas-Kanduri - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise integrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Integration architecture has enabled reliable multi-channel messaging and secure API management but now needs better analytics and simpler development
In my opinion, the real-time analytics part of Mule ESB is not up to the mark for the decision-making process. While there are some analytics features, they lack the standards needed for enterprise use. Compared to other analytics tools such as Power BI, MuleSoft falls short.Points for improvement in Mule ESB definitely include enhancing the analytics capabilities because currently, they rely on external logging tools such as Splunk or ELK, which is lagging behind compared to other tools such as Workato that offer more analytical features. Additionally, issues arise with AI-based use cases due to dependencies on Salesforce tools such as agent force, making development more complicated when it should be more independent. Developing AI-based agents without being tied to Salesforce applications could also enhance functionality.
AC
Technical director at Cremete
Effective data transformation and integration in complex environments with high functionality
Something that could be improved in WSO2 Enterprise Integrator is that the problem is not a lack of capability or functionalities. The problem is that it is a very complex environment. To put your hand on this environment is a very demanding task. This is the real problem. The problem is not about the product, but about the complexity to manage, to configure, to decide what to do. I have some experience using SAP R/3. It seems to me something similar. When you have to configure a situation with a client, especially for a client not in an industrial sector, but in a service sector, it is quite usual that you are in trouble for some reason. This is always the story that I found in the implementations I have done. Maybe there are only three or four big problems, in some other cases there are more than that, but this is the situation usually. For WSO2 Enterprise Integrator, not the same, but I must say it is quite often there is a need to put together some pieces and make it work in a coordinated way.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most beneficial features of Mule ESB are the control plane and runtime plane."
"The product is very stable."
"Scalability and load balancing."
"It is easily deployable and manageable. It has microservices-based architecture, which means that you can deploy the solution based on your needs, and you can manage the solution very easily."
"Most of our use cases are for Salesforce. So, the connectors for Salesforce have been really helpful. They've made development two times faster."
"The most valuable feature for Mule is the number of connectors that are available."
"The product offers a community edition that is free of cost."
"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."
"The drag-and-drop features for connectors are very valuable."
"It's a very complete product. It allows us to network security and add more layers of security to the system."
"From the capabilities and functional possibility and anything else technical, it is a very well-done product, I have to say."
"WSO2's analytics capability is good, considering the ELC support they provide."
"The connectors have been the most impactful features for handling integrations. I can use these connectors when I need specific connectivity with a third party, like a core banking system in BFSI. I don't need to do all the development. I take the specific connector, put in the IP address and password, and it takes care of everything."
"The learning curve for this solution is very good."
"The customer service executives are very responsive."
"The productivity is the most valuable feature. It is very easy to write remediations."
 

Cons

"MuleSoft is not so strong in method-based integration, so they're not so functional in that regard."
"Mule ESB isn't as secure as IBM. Financial companies go with IBM for that reason."
"I would like to see support for BPM in the next release of this solution."
"Licensing cost could be improved in this regard. Overall, the product is a bit on the expensive side."
"We would like to have a built-in logging framework in which we can do auditing."
"It would be great to see implementing security modules as a feature."
"The payment system needs improvement."
"Documentation is cryptic, product releases are far too frequent, and upgrades become troublesome."
"The main issue with the product is pricing. It uses core-based pricing for WSO2 Enterprise Integrator and API Manager. It would be best if you had APIM by default. It provides many connectors for easy integration with third-party systems."
"The customization can be a bit difficult."
"The administration side is complex and could use significant improvements to enhance the solution's functionality."
"One of the reasons that we are looking for a replacement is their way of defining integration. The language of the XML structures that I use to describe the integrations are not that standard, and it's not easy to find people who are familiar with this approach."
"You cannot include the validation of XPath."
"WSO2 libraries are not mature enough. For example, if you want to integrate with Kafka using its Kafka library, it often has many bugs."
"I would like to see better documentation for the open-source version."
"They should introduce better pricing for small companies."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The various features and components for this solution are no longer free."
"Most of the challenges that I had with this solution were for smaller customers. There is not a good licensing model or pricing model. It is more expensive than other solutions, and that's the downside of MuleSoft. I had to be creative to be able to sell it to the business, but we did. This is something they have to work on because for large companies, it's affordable, but for small and medium businesses, it's very hard to sell."
"Mule ESB is a costly solution. We pay approximately $80,000 annually for the system. The cost of the number of instances, annual subscription, and cloud hosting services are expensive."
"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."
"Regarding licensing and pricing, I find it somewhat flexible. They are more flexible with larger customers compared to small and medium ones, as their licensing model depends on ports and other factors. Large customers benefit from more flexibility in implementation and renewal compared to smaller ones."
"The price of the Mule ESB commercial version is expensive. However, they have a free community version."
"The licensing is yearly, and there are additional fees for services."
"Plan your licensing model (cloud or on-premises or hybrid) that will allow seamless integration with new partners."
"The open-source, unsupported version is available free of charge."
"The pricing of WSO2 Enterprise Integrator for enterprise subscriptions can be considered expensive, especially from the perspective of someone who prefers open-source software."
"The solution costs about 20,000 or 30,000 euros per year, per instance."
"The cost is better than IBM Cloud Pak."
"I rate the product price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"It is a low-cost solution."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) solutions are best for your needs.
884,266 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise38
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Mule ESB?
In terms of costing, I consider it 50-50; I would not say it's 100% cost-effective because the platform itself is a little costly. We are trying to improve how efficiently we make our ecosystem. It...
What do you like most about WSO2 Enterprise Integrator?
WSO2's analytics capability is good, considering the ELC support they provide.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WSO2 Enterprise Integrator?
The product has reasonable and competitive pricing for enterprise customers. It is expensive for small businesses especially. They are using the open-source solution, and they find it expensive sin...
What needs improvement with WSO2 Enterprise Integrator?
Something that could be improved in WSO2 Enterprise Integrator is that the problem is not a lack of capability or functionalities. The problem is that it is a very complex environment. To put your ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ube, PacificComp, University of Witwatersrand, Justice Systems, Camelot
West
Find out what your peers are saying about Mule ESB vs. WSO2 Enterprise Integrator and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,266 professionals have used our research since 2012.