There are many already defined endpoint components such as HTTP, JMS, FTP, etc., and these are the main tools for communicating with various services. By having these, developers just need to concentrate on the functionalities instead of making modules to talk to other services.
Senior IT Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
There are already defined endpoint components such as HTTP, JMS, and FTP.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
I am not sure about how it has improved the way my organization functions but certainly with regard to simple integration, development speed is faster than writing from scratch.
What needs improvement?
The HTTP request connector should have the ability to change the hostname on the fly instead of the URL endpoint only.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used this product for eight years from Mule v3.0 to v3.8.
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Mule ESB
October 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We had an issue in v3.4 with clustering but as of v3.7, MuleSoft has fixed the problem.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability depends on how an application using Mule ESB is designed and so far, we haven't had any issues with the scalability.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is OK and I've never really needed it.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is straightforward in terms of deployment and environment setup.
Just download the "mule-esb runtime environment" zip file and unzip under a particular directory. Then a Mule setup is done. To deploy an application, just drop a Mule app into ${MULE_HOME}/apps along with the properties file under class path, then done.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is getting expensive and I recommend clients to use Camel ESB if enterprise support is not required.
If a cluster is not required, then just buy the non-clustered version.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I've been in a consultancy environment for a long time and knew various frameworks and tools already.
What other advice do I have?
Make an architectural plan in depth before implementing a solution based on this product. Otherwise, it might cost far more than expected.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
User-friendly, reliable, and online information available
Pros and Cons
- "Mule ESB is a very easy-to-use and user-friendly solution."
- "There are some features on the commercial version of the solution that would be great if they were on the community version. Additionally, if they added more authorization features it would be helpful."
What is our primary use case?
I use Mule ESB to exchange data between four or five systems at one time. We exchange government organizations' data.
What is most valuable?
Mule ESB is a very easy-to-use and user-friendly solution.
What needs improvement?
There are some features on the commercial version of the solution that would be great if they were on the community version. Additionally, if they added more authorization features it would be helpful.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Mule ESB for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Mule ESB is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Mule ESB is a highly scalable solution.
I am the only one using Mule ESB in my organization and I use it daily.
How are customer service and support?
The community version of Mule ESB does not have support. I find information online if I need it.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I was previously using Talend ESB but it's more complex than Mule ESB to use. The commercial versions have more features than Talend ESB.
How was the initial setup?
Mule ESB was very easy to set up. I did three months of testing Mule ESB before I went into production.
What about the implementation team?
I did the implementation of Mule ESB myself. There is no maintenance required for Mule ESB.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the Mule ESB commercial version is expensive. However, they have a free community version.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution to others. If you have any data exchanges with other systems, Mule ESB is very useful and easy to use, even if it's the commercial version.
I rate Mule ESB a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Mule ESB
October 2024
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Director at Pixel Studio PTY
Programmer-friendly solution that offers good value for money
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is that it's programmer-friendly, so it's very easy to develop APIs."
- "In order to meet the new trend of active metadata management, we need intelligent APIs that can retrieve new data designs and trigger actions over new findings without human intervention."
What is our primary use case?
My primary uses are asset maintenance and data management.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is that it's programmer-friendly, so it's very easy to develop APIs.
What needs improvement?
In order to meet the new trend of active metadata management, we need intelligent APIs that can retrieve new data designs and trigger actions over new findings without human intervention.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for almost three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable and reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is reliable and quick to resolve any block we have.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and only takes a day, but it looks at many data sources, so you have to be specific about what you need.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This product is expensive, but it does offer value for money.
What other advice do I have?
I would give this product a rating of ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Consultant, Architecture and Standards at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Good data transformation and formatting features, but it is not easy to troubleshoot
Pros and Cons
- "The transformation and the data format are the features that I like the most."
- "It's not easy to troubleshoot and we still can't make it work."
What is our primary use case?
It's used for regional implementation, where several systems are integrated and contributing to a central on-premises system.
What is most valuable?
The transformation and the data format are the features that I like the most.
What needs improvement?
There are several areas that need improvement. It's not easy to troubleshoot and we still can't make it work. It starts then stops. We are still trying to make it work using other tools that we have in-house, such as Kubernetes. So far, we have not found the proper way to connect them.
Stability is an issue as well as scalability. Both of these need improvement.
Pricing is always an area that can be improved. It's everyone's wish.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Mule ESB for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It starts and stops, so we haven't had a chance to test it in production.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have not reached out to technical support. Our case was so complex that we had to reach out to the architect to come on-site and help us with it here. This type of support is definitely expensive.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex.
Deployment took a week. We were waiting for the team to be onsite.
What about the implementation team?
We had a team from Mulesoft to help us.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing is yearly, and there are additional fees for services. For example, having the help of the architect was a separate fee.
What other advice do I have?
It's definitely allowed us to develop everything but we are stuck in testing. It works then it stops working, and now we are trying to figure out why. It's not related to the software but related to the teams that work with it. It's a new technology for us.
I am still trying to discover the benefits. I know that it has many connectors, that it's a tool to integrate with Salesforce. That's when they say we cannot do what we need to without MuleSoft. We didn't use it for that purpose. For our purposes, custom integration as ESB, we are still trying to discover where our benefits are. I don't have a good idea yet.
We were able to develop what we were planning to. It's highly configurable. We were able to configure the workflows and orchestrations, but we are not able to run it yet.
I don't want to give people the wrong impression because of my experience so far because it may not be an accurate one. It may not be the fault of the solution.
When I worked with IBM in the past, it was easier.
Due to the complexities, I would rate MuleSoft a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Developer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Powerful data transformation technology, but it needs to be more user-friendly
Pros and Cons
- "The most powerful feature is DataWeave, which is a powerful language where data can be transformed from one form into another."
- "I would like to see support for BPM in the next release of this solution."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use for this solution is API driven related management and lightweight message processing.
What is most valuable?
The most powerful feature is DataWeave, which is a powerful language where data can be transformed from one form into another.
What needs improvement?
This solution could be improved by making it more flexible, and more user-friendly.
I would like to see support for BPM in the next release of this solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
One year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is very good, and it is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of scalability, it is very good.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support for this solution is very good, and very interactive. If I have any questions then I reach out to them and they respond very quickly.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using a variety of technologies, but we use this solution because it is a very lightweight message processing system.
How was the initial setup?
I would say that this initial setup was moderate.
What about the implementation team?
Our DevOps handled the implementation.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at other options, but this one is what our vendor recommended.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Co Founder & Principal Architect at a tech vendor with 1-10 employees
Some of the valuable features are parallel processing support and integration with other products.
What is most valuable?
- Salesforce connector
- Enterprise JDBC
- SAP connector and other connectors like FTP and SFTP
- Parallel processing support
- JMS integration
How has it helped my organization?
We are a technology consulting company specialized in Systems Integration using Mule ESB. (www.app-integrators.com)
Through App Integrators, we have integrated disparate Enterprise Applications for different customers across the globe. Most of our integrations for clients are:
- Hybrid Integration Model: On-premises and cloud based applications
- Large volume data handling: Handled batch applications supporting up to 20 million records to Salesforce.
- Support for Enterprise Batch Applications: We have used Mule ESB for running 120 batch applications on different scheduled intervals.
- SAP based Integrations with manufacturing systems
What needs improvement?
- SOA governance of ESB
- Versioning and exception handling
- Easier development
- Documentation/good design guidelines are not sufficient
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this solution since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were stability issues. It is very complex to set up an Enterprise grade application and it is not easy to use.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Like a typical Java application, one should know how to tune a Java based server.
However, we have experienced issues when handling massive volumes of 20 million records to Salesforce (from on premises systems). We also experienced issues when we executed batch jobs of up to 120 jobs in a cluster of Mule ESB instances and when handling large volume of data (in the millions).
Nevertheless, many connectors like Enterprise JDBC and DataWeave support the streaming of data.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support has been excellent. They are very helpful through their customer support tool and/or through their forums.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Oracle OSB before and some of our clients used TIBCO middleware or Java CAPS.
But we suggested that clients switch to Mule ESB due to:
- The lower licensing cost
- The availability of cloud connectors
- CloudHub platform (supporting iPaaS)
- A suite of 110+ connectors to use.
How was the initial setup?
It is complex to set up because any Enterprise grade middleware needs hardening. This is why we need to set up clusters, integrate with source control tools for continuous integration in different environments like DEV, QA, TEST, and also consider firewalls and internet security.
So other than a DEV Server, the setup is not straightforward. It depends on the organization security/development methodologies and policies.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is cheaper than competitors in pricing and licensing. We have an open source option available as well.
Most of the licenses can be added as entitlements on top of a basic Enterprise license. Licenses are renewed every year and there is no perpetual license.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Oracle ESB, Apache Camel, and ServiceMix.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution due to its support for multiple integration options.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
QA Manager at Tandicorp
Integrates heterogeneous environments, developments in a short time. Exception handling flows aren't explained very well
Valuable Features:
Flexibility and high performance.
I can perform integrations with any environment and
scenery as well as growth in apps integration, is an agnostic tool architecture
ie can generate components on different architectures are JEE or .Net.
Mule ESB has a lot components and tools that apply integration patterns making it easier to development without much knowledge of patterns
Improvements to My Organization:
It allows communication between different applications with different protocols. It's also helped solve business integration issues.
Mule ESB is the heart of applications that required routing and improvement of messages such as electronic invoicing
Room for Improvement:
The documentation is not extensive and is limited to examples which are too basic.
Use of Solution:
We've used the tool for about six years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Software Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
You can write business logic as a workflow.
What is most valuable?
- Writing your complex business logic as a simple workflow which can be understood by not so technical people
- Hot deployment of those workflows, which helps in automation and self-learning/healing.
- Provides a variety of connectors: SalesForce, Twitter, SAP, Facebook, and WebService consumer. Most of them come for free with the Community Edition.
- Async/concurrent execution of services within a flow
- Logging
How has it helped my organization?
We had to design a complex diagnostic and analysis tool that catered to different ERPs. For example, connecting to different types of data sources and listening from different types of services (over Web and FTP).
Business services for diagnostics should be modified by admin/functional people and applications should be updated on-the-fly without any down time.
The Mule runtime engine served the purpose and we developed a drag-and-drop workflow designer (web app) that is built on top of Mule to make it easy for admins to create and edit services.
For how long have I used the solution?
I’ve been using Mule ESB for 18 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have had no issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We did have scalability issues. It demanded more RAM at times, when there were a larger number of requests while listening over FTP. This is the case with any web container.
How are customer service and technical support?
I am a Community Edition user, so I can’t comment about the enterprise support by Mule. However, you will not get an immediate response for your queries in any of the technical forums.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not use any ESB earlier, but this is the best Community Edition ESB available in the market. However, we abused it as a workflow engine.
How was the initial setup?
To get an initial setup is straightforward.
- Write a simple HTTP-based listener workflow.
- Print whatever you send in a context path in a browser.
- Dump it in a standalone runtime.
- Start it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would advise using the Community Edition if you are developing an application as an additional service to a customer or a non-critical Tier-2 application. You can do this without support.
Apart from support and a few additional connectors, the enterprise edition is not so different from CE.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I was not part of choosing this solution.
What other advice do I have?
Don’t abuse it. Be clear if you want a Mule application to solely solve your business problems, or if you want it as an add-on to solve a few problems that your main application can’t solve.
You may get into scalability issues if you are not clear about this basic difference.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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