MuleSoft API Manager Reviews

We worked predominantly for the BFSI financial sectors and for one of the automobile industries. They're taught in Europe. 

The applications where the customers wanted to download a report, a customer is associated with multiple customers, where they wanted to download the reports for analytics or just wanted to see what is the annual income or something like that. We expose an API for each customer. We will apply a policy where the APIs are being secured. So, each customer will have their own client ID and client secrets.

It has improved a lot in terms of monetizing your API. You get a benefit out of it, and then you secure your API. You restrict the external threats, managing the API end-to-end and governing it. All the features are pretty cool.

Overall, the platform is pretty good, I cannot say which one specific feature is good. The idea of an API Manager is really interesting.

One improvement is to add a plugin in the API Manager. If an organization is using SOAP services or legacy APIs. Maybe I don't want to migrate it to rest API, but my plugin should be able to convert Jason to XML. Basically, protocol transformation features in API Manager.

I have used it for over eight years as a service provider.

As for the stability, no issues up until now.

For scalability, our current licensing is for only ten APIs. Regarding the scalability part, haven't tested it yet.

We had some production issues, and we did escalate them. We got a good response from the customer support team.

It's cloud, so that's the pro. It has all the features that other API manager does, and there are some features that vary from product to product. Everything cannot be brought upon MuleSoft or Anypoint API Manager.  

Right now, the universal API Manager is applicable for any API hosted in any server, it is not only MuleSoft. If we can bring the feature, I am a customer who has a MuleSoft API, as well as an on-prem API, which is developed on Java or some other integration tool. Still, I wanted to leverage the API Manager capability to my non-mule APIs. If these kinds of features are provided to the customer, I think they should be very happy with that approach.

It is complex because it requires a lot of development effort and to understand the business. Additionally, it also requires an understanding of the requirement of how the API behaves. It should be very generic. So first, we can start off with SOAP services because the SOAP services accept only the XML. There should be some kind of configurations that you are plugging in the API Manager where you just define a scheme. This is just an idea where you have to define your scheme as in your platform API Manager and then define your SOAP services. API Manager will do a protocol transformation so we don't touch the existing applications. 

Many clients will also be attracted to this approach. The solution is deployed on the cloud. Deployment time depends on the deployment topology. In the cloud, it is pretty fast. We leverage the CICD framework for any deployment. It takes a maximum of a minute. One person can handle the deployment. There is no maintenance required for the product.

Our customers have a lot of concerns about the increased pricing. The customer feels MuleSoft is very costly, and they are also exploring other integration tools for a lower price. Maybe we should retain the existing customers by offering some discounts. At least the existing customers can be retained this way. This is regarding the licensing part only because customers based out of North America and Europe have shown many concerns recently. They are a bit concerned about pricing.

We help customers to build and manage an API. We help them to integrate their platforms and applications. I think a complete cloud setup gives a lot of flexibility. Customer need not worry about their environment or servers. The complete cloud setup has a 99.99% uptime. So, there is no downtime. I would recommend a complete cloud setup. Overall, I would rate MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager an eight and a half out of ten. That one and a half points will be dedicated because of some of the missing features, which I have seen from other API managers.

We use the solution to do buy-in alignment. There's a banking industry framework that tries to create the bank of the future. There are hundreds of different functions and business domains within a big bank or a small credit union.

The goal is to align reusable process APIs to that framework and then tie them back to system APIs that decouple your systems of record. It's a huge program to resurface credit unions and banks completely using APIs.

I was pleasantly surprised in a couple of places. The solution has a feature called Flex, which is a low-latency API layer for passthrough APIs where you want data mapping but with very low latency and high scalability. That was quite a surprise. The second was having an API catalog that could feed everything as first-class citizens.

You could have a Swagger File, a GraphQL query schema, a socket, an async API, or data mappings. Being able to catalog a bunch of related integration artifacts for reuse and get feedback seemed very effective to me.

It's pretty cryptic for a new user to learn the ropes and do basic things. The solution could be improved in educational and onboarding areas.

I have been using MuleSoft API Manager for three weeks.

I spent my first 20 years at the big three banks, Bank of America, Chase, and Citibank. Thousands of people used the solution in those places. Around 200 to 300 people are directly using the solution in my current organization.

You can instantiate Java-based GraphQL, orchestration and data mapping, or Envoy-based Flex Gateways. The Flex Gateway provides high throughput and scalability, but it's meant for a very focused use case. The ESB Java-based features are very flexible, but they're still pretty scalable.

One unique thing about MuleSoft API Manager compared to Azure is that it has all the components within that ESP. Azure API management makes you call out to other islands within the Microsoft ecosystem. The architecture leads to better scalability and availability with the MuleSoft API Manager approach.

My goal is to create a world-class API. I'm trying to achieve things like end-to-end traceability, observability, strong authentication, or granular authorization. The documentation does not clearly explain how to scaffold and automate the full set of reusable use cases.

If you carefully analyze it, the solution's pricing will be the same as other tools. The solution looks more expensive on the surface because it builds all the functions into one core component or into an integrated suite of components. You get a richer set of full life cycle tooling. You're paying upfront for the scalability.

If you use a cloud like Azure, you send transactions to multiple different services, eventually totaling up to a similar amount of money. However, you'd be locked into one cloud provider with that approach instead of being multi-cloud.

I would recommend the solution to other users. In the last few weeks, I've learned so much that I didn't know existed. I see the solution's holistic benefits, especially for people revamping most of their company's API ecosystem. The solution does present some compelling benefits.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for integration purposes. 

The solution offers good policies. We have all the policies available via drag and drop. It made it very easy.

I don't have any notes for improvements. I'm happy with it. 

I'd like more monitoring and analyzing features included in the future. It would be helpful to have a dashboard with monitoring and health check visible to users. 

I've used the solution for two years. 

The solution is stable. I'd rate it ten out of ten. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. 

I'd rate the scalability ten out of ten. It is easy to extend. We have multiple users on the solution. We have around 100 users so far. 

I don't have any experience with technical support. I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they are. 

I've also used Apigee, IBM API Connect, and Kong Enterprise. They are pretty new for me. I've used Apigee and IBM for a couple of weeks. I did not use a different solution previously.

The solution is pretty easy to set up. I'd rate the ease of setup ten out of ten. That said, I was not involved in the initial deployment directly.

I'm not sure about the solution's pricing. 

Currently, I'm evaluating the difference between this solution and Apigee, IBM API Connect, and Kong Enterprise.

I'm a customer and end-user. 

This is a very useful product. However, it is involved, and you do have to learn a few things to use it effectively. 

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. 

We primarily use the solution for API management.

Their gateway is great. They have a pay manager gateway which I find very interesting. 

We like their API manager.

Their RTF, runtime fabric, is very useful.

The stability overall has been pretty great.

We didn't have any issues with the initial setup.

Technical support has been very helpful.

Their ability to observe is good.

Some items are not ideal. For example, they should for sales management, they need better performance in the core processing.

The IO blocking isn't ideal.

We find that the enterprise level is lacking scalability.

We have some hundred Linux boxes and 400 or so APIs and for scaling, we are facing challenges. However, we haven't yet compared it to other ESBs, and therefore it's possible that all ESBs are limited in the same way.

They're in the process of evolving right now. There are many changes on the horizon that may prove to be interesting. For example, we've implemented CI/CD and now it's my understanding that the graph scale's also coming. 

I've been using the solution for four years.

The stability of the solution is pretty good. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

The scalability is lacking. We're not sure if it's just this solution or ESBs in general, however, we've had trouble scaling as we need to.

We have about 100 users on the solution currently. They are mostly tech leads, senior developers, and architects.

Technical support has been great. If you raise a ticket, then they respond on the basis of the severity of the issue, the criticality of the issue. They attend to the call really quickly. We've been happy with the level of support on offer.

The initial setup is very straightforward. We didn't have any issues at all. It's simple and easy to implement and not overly complex.

We have 30 to 50 people that comprise a support team that can help handle any maintenance issues. 

We did have assistance from MuleSoft support.

I don't have any visibility on the licensing and therefore cannot speak to the exact cost of the product.

We are working with a platinum tier and have an unlimited core. It's my understanding is that there are no additional costs beyond the licensing fee itself. 

We've gone live with MuleSoft and I have been comparing it with TIBCO or Dell and IBM products. If it's threat management that can be done concurrently across platforms, maybe it can be performed better. However, I've heard TIBCO is not evolving at this time.

I was exploring other options for my own knowledge and understanding as I am looking for a job change. People not only use Mulesoft, and companies want to have knowledge in two to three platforms. I'm just comparing Mulesoft with IBM ESB, Oracle, and a few other products. 

We're just a customer and an end-user.

Previously, a Mulesoft community edition was available. We started using Mulesoft's community version. We were exploring some ESB in our organization four years back. We started using MuleSoft as we've got Salesforce. At that time, Mulesoft was not yet acquired by Salesforce and that's why we went with the community edition. It was good. It was free. Then, slowly, we purchased some courses and Mulesoft was more connected to Salesforce. Now also Salesforce is there and AWS is there and it's more well-known and integrated. We thought it would help us due to its growth.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten. It's a product that's still evolving. 

We use the solution for process orchestration. We have some upstream and downstream systems, and the orchestration happens there with the help of MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager.

MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager is a low-code product. You can build an API with Python or Java as well. Since it's a low-code tool, you can easily develop an API and expose it to the consumers. The solution's data view coding language is easier to use than other languages.

The solution should facilitate the creation of custom connectors for use cases where a user would require extra connectors. This will make it easier for the user to use the product.

I haven't suffered many breakdowns or security issues with the solution. Nowadays, we are using CloudHub. However, we faced some stability issues when we previously used RTF (Runtime Fabric).

MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager is a scalable solution. More than 50 people use the tool in our organization.

The solution’s initial setup is easy.

MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager is an expensive solution.

I would recommend the solution to other users because it is easy to use. However, users should first consider the solution's high license cost. Depending on the execution, the solution is worth the money. New users will find the solution easy to use.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case for the solution is managing all the new APIs, and we deploy the solution on cloud.

We were trying to integrate, and we were trying to expose ourselves to external B2B scenarios. So we exposed our APIs overall and new API management. We found it easy to configure partners. It also allows us to create a new client secret, providing access limits, rate limits and more by splitting it into multiple tiers of services.

The integration of API management with security features is valuable. For example, communication security is very strong, and it automatically decrypts your images and encrypts your messages during communication. In addition, it provides different kinds of policies you can apply, which is just a plug-and-play configurable, which is very easy.

Monetization and cataloging can be improved. So we are looking for monetization to understand how well we can catalogue.

We have been using the solution for approximately four years and are currently using the latest version.

The solution is stable.

The solution is scalable. Currently, all our developers use API Manager.

We have had a good experience with customer service and support. I rate them ten out of ten.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We implemented the solution with an in-house team.

We have seen a return on investment.

I rate the solution eight out of ten. I advise new users to ensure they are configuring security as it is the most important key to success.

We are using the solution to move away from a point-to-point integration to a more managed API platform while doing analytics to monetize the API. We use the solution daily.

When doing point-to-point integration, you would need to set up the VPN and Exchange, but it is now easy because once you define an API, you can quickly expose it to third parties. Since you do not need to redo the work, the time to market is faster. In terms of analytics, you can read the traffic rating and even the monetization.

The auto-creation of the API documentation is useful. I used RAML for that, and it made creating API catalogs easier. The solution automatically creates API documentation based on how you define it.

The solution is missing a monetization module. One of our key use cases is engaging with third parties, so the solution has a disadvantage because you are forced to enter a contract with another third party just for billing.

Moreover, there are readily-available connectors, such as Oracle E-Business Suite, but you will have to pay for that. In that way, the solution might get expensive. These connectors should be easily accessible from the marketplace once you have access to the platform, rather than them reselling other products to you. It now defeats the whole purpose of quickly integrating a finance platform without further costs, and you are then forced to redo an already available connector if the budget does not allow you to purchase that connector.

We are still in the initial stages but have been developing APIs on MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager for roughly three to four months.

I rate the stability a ten out of ten because there have not been any issues so far. I am confident we can add more APIs.

I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten. We have 20 developers at our organization using the solution, and we hope to increase that number because we are roping in other developers from our SPUs to onboard them onto the platform.

The vendor trained us and offered support beyond the contract, so I rate their after-sales support positively.

Positive

I rate the initial setup an eight out of ten. It is straightforward, and deploying the solution took a week or two.

MuleSoft technicians trained and then assessed us on the solution as a part of the deployment process. The solution architect then monitored us until we could deploy the solution on our own. There were some APIs that they deployed themselves, and we started onboarding our own APIs once we were ready to do so.

During deployment, we required one person for the networks and one for the connectivity, and we also needed a solution architect. We had one person designing the architecture and one for development.

We only need one developer/administrator for maintenance, but maintenance is not an issue if you are used to the solution.

I rate the solution a seven out of ten since it is expensive from a Zimbabwean perspective. There are no additional costs apart from the licensing costs.

The solution is highly rated and is in the top three in Gartner Reports, and I highly recommend it. I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I use the solution in my company because we are looking at synchronizing all the messages that come into our trading platform. We are also looking at various applications and feeding points, and MuleSoft has been helpful for us. Essentially, the use case is attached to stock broking.

The most valuable features of the solution are the low code environment, the drag-and-drop functionality, and the ability to drop the connectors on the fly, which are extremely helpful.

There are some loopholes in the security policies that could be improved.

The tool's robustness ensures who can access the platform. If there is a cracked version, the tool can track that. MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager needs to watch out for compromised licenses.

I have been using MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager for two years and three months. My company serves as an implementer of the product.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

My company's clients are medium-sized businesses.

I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

If one means difficult setup process and ten means easy setup phase, I rate the initial setup of the solution as an eight.

The solution is deployed on the hybrid cloud model.

The solution's deployment took our company a few days only because of the vendor and client policies.

I think that the return on investment is fairly okay. I don't have the numbers to speak about the ROI because the people involved in the business part look into it. I have done just a small level implementation of the product. I don't have access to those numbers as the business heads have driven the solutions in our company.

If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the product price as six and a half to seven.

The security policies in MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager are helpful. It is a pretty neat platform.

The use of the product for AI-driven projects has been fairly okay.

I would recommend the product to others who plan to use it, considering the ease of use that it offers, along with the help or support that is available for users.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.