IBM App Connect vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform comparison

IBM and Salesforce are both solutions in the Cloud Data Integration category. IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.2, while Salesforce is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.0. IBM holds a 4.9% mindshare in CDI, compared to Salesforce’s 6.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

IBM App Connect

Read 25 IBM App Connect reviews

2,359 Views
1,345 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Read 59 MuleSoft Anypoint Platform reviews

11,835 Views
2,249 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

IBM App Connect

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform and IBM App Connect compete in the integration platform market. MuleSoft may have an advantage due to its strong API management and variety of deployment options, despite its complex pricing.

Features: MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is known for its unified platform that includes API management, an integration platform as a service (iPaaS), and an on-premise enterprise service bus (ESB) with over 200 connectors. It provides API reusability and strong monitoring tools. IBM App Connect is praised for its security features and comprehensive integration capabilities, especially for integrating IBM products and supporting large organizations. It is rich in connectors and offers a user-friendly environment.

Room for Improvement: MuleSoft Anypoint Platform could enhance technical support, improve runtime management, and simplify pricing and complexity. IBM App Connect needs better logging capabilities, improved support for event streaming, and more robust connector options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: MuleSoft supports deployments across public, private, and hybrid clouds with good customer service, though technical support responsiveness could improve. IBM App Connect is ideal for on-premises and hybrid cloud deployments and is noted for its client-centric support and strong relationships with users.

Pricing and ROI: MuleSoft's pricing is complex and can be expensive, particularly for runtime fabric (RTF). However, it provides a cost-efficient API-led approach for good ROI. IBM App Connect has high licensing costs, justified by its quality and flexibility. Both platforms deliver good ROI through integration capabilities, helping reduce technical debt.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score

7.2

IBM App Connect enhances efficiency and ROI with centralized integrations, requiring expertise for long-term success across various sectors.

Sentiment score

6.2

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform offers ROI by reducing costs, increasing innovation, and leveraging APIs, though pricing may challenge smaller companies.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM App Connect report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.6

IBM App Connect support is responsive and competent, but inconsistencies and delays exist, especially in non-urgent and local support.

Sentiment score

6.6

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform offers responsive support, praised by premium users, though some find response times slow and use community resources.

When opening a ticket with the global team, problems are resolved promptly and effectively.

Emirhan Guven

Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

The technical support from IBM is good.

AvinashArepaka1

Developer at Wipro Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM App Connect report

The Salesforce team offers different levels of support.

Satish Vardhani

Senior Consultant at Radiotechnologies

The support team is responsive and helpful.

PietroDell'Erba

Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.4

IBM App Connect is praised for scalability in cloud and container environments, with suggestions for improved administration features.

Sentiment score

7.5

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform provides scalable cloud solutions, offering auto-scalability and varying costs, suitable for medium to large organizations.

I would rate the scalability of IBM App Connect as nine out of ten.

AvinashArepaka1

Developer at Wipro Limited

IBM App Connect demonstrates good scalability.

Emirhan Guven

Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM App Connect report

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is quite scalable, and it meets our use cases with no issues preventing implementation.

PietroDell'Erba

Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

MuleSoft provides the ability to scale, yet it is costly to do so.

reviewer2591856

Integration Lead at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.5

IBM App Connect is stable, with high reliability, though occasional issues arise from environment, configuration, or resource management.

Sentiment score

7.7

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is reliable, stable, with minimal issues, better on-prem scalability, handling low volumes well in large organizations.

IBM App Connect occasionally crashes for various reasons, requiring problem-solving intervention.

Emirhan Guven

Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM App Connect report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Room For Improvement

IBM App Connect users seek improved logging, interface enhancements, better community support, and simpler, more cost-effective version transitions.

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform needs improvements in error handling, documentation, support, integration, AI, security, and interface for better performance.

I find it particularly good for on-premises and now cloud use.

AvinashArepaka1

Developer at Wipro Limited

Version 13 includes around 200 features with cloud platform compatibility.

Emirhan Guven

Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM App Connect report

Currently, it uses other standards, but adopting OpenAPI, the standard in the market, would be beneficial.

PietroDell'Erba

Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

When dealing with multiple transactions or trading, the system can lose control, and tracking becomes hectic.

Satish Vardhani

Senior Consultant at Radiotechnologies

MuleSoft is considered expensive, so pricing is a major concern.

reviewer2591856

Integration Lead at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Setup Cost

IBM App Connect's annual pricing varies by transactions and partnership, with complexities and flexibility in setup and licensing.

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform's pricing, though complex and costly, is justified by features but may deter smaller organizations.

For insurance companies with simple JDBC connections, the process is straightforward.

Emirhan Guven

Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM App Connect report

I do not know the specific costs, but given that it is part of MuleSoft, I suspect it is not cheap.

PietroDell'Erba

Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

MuleSoft is considered one of the more expensive products in the market.

reviewer2591856

Integration Lead at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

The platform reduces manual workload in maintaining infrastructure, but it does come with some cost considerations.

Satish Vardhani

Senior Consultant at Radiotechnologies

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Valuable Features

IBM App Connect excels with robust integration, user-friendly design, scalability, and flexibility for seamless, secure, and complex integrations.

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform excels in API management, hybrid integrations, and offers versatile deployment with strong monitoring and user-friendly interface.

The features I find most valuable are message routing, message transformation, and protocol translation.

AvinashArepaka1

Developer at Wipro Limited

File operations are simple to execute, and converting between XML to JSON formats is effortless with IBM App Connect.

Emirhan Guven

Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM App Connect report

The most valuable feature is the full lifecycle management, including Anypoint Designer and Exchange, as well as Discofolio API.

reviewer2591856

Integration Lead at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform helps to standardize data integration approaches, making it easier to implement integration projects.

PietroDell'Erba

Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

The platform is integrated with Salesforce, making it preferable when using Salesforce products.

Satish Vardhani

Senior Consultant at Radiotechnologies

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Categories and Ranking

IBM App Connect

Ranking in Cloud Data Integration

13th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Ranking in Cloud Data Integration

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Message Queue (MQ) Software (4th), Business-to-Business Middleware (1st), Workload Automation (5th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Cloud Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM App Connect is 4.9%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is 6.5%, down from 7.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Data Integration

Featured Reviews

Emirhan Guven

Team Leader, Software Development at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

Transforms data efficiently and navigates licensing challenges with ease

The transition between version 12 and version 13 presents some challenges. While version 12 had approximately 10 features, version 13 includes around 200 features with cloud platform compatibility. The learning curve for developers moving from version 12 to 13 could be smoother. When using new components, better context explanations would be beneficial. In version 13, accessing new features requires connecting through a web browser, which can be challenging to understand. The explanation of new features could be more user-friendly.

Read full review

Mohan BS

Senior Specialist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

A useful tool to integrate applications and for data transformations that need to improve in the area of price and support

The main area where improvements are required in the product revolves around budgeting. The cost of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required, especially when compared to other tools, like Dell Boomi or Oracle. Mule Anypoint Platform is made available with many components, and whether users use them or not depends on their choices. For example, though there is a tool called Anypoint MQ, our organization prefers to pay and use Kafka, as we don't want to use MuleSoft Anypoint MQ. In Mule Anypoint Platform, there needs to be proper segregation to help users identify what they need and don't need, making it an area where users need to be careful when opting for MuleSoft. Mule Anypoint Platform is an integration tool and not an ETL solution. When a user has to deal with a huge number of data, then Mule Anypoint Platform should not be a preferred choice since it can only be used for lightweight purposes revolving around APIs. There is a need to have a clear architectural decision made before opting for Mule Anypoint Platform. When there is a requirement for heavy data transformation, then users need to decide whether to go with Mule Anypoint Platform or any other platform available in the market. Though the tool comes with many useful components, it depends on whether the user plans to use all of its features. Recently, the product has come up with a new feature that is similar to an API catalog. MuleSoft had come up with the UAPIM feature almost eight months to a year ago, which had some concerns in the area of budgeting. Whether you build APIs using Javacore or any other tools, they can be cataloged using MuleSoft's UAPIM feature, for which users need to pay an extra amount, making it an area of concern for users. It would be great if MuleSoft's support team could provide help with the area of Kubernetes.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

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...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM App Connect?

Configuration time varies by implementation. For insurance companies with simple JDBC connections, the process is straightforward. However, companies requiring multiple configurations for ODBC, JDB...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM App Connect?

I am a developer specializing in IBM App Connect. We have a customer interested in comparing ESB tools, such as webMethods, which was previously owned by Software AG company before IBM acquired the...

See all answers

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...

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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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

webMethods.io vs IBM App Connect

Compared 32% of the time

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration vs IBM App Connect

Compared 17% of the time

TIBCO BusinessWorks vs IBM App Connect

Compared 8% of the time

SAP Process Orchestration vs IBM App Connect

Compared 4% of the time

WSO2 Enterprise Integrator vs IBM App Connect

Compared 4% of the time

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Redwood RunMyJobs vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Compared 16% of the time

Tidal by Redwood vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Compared 7% of the time

IBM MQ vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Compared 4% of the time

ActiveMQ vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Compared 4% of the time

ActiveBatch by Redwood vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Compared 2% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM App Connect

August 2025

Download IBM App Connect product report

Buyer's Guide

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

August 2025

Download MuleSoft Anypoint Platform product report

Also Known As

IBM Cast Iron

Data Integrator, Anypoint MQ

Overview

Rapidly connect public clouds, private clouds and on-premises application

App Connect Professional is IBM’s cloud integration offering which delivers an integration solution
• With ease-of-use, flexibility and increased responsiveness to the evolving business needs, while removing the daunting complexities of integration.
• Provides the powerful combination of a ‘simple integration experience’ for business users looking to automate how their applications talk to each other; coupled with a ‘configuration based integration’ approach for IT.
• App Connect Professional is for the teams and integration developers who need to solve more complex problems and need powerful tooling for integration scenarios

IBM

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is used for integration and API management, connecting enterprise applications across retail, e-commerce, and supply chain. It supports cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-on-premises scenarios with real-time and asynchronous messaging.

Users leverage MuleSoft Anypoint Platform for diverse integrations including cloud-based and on-premises, enabling data transformations, middleware functions, and hybrid integrations. It seamlessly connects systems like SAP, Salesforce, and Oracle, facilitating data transfers and integrating legacy systems. The platform offers a graphic interface, quick implementation, and a variety of connectors, contributing to its popularity for robust and scalable solutions. Despite its strengths, users seek better technical support, more connectors, simplified runtime management, and improved documentation.

What are the key features of MuleSoft Anypoint Platform?

Marketplace for integration platforms: Provides pre-built connectors and templates.
API management: Efficient management and monitoring of APIs.
Graphic interface: User-friendly design for ease of use.
Monitoring capabilities: Comprehensive monitoring and observability features.
Quick implementation: Rapid deployment of integrations and APIs.
Pre-built templates: Ready-to-use templates for common integrations.
Stability and performance: Reliable and high-performing platform.
Data transformation with DataWeave: Powerful tool for data mapping and transformation.
Support for hybrid deployments: Flexibility to integrate cloud and on-premises systems.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Increased connectivity: Seamless integration of multiple systems.
Operational efficiency: Streamlined processes and data flows.
Scalability: Ability to grow with business needs.
Cost savings: Reduced development time with pre-built components.
Enhanced visibility: Improved monitoring and management of integrations.

Enterprises in retail, e-commerce, and supply chain implement MuleSoft Anypoint Platform to connect various applications and systems. It supports real-time messaging for inventory management, synchronizes customer data across platforms, and integrates with legacy systems for smooth data migration. Users benefit from quick deployments and a marketplace that accelerates integration projects.

Salesforce

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

Buyer's Guide

IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

July 2025

Free Report: IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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