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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 8.3, while Salesforce is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.9. IBM holds a 4.6% mindshare in CDI, compared to Salesforce’s 7.1% 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
  • 2,264 Views
  • 1,268 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
Read 59 MuleSoft Anypoint Platform reviews
  • 11,013 Views
  • 2,203 Comparison Views
92% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 21, 2025

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform and IBM App Connect are key players in the integration platform category, offering robust integration solutions. MuleSoft appears to have the upper hand with a broader range of connectors and deployment flexibility, providing a more comprehensive integration environment.

Features: MuleSoft Anypoint Platform stands out with its capabilities in API management, an extensive library of over 200 connectors, and support for both on-premise and cloud deployments. The platform's visual configuration tools make it user-friendly. On the other hand, IBM App Connect emphasizes its security features, ease of complex integrations, and a wide array of pre-built connectors particularly beneficial for users already in IBM environments.

Room for Improvement: MuleSoft users often note the complexity of its pricing and suggest that runtime management, support, and documentation need enhancements for less technical users. Meanwhile, IBM App Connect could improve its logging system to aid debugging and expand its range of connectors to support newer technologies, with both platforms needing to tackle cost and setup complexities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: MuleSoft provides versatile deployment options across public and hybrid clouds with responsive technical support that excels with higher-tier plans. IBM App Connect is renowned for its strong on-premise and hybrid deployment capabilities, along with highly specialized service, though beginners might find its interface challenging.

Pricing and ROI: MuleSoft is known for a high price point due to complex licensing based on transaction volumes and vCores, posing challenges for smaller companies but offering substantial ROI for large enterprises. IBM App Connect also comes at a high cost but offers flexible licensing options. Both platforms deliver significant ROI through reduced infrastructure and maintenance costs for enterprise clients.

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Buyer's Guide
IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
September 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.
 

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.
The technical support from IBM is good.
For more quotes and insights, download the IBM App Connect report
The Salesforce team offers different levels of support.
The support team is responsive and helpful.
For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report
Emirhan Guven - PeerSpot reviewer
AA
SV
PD
 

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.
IBM App Connect demonstrates good scalability.
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.
MuleSoft provides the ability to scale, yet it is costly to do so.
For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report
AA
Emirhan Guven - PeerSpot reviewer
PD
reviewer2591856 - PeerSpot reviewer
 

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.
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.
Version 13 includes around 200 features with cloud platform compatibility.
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.
When dealing with multiple transactions or trading, the system can lose control, and tracking becomes hectic.
MuleSoft is considered expensive, so pricing is a major concern.
For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report
AA
Emirhan Guven - PeerSpot reviewer
PD
SV
reviewer2591856 - PeerSpot reviewer
 

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.
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.
MuleSoft is considered one of the more expensive products in the market.
The platform reduces manual workload in maintaining infrastructure, but it does come with some cost considerations.
For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report
Emirhan Guven - PeerSpot reviewer
PD
reviewer2591856 - PeerSpot reviewer
SV
 

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.
File operations are simple to execute, and converting between XML to JSON formats is effortless with IBM App Connect.
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.
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform helps to standardize data integration approaches, making it easier to implement integration projects.
The platform is integrated with Salesforce, making it preferable when using Salesforce products.
For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report
AA
Emirhan Guven - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2591856 - PeerSpot reviewer
PD
SV
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM App Connect
Ranking in Cloud Data Integration
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
25
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
59
Ranking in other categories
Message Queue (MQ) Software (4th), Business-to-Business Middleware (1st), Workload Automation (4th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Cloud Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM App Connect is 4.6%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is 7.1%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Data Integration Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform7.1%
IBM App Connect4.6%
Other88.3%
Cloud Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Emirhan Guven - PeerSpot reviewer
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 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise29
 

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...
See all answers
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

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IBM Cloud Pak for Integration vs IBM App Connect Logo
IBM Cloud Pak for Integration vs IBM App Connect
Compared 15% of the time
TIBCO BusinessWorks vs IBM App Connect Logo
TIBCO BusinessWorks vs IBM App Connect
Compared 6% of the time
SAP Process Orchestration vs IBM App Connect Logo
SAP Process Orchestration vs IBM App Connect
Compared 4% of the time
Oracle Integration Cloud Service vs IBM App Connect Logo
Oracle Integration Cloud Service vs IBM App Connect
Compared 4% of the time
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Redwood RunMyJobs vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
Compared 19% of the time
Tidal by Redwood vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform Logo
Tidal by Redwood vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
Compared 8% of the time
IBM MQ vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform Logo
IBM MQ vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
Compared 4% of the time
ActiveMQ vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform Logo
ActiveMQ vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
Compared 4% of the time
Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform Logo
Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
Compared 2% of the time
More MuleSoft Anypoint Platform Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
IBM App Connect
September 2025
IBM App Connect reportDownload IBM App Connect product report
Buyer's Guide
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
September 2025
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform reportDownload 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 provides API management and integration capabilities with scalability, ensuring seamless connectivity across systems.

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform offers API management and integration capabilities within a user-friendly interface. With a range of connectors and the ability to handle integration patterns, it enables data integration across environments with support for API-led connectivity. High scalability, observability, batch processing, and tooling are key features, enhancing performance while simplifying deployment.

What are the standout features of MuleSoft Anypoint Platform?
  • API Management: Comprehensive tools for managing APIs effectively.
  • Integration Capabilities: Facilitates diverse integration patterns.
  • Connectors: Extensive library for connecting various systems.
  • Observability: Enhances monitoring and performance tracking.
  • Batch Processing: Manages large volumes of data efficiently.
What benefits and ROI should users expect?
  • Scalability: Adaptable to growing data demands across platforms.
  • Performance: Simplifies complex deployments and improves processing.
  • Flexibility: Supports multiple environments, from cloud to on-premises.
  • User-Friendly: Streamlines integration processes with robust tools.

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is employed by organizations for API management and seamless integration across systems in industries like retail and e-commerce. It connects enterprise applications in environments such as SAP and Salesforce. Users leverage it for data transformation and synchronization, achieving efficient real-time processing and a middleware layer across systems.

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
September 2025
Free Report: IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
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