IBM App Connect vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform comparison

IBM and Salesforce are both solutions in the Cloud Data Integration category. IBM is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.2, while Salesforce is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.1. IBM holds a 4.7% mindshare in CDI, compared to Salesforce’s 6.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

IBM App Connect

Read 23 IBM App Connect reviews

1,711 Views
980 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Read 57 MuleSoft Anypoint Platform reviews

2,956 Views
1,925 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM App Connect

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform and IBM App Connect compete in the integration solution category. MuleSoft appears to have an advantage due to its comprehensive integration options and ease of use.

Features: MuleSoft Anypoint Platform offers a powerful combination of API management, iPaaS, and a solid ESB, allowing for efficient API and microservices management. It includes over 200 connectors and provides rapid API development and cloud deployment support. IBM App Connect is recognized for its strong security, scalability, and extensive integration with IBM products, offering many connectors that simplify integration tasks.

Room for Improvement: MuleSoft could enhance its batch processing component, accelerate its feature release cycle, and improve pricing models. Simplifying initial setup and documentation could also benefit smaller organizations. IBM App Connect should focus on improving its user interface, container installation process, event streaming support, and logging and CI/CD capabilities. Enhancing integration with external systems and user experience is also recommended.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: MuleSoft Anypoint Platform supports flexible deployment across public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises environments, but users desire better response times. IBM App Connect is primarily on-premises with hybrid and cloud options, providing customer service praised for its responsiveness even if its deployment options are less varied.

Pricing and ROI: MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is seen as expensive but provides significant value with its API-led model, offering strong ROI, especially for large enterprises. Its pricing structure can be complex for smaller firms. IBM App Connect also has a high cost justified by reliability, priced based on containers, delivering strong ROI for enterprise-level deployments.

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

Buyer's Guide

IBM App Connect vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

March 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:

Categories and Ranking

IBM App Connect

Ranking in Cloud Data Integration

11th

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

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Message Queue (MQ) Software (4th), Business-to-Business Middleware (1st), Workload Automation (8th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Cloud Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM App Connect is 4.7%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is 6.7%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Data Integration

Featured Reviews

Mehdi El Filahi

Co-Founder at tenekit

Offers flexible adapters, good scalability but logging can be difficult at times

There is room for improvement in the logging messages. Sometimes, if you put someone new into App Connect, they can abandon it the same day. The logging is really painful. However, IBM has made efforts to integrate with Elasticsearch for logging, so that's an improvement. Overall, the logging can be difficult at times. One more important point is that if IBM improves its CI/CD capabilities, it will make a big difference. Right now, I have to create my own CI/CD setup from scratch for every client, which is inefficient. Back in 2013, I worked with Sonic ESB, and even then, it had CI/CD with Maven. With App Connect, you need to build everything yourself when using tools like Jenkins, Bamboo, or CircleCI. IBM really needs to provide official support for this.

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Vijay Subramanyam

Delivery Head at cblsolutions

Robust, reliable, and stable, ensuring high availability for critical integrations

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten; it is a highly scalable solution. We have around 200 end users using this solution in our company. We use it to its maximum capacity. However, it's not for P1 applications, but definitely for severity two cases (P2 level). It integrates critical applications, but it's not a platform that, if it stops, the entire system would come down. So, it's more like a severity two level. However, it has the potential to eventually become a P1 platform. Not exactly P1 applications, but a P1 platform. Because now we are still in the transition to migrate everything, all the integrations to Mule Anypoint Platform. But once it's done, then this platform becomes critical. Because even now, we have point-to-point connections.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support is good."

"One of the most beneficial features is the ability to handle multiple communication technologies, like integrating Kafka flows, which is helpful as other teams heavily use it. Regarding error handling, I initially wrote most of the handling myself. While built-in features for error handling are built-in, it largely depends on the developer. We use a custom solution that catches all exceptions, logs them in a database, and replays them as needed. It has been effective for us for over twenty years."

"It has an efficient design flow."

"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 likely an adapter for that."

"Very scalable, flexible, and user-friendly."

"We use IBM App Connect for the integration between the applications."

"There is a friendly interface for configuration, and integration is made easy."

"I would say that the most valuable feature is the array of connectors and integration tools."

More IBM App Connect pros

"This is a good platform for designing, flowing out APIs, and then doing API-based integrations."

"MuleSoft offers with the Anypoint Platform a unified platform for API management and an integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) as well as an on-premise Enterprise Service Bus pattern."

"It is very easy to use for building connectors. It comes with a lot of connectors. For example, it has different adapters for NetSuite, which are very easy to use. It also has Salesforce connectors. The object store feature is also really easy to use. Mule Anypoint Platform is also good in terms of performance and how it is managed behind the scenes."

"The tool is very capable and offers a high performance. The tool supports batch processing and ETL processing."

"Mule works very well with Salesforce and CRMs."

"The most valuable feature of Mule Anypoint Platform is rapid development."

"The ability to define multi-tiered APIs and reuse them is a fantastic platform feature."

"The product is very user-friendly."

More MuleSoft Anypoint Platform pros

Cons

"The installation of containers could be simplified, as it currently requires a senior-level installer."

"They reply in one or two hours at most, but they could be better."

"Finding developers for the product is difficult since it is a niche solution. I know the OpenShift environment is running well for the microservice environment. We had some issues with the other environment we tried to implement. It can be easily implemented internally, but we have some problems in practice."

"It is not easy to deploy. It requires someone with a high level of knowledge in the solution to deploy it, not just anyone can do it."

"IBM needs to enhance and have a stronger offering for the event streaming part because this is the future needed for the containerization and the new integration requirement."

"When we do a version upgrade of the system, the platform is kind of complicated."

"The user interface of IBM App Connect can be a little bit more user-friendly, I would say because the first-time developer is onboarded while using IBM App Connect, he or she may get a little intimidated or daunted looking at all the options available or the pipelines, et cetera."

"The addition of string functionality would be a benefit, particularly in the ESQL space that IBM already uses internally."

More IBM App Connect cons

"The price could be improved."

"One area we'd like to see improvement in is the error logging and troubleshooting process."

"Although the solution's proxy design and process are good, it faces connecting issues because it lacks data integration."

"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."

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

"The solution is very costly. The solution should provide a package with fewer capabilities at a lower price for specific companies that don’t have a big IT budget. Not every customer requires all the capabilities of the software. It will be a good fit in the market, and they will easily sell it more."

"Code quality, Code Security, SaaS, and DaaS security, can all be improved."

"The pricing can be a little bit less."

More MuleSoft Anypoint Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price could be better."

"Initially, App Connect was quite expensive because the cost was based on the number of processors we used. However, it's now based on containers, which means we can be more specific about our consumption and get a better price."

"IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products."

"It is very expensive if we want to scale."

"The licensing cost for IBM App Connect is very high."

"App Connect is not cheap."

"The cost depends upon the consumer."

"The solution's pricing isn't cheap, but you can get good discounts based on your competitive deal."

"Mule is not the cheapest integration platform out there, but it deserves the price we are paying."

"MuleSoft Anypoint Platform really needs to work on its pricing model because it's very complicated."

"The pricing of our solution is highly competitive. While it may not be categorized as exceptionally low, it is certainly more affordable compared to IBM."

"The tool is heavily bundle-priced. I rate the solution’s pricing five on a scale of ten, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap."

"Licensing can be complex as is the case with most iPaaS/cloud offerings."

"The solution's pricing, as per the old approach, is expensive."

"Mule Anypoint Platform is an expensive solution."

"I can't give you a straightforward answer because sometimes it depends on the usage. If you're going to have fewer than 5 million messages, it is free of cost. If you're going to have more than 5 million messages, they're going to charge $100 per month"

More MuleSoft Anypoint Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

54%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

24%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

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?

IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM App Connect?

Our company has a big project for delivery and e-commerce sites. We use IBM App Connect to deliver information to our end users after they buy our products. We get information from many places, suc...

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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

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Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM App Connect

Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 18% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

Apache Kafka vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Compared 6% of the time

ActiveMQ vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 2% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM App Connect

March 2025

Download IBM App Connect product report

Buyer's Guide

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

March 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

March 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: March 2025.

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