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IBM DataPower Gateway vs MuleSoft API Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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 DataPower Gateway
Ranking in API Management
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (5th), Application Infrastructure (12th), SOA Application Gateways (1st)
MuleSoft API Manager
Ranking in API Management
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 3.7%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MuleSoft API Manager is 5.0%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
MuleSoft API Manager5.0%
IBM DataPower Gateway3.7%
Other91.3%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

AkshaySawant - PeerSpot reviewer
Security features excel but development limitations emerge
We are using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes. As per the development perspective, there are some limitations with IBM DataPower Gateway because it only supports XML and XSLT language, but it does not support the Java language. This is the only limitation of the IBM DataPower Gateway. For the authentication and authorization purpose, we can use the IBM DataPower Gateway. It's a very good product. We are mostly using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes and load balancing purposes. If we are handling the load for a particular server, then we can use the IBM DataPower Gateway. The IBM DataPower Gateway is mostly used for security purposes. If we have some APIs and we are using some security for those APIs, then we can use it. It can also be used as a load balancer. It's also used for certificate management, user management purposes, authentication, and authorization. For routing, the IBM DataPower Gateway has multiple URL-based routing and content-based routing capabilities. If we have multiple URLs, then we can use an XML script. Using the XSLT language, we can configure multiple URLs and implement URL-based routing. Content-based routing means if we have multiple requests, we can route the request to a particular URL. For this, we need to use the XSLT language only. We can't use XML, Java, or other scripting languages. With IBM DataPower Gateway, we are using all the APIs. All APIs have been configured on the gateway. We have configured the particular TLS profile and some TLS client profiles as well. Using that TLS profile, we have configured the APIs and authentication. We have configured some tokens also, including JWT tokens and different types of auth tokens. There is also a rate limiting feature which we use for handling API loads.
D.Rajesh Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Improved Integration Efficiency and Potential for Further Enhancements in Monitoring and User Experience
The policies in MuleSoft API Manager are significant features. We get the policies by default, with more than 25 out-of-the-box policies. If any additional requirement exists specific to the customer, there is a custom policy framework. We can build the policy according to our requirement, and deploy and enable it at the API Manager level to consume across different business groups, environments, or organizations altogether within the platform. Developing the custom policy is not challenging; you just need to follow the custom policy framework to implement. The custom policy and the different levels of SLAs of the API Manager are notable. Regarding the monitoring side of the API Manager, MuleSoft provides substantial monitoring with logs, offering search capability, raw data accessibility, and different subscriptions. With the top tier, integration with third-party platforms such as ELK or Splunk becomes unnecessary because all search capabilities, dashboards, and functional monitoring can be built within the platform itself. This is excellent from the monitoring perspective, and there have been recent improvements focusing on observability. For DevOps, if you want to make your continuous integration and continuous deployment effective, irrespective of the tool, there are options to integrate. For example, you can use the Maven plugin, platform APIs, or CLI to build your end-to-end DevOps cycle.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It can look for the various security threats, productions, payload scanning, and perform routing based on the content type."
"I like all of the features in this product and it does what it's supposed to do."
"The solution is robust."
"The most valuable features for our business include the ability to monitor and log data transactions and handle multiple request at an enterprise level."
"The solution is stable."
"The scalability of the solution is good."
"Its initial setup was straightforward."
"The product is stable...The product is scalable."
"If you adopt the whole platform, you can build composable applications. This will cut your time creating new applications and updating them – once you have everything running – by up to 50%."
"Technical support has been helpful."
"The most valuable feature of MuleSoft API Manager is Exchange, where we store all the API specifications and build the documentation for each API."
"I believe the API connectivity within the cloud marketplace is most valuable."
"Both the cloud and on-premises options are available. Customers can leverage the MuleSoft Cloud platform to deploy the applications or set up their own online infrastructure to deploy applications."
"We have all the policies available via drag and drop. It made it very easy."
"It provides various advantages in the integration field, including support for Azure services and cloud integrations."
"MuleSoft API Manager allows us to implement custom policies or use out-of-the-box policies, such as authentication policies, which save time."
 

Cons

"I would like the tool to improve its training."
"It is a costly product."
"The product should be more adapted to the DevOps process."
"The product's cost for data appliances or hardware is quite high. It needs improvement."
"The solution requires a lot of training manuals in order to get to know it better and to be able to use it effectively."
"Making it more user-friendly would be an improvement."
"In the next release, I would like to see the product price reduced. It should be cheaper."
"In terms of OEM support, it is poor. If I raise a CBRT one, as per the SLA, they should respond in one hour, however, sometimes it takes four or five hours to respond."
"Rather than focusing on numbers, they should focus more on the customer support service."
"The roadmap could include more GenAI use cases integrated into the platform, focusing on various industry verticals."
"Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager can improve some of the gateway features. We could use some more customization in creating rules. A lot of the policies are related to the APIs rather than the client. If I want to apply a policy based on a client that is not available."
"There are some loopholes in the security policies that could be improved."
"I'd like more monitoring and analyzing features included in the future."
"Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager could improve the monitoring because it is very poor quality and not user-friendly. It is not as good as other solutions on the market."
"The pricing is quite expensive. It should be adjusted to make it more affordable for users."
"To improve Anypoint API Manager for the next release, it should focus on better consumption scalability, especially for smaller APIs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM DataPower Gateway is quite expensive to get resources to work on this product. If the price could be cheaper, I think that will make it a little bit better and easily accessible to smaller clients. Then it could compete with other solutions that are available in the market. There's a whole lot of other solutions available that work well and are cheaper than IBM's products."
"The licensing cost is very expensive."
"This product is a bit expensive as IBM products are costly assets. However, for enterprise customers it is a worthwhile investment."
"The tool's initial costing is expensive for small banks and financial institutions."
"The appliance is a bit on the expensive side for the workloads that are not too high."
"The product is expensive."
"It's expensive when you compare it with others."
"The total cost of IBM DataPower Gateway would depend on the configuration, but in my experience, it can amount to 60,000 Euros per box, even for the virtual version. Usually, customers need high availability and a non-production environment, so the total price for IBM DataPower Gateway can be quite a lot. It can be 200,000 Euros or a similar figure."
"The product is highly priced compared to other advanced software. It is affordable only for tier-one customers."
"If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the product price as six and a half to seven."
"The product is expensive."
"It is extremely high, and I would rate it one out of ten."
"The licensing fees are approximately $80,000 USD per year and there are costs for additional functionality, as well as premiums for connectors to systems such as Oracle and SAP."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"Anypoint is the most expensive solution on the market, as far as I know, though it's also the most capable."
"The pricing for this solution is cheaper than GCP and Bluemix."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
29%
Insurance Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise16
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise43
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM DataPower Gateway?
The MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) is great because it allows you to easily expose services using various protocols – web services, REST (JSON), and others. This flexibility simplifies things.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM DataPower Gateway?
This product is definitely expensive because if any issue occurs in the live environment or production environment, and our organization faces some issue with the IBM DataPower Gateway, then the IB...
What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?
I have significant experience with the IBM DataPower Gateway. As a security product, it is very good. However, from the development perspective, it has limitations because it only supports the XSLT...
How does Kong Enterprise compare with Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager?
The Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager was designed with its users in mind. Though it is a reasonably complex piece of software, it is easy to install and upgrade. While there are different things that ...
How does Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager compare with Amazon API Gateway?
I have found that Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager is the best integration tool out there for API management. It is easy to implement and learn; it provides several options for deployment, (including ...
What do you like most about Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager?
The most valuable features of the solution for securing APIs stem from the tool's ability to allow users to deploy policies.
 

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower
Anypoint API Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity
Coca-Cola, Splunk, Citrix, UCSF, Vertu, State of Colorado, National Post, TiVo, Deakin, LLS, Oldcastle Precast, ParcelPoint, Justice Systems, Ube, Sumitomo Corporation, PacificComp, University of Witwatersrand, Groupe Initiatives, Camelot, Panviva
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DataPower Gateway vs. MuleSoft API Manager and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.