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IBM Integration Bus vs Red Hat Fuse comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 3, 2025

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
6.3
IBM Integration Bus offers varied ROI, aiding digital transformation, with long-term benefits and cost reductions from efficient integrations.
Sentiment score
6.9
Red Hat Fuse improves service speed and long-term ROI, though initial costs and unforeseen expenses affect short-term expectations.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
IBM Integration Bus customer service is rated high for expertise, though some users cite delays and high costs.
Sentiment score
7.5
Red Hat Fuse's customer service is generally responsive, though some users cite slow responses and need for better documentation.
I would rate the technical support of IBM Integration Bus as nine out of ten; it was the best.
Associate Consultant at MindCraft Software Pvt. Ltd.
On a scale from one to ten, I would rate the support for Red Hat Fuse as ten.
Technology Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
IBM Integration Bus excels in scalability, supporting diverse configurations and high performance, ideal for enterprise deployment with minor version limitations.
Sentiment score
7.1
Red Hat Fuse excels in scalability, supporting diverse deployments and high-volume integrations, effectively meeting enterprise and varied user needs.
There are other factors to it, such as developer experience, so that developers can scale it.
Chapter Area Lead/GM Group Architecture & IT at Spark New Zealand
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
IBM Integration Bus is praised for its exceptional stability and reliability, crucial for handling extensive infrastructure integration smoothly.
Sentiment score
8.0
Red Hat Fuse is praised for its reliability and high availability, though stability can vary by configuration and platform.
In my experience, it is a scalable solution, and IBM Integration Bus is indeed a stable product.
Associate Consultant at MindCraft Software Pvt. Ltd.
I would rate the stability of Red Hat Fuse at ten out of ten.
Chapter Area Lead/GM Group Architecture & IT at Spark New Zealand
 

Room For Improvement

IBM Integration Bus needs enhancements in functionality, support, cost, interface, architecture, and integration with cloud and DevOps.
Red Hat Fuse requires UI updates, better documentation, pricing flexibility, improved configuration, built-in connectors, and enhanced stability and monitoring.
They are improving one of the nodes such as the HTTP request node, implementing the indirect retry mechanism itself, and we are getting new features.
Associate Consultant at MindCraft Software Pvt. Ltd.
There is the possibility to create services directly in Java and call them at a high level from Apache Camel and expose them with Red Hat Fuse.
Technology Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
For us to use Red Hat Fuse with AI models, we need MCP so that we can be very confident that it can deliver us a really solid outcome when developers are using it, whether it is any of the integration patterns or messaging bus patterns.
Chapter Area Lead/GM Group Architecture & IT at Spark New Zealand
 

Setup Cost

IBM Integration Bus is costly for small firms but reasonable for large enterprises, with concerns over licensing complexity.
Red Hat Fuse offers competitive pricing with potential discounts, valued for enterprise support but costs may rise with consulting.
Regarding the pricing setup cost and licensing for IBM Integration Bus, I believe it is expensive.
Associate Consultant at MindCraft Software Pvt. Ltd.
We are in the third renewal since we migrated to Red Hat Fuse. Cost always goes up, it does not go down.
Chapter Area Lead/GM Group Architecture & IT at Spark New Zealand
I think the pricing for Red Hat Fuse is okay; it's not expensive, and the support is good.
Technology Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
 

Valuable Features

IBM Integration Bus excels with protocol support, scalability, and security, offering seamless system integration and intuitive GUI for enterprises.
Red Hat Fuse excels in integration, scalability, reliability, and flexibility, offering powerful features for DevOps and microservices.
The features I find most valuable in IBM Integration Bus are very useful for performing transformations from systems such as SAP to Salesforce, and from Salesforce to S/4 and 365.
Associate Consultant at MindCraft Software Pvt. Ltd.
When we flipped from the previous enterprise integration application to Red Hat Fuse, the TCO benefit was about 40 percent.
Chapter Area Lead/GM Group Architecture & IT at Spark New Zealand
Regarding stability, Red Hat Fuse works well without lagging, crashing, or downtime.
Technology Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Integration Bus
Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
70
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Red Hat Fuse
Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category, the mindshare of IBM Integration Bus is 16.6%, down from 22.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Fuse is 6.7%, down from 7.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Integration Bus16.6%
Red Hat Fuse6.7%
Other76.7%
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
 

Featured Reviews

RA
Associate Consultant at MindCraft Software Pvt. Ltd.
Efficient data transformation and seamless integration drive successful deployments
As for improvements in IBM Integration Bus, we are getting another feature of the retry mechanism now. Version 8.13 was upgraded, and we started using the retry mechanism itself, and we are using nodes in the development level. They are improving one of the nodes such as the HTTP request node, implementing the indirect retry mechanism itself, and we are getting new features.
Nilay Rathod - PeerSpot reviewer
Chapter Area Lead/GM Group Architecture & IT at Spark New Zealand
Microservices have transformed our integrations and now highlight room to improve AI-driven tooling
There are areas in Red Hat Fuse that have room for improvement. We were recently having a discussion with Red Hat team building agentic AI, which we call AI SDLC. Something that the team is actively working on, but I have not really seen any production-level version of it is MCP. For us to use Red Hat Fuse with AI models, we need MCP so that we can be very confident that it can deliver us a really solid outcome when developers are using it, whether it is any of the integration patterns or messaging bus patterns. I have not seen that yet. Even though Red Hat has an alternative to that, such as a plugin, it is not as advanced as some of the MCPs that we see around.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise47
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise13
 

Questions from the Community

Migration from IBM Integration Bus to Mulesoft ESB for a large enterprise tech services company
I was previously part of the Oracle SOA/OSB development team. In my current capacity I architected solutions using MuleSoft Anypoint Platform on cloud / on-premises and hybrid modes and on PCE/RTF ...
IBM Integration Bus vs Mule ESB - which to choose?
Our team ran a comparison of IBM’s Integration Bus vs. Mule ESB in order to determine what sort of ESB software was the best fit for our organization. Ultimately we decided to choose IBM Integratio...
What do you like most about IBM Integration Bus?
The message queue, like, message queue connectors. Then they have a built in connectors for most of the systems, like SAP, oracle database, and this Civil connector is there. Of course, we have thi...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Fuse?
I think the pricing for Red Hat Fuse is okay; it's not expensive, and the support is good.
What needs improvement with Red Hat Fuse?
The downsides of Red Hat Fuse that I encountered were related to the Java virtual machine I worked with, which was Oracle, as the client did not create good services. In the integration, they had m...
What is your primary use case for Red Hat Fuse?
My use cases for Red Hat Fuse include using Drools to create a bunch of rules for the Finance Ministry in Chile many years ago. I worked with another enterprise named Aguas Andinas, which is a very...
 

Also Known As

IBM WebSphere ESB
Fuse ESB, FuseSource
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Salesbox, €sterreichische Bundesbahnen (€BB), Road Buddy, Swiss Federal Railways, Electricity Supply Board, The Hartree Centre, ESB Networks
Avianca, American Product Distributors (APD), Kings College Hospital, AMD, CenturyLink, AECOM, E*TRADE
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Integration Bus vs. Red Hat Fuse and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.