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IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services vs Mule ESB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Sterling B2B Integratio...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Business-to-Business Middleware (5th)
Mule ESB
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Application Integration solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services is designed for Business-to-Business Middleware and holds a mindshare of 10.1%, down 15.5% compared to last year.
Mule ESB, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), holds 16.6% mindshare, down 20.4% since last year.
Business-to-Business Middleware Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services10.1%
SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite10.5%
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform9.0%
Other70.4%
Business-to-Business Middleware
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Mule ESB16.6%
IBM Integration Bus15.4%
webMethods.io8.2%
Other59.8%
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
 

Featured Reviews

RT
Seeburger Lead EDI Developer/Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Effective business process handling with some room for improvement in mapping ease and user interactions
IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services does not have specific issues that need improvement. While each product, like SeeBurger and IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services, has its own advantages and disadvantages, I do not see any challenges or improvements needed. Although, mapping might be a bit easier in SeeBurger compared to IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services.
Srinivas-Kanduri - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise integrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Integration architecture has enabled reliable multi-channel messaging and secure API management but now needs better analytics and simpler development
In my opinion, the real-time analytics part of Mule ESB is not up to the mark for the decision-making process. While there are some analytics features, they lack the standards needed for enterprise use. Compared to other analytics tools such as Power BI, MuleSoft falls short.Points for improvement in Mule ESB definitely include enhancing the analytics capabilities because currently, they rely on external logging tools such as Splunk or ELK, which is lagging behind compared to other tools such as Workato that offer more analytical features. Additionally, issues arise with AI-based use cases due to dependencies on Salesforce tools such as agent force, making development more complicated when it should be more independent. Developing AI-based agents without being tied to Salesforce applications could also enhance functionality.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"For us, we've basically outsourced the onboarding and translation of all of our electronic data interchange (EDI) with our customers."
"They have multiple features for each kind of task and issue. The company has different channels to give information to the administration. Security and integration capabilities are also important. This product has helped to replace a lot of other solutions, saving time and cost."
"The B2B Sterling platform is basically managed services, so we outsource our services to IBM and it relieves us of having resources in-house and 24/7 support."
"They have best-in-class, quality support."
"IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services is a stable and scalable product."
"Overall, for how we use it and the way our organization is arranged, this solution works very well for us."
"We are able to monitor all B2B messages, and we are able to see or track each message on it from an error perspective. That's a good side of it. It is working well, and we're able to do our current job."
"The solution is extremely scalable."
"There are many already defined endpoint components such as HTTP, JMS, FTP, etc., and these are the main tools for communicating with various services."
"The best feature for me was the easy connectivity and easy integration."
"It has changed our approach towards integration, making plumbing functions such as HTTP/Messaging listener services, data transformation and connection handling redundant."
"The most valuable feature is DataWeave; it allows for the transformation of data, for example to JSON or from JSON, and it's very powerful."
"The most valuable feature is that it's programmer-friendly, so it's very easy to develop APIs."
"This tool has exceptional API management and integration connectors in addition to multiple out of the box connectors."
"The solution doesn't require much code writing and we can develop APIs very easily."
"Mule ESB platform provided is very cohesive, and that's why it's leading in the Gartner quadrant as well and it's one of the best integration products as of now, especially when it comes to APIs, which has helped integration projects, particularly in terms of control and efficiency."
 

Cons

"It can be now classified as a legacy system because there are no more updates. From what I know, there will be no updates for the current version, which is an issue. Therefore, we are looking for a compatible new software that we can use. We're currently researching what is there in the market. We would consider something that would give us better speed on our current processor. There is also room for improvement in terms of its scalability and GUI. It is an old system, and its scalability can be improved. Its GUI can also be more appealing."
"It can be now classified as a legacy system because there are no more updates. From what I know, there will be no updates for the current version, which is an issue."
"They can improve APIs because they are still lagging behind in API connectivity. With non-API connectivity, they're market leaders, but API connectivity, they're still in the immature space."
"The setup is not straightforward, but it is fairly well documented."
"They can improve APIs because they are still lagging behind in API connectivity."
"Onboarding on the solution is complex. It's hard to onboard partners and customer suppliers. It's one aspect that is not that straightforward."
"Onboarding on the solution is complex."
"The only weaknesses they have different governance for each task and different channels for communication which are hard to maintain. The relation of the company with other companies can be improved. We have a lot of customers who this platform for the interchange of information which can also be improved. The compliance information about banks can also be updated."
"MuleSoft ESB is a wonderful product. However, in order to help the developers utilize it extensively, I would suggest adding some scenario-based and audio-visual tutorials."
"Mule ESB is more into the latest REST APIs, not much into the SOAP web services. Developing is all about web services and not easy with Mule."
"The solution isn't as stable as we'd like it to be. There are some ongoing issues and therefore Mule has to provide frequent patches. Mule's core IP should be more stable overall."
"The CloudHub offering requires some time to mature."
"It would be great to see implementing security modules as a feature."
"We would like the ability to use our own code. This would allow us to develop customizations with ease."
"It's not easy to troubleshoot and we still can't make it work."
"There are limitations with the subscription model that comes with the product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing is a little bit on the higher side because they give you the best support. Out of ten, I would rate pricing at seven or eight."
"They have a good pricing system, in relation to powerful features."
"The tool is expensive because of its rich features."
"You will not get any support from Mule ESB's team for the tool's community edition...You can get support with the licensed version of Mule ESB."
"Regarding licensing and pricing, I find it somewhat flexible. They are more flexible with larger customers compared to small and medium ones, as their licensing model depends on ports and other factors. Large customers benefit from more flexibility in implementation and renewal compared to smaller ones."
"Mule ESB is an expensive solution."
"This product is expensive, but it does offer value for money."
"The solution is expensive."
"This product is cheaper than some offered by other vendors, although there is a problem because you have to pay for some third-party adapters."
"I think the price is very high. If you use TIBCO BW, the license is for the CPU usage, then the IPS, and support. I also think the license for the product is a one-time expense."
"Most of the challenges that I had with this solution were for smaller customers. There is not a good licensing model or pricing model. It is more expensive than other solutions, and that's the downside of MuleSoft. I had to be creative to be able to sell it to the business, but we did. This is something they have to work on because for large companies, it's affordable, but for small and medium businesses, it's very hard to sell."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Media Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise38
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services?
IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services does not have specific issues that need improvement. While each product, like SeeBurger and IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services, has its own advantages and d...
What is your primary use case for IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services?
My primary use case is using IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services ( /products/ibm-sterling-b2b-integration-services-reviews ) for business process modeling and mapping tasks. These tasks are simil...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services?
I would rate IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services a seven. The main reason for this rating is that SeeBurger is much easier to handle compared to IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services. Features li...
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Mule ESB?
In terms of costing, I consider it 50-50; I would not say it's 100% cost-effective because the platform itself is a little costly. We are trying to improve how efficiently we make our ecosystem. It...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Ube, PacificComp, University of Witwatersrand, Justice Systems, Camelot
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