IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services vs Mule ESB comparison

The compared IBM and Salesforce solutions aren't in the same category. IBM is ranked #4 in BBM , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 15.1% mindshare in the category. Salesforce is ranked #2 in E , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 17.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

IBM Sterling B2B Integratio...

Read 9 IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services reviews

1,564 Views
1,251 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Mule ESB

Read 52 Mule ESB reviews

3,848 Views
2,886 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

IBM Sterling B2B Integratio...

Mule ESB

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services and Mule ESB based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce, SAP, IBM and others in Business-to-Business Middleware.

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Business-to-Business Middleware

August 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 Sterling B2B Integratio...

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business-to-Business Middleware (4th)

Mule ESB

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (2nd)

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 15.1%, up 13.6% compared to last year.
Mule ESB, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), holds 17.6% mindshare, down 21.9% since last year.

Business-to-Business Middleware Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services	15.1%
webMethods.io	11.9%
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform	10.6%
Other	62.4%

Business-to-Business Middleware

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Mule ESB	17.6%
IBM Integration Bus	20.4%
webMethods.io	11.3%
Other	50.7%

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

Featured Reviews

Joshua Rule

Senior Integration Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Comes with real-time integration suite and best security

We use the product in an integrated environment where the client needs a variety of different file transfer protocols as well as an integrated file translation service IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services offers the best security. The product's most valuable feature is the real-time…

Read full review

Maharsh-Kapadia

Enterprise Integration Architect at Tata Consultancy

Transforms enterprise integration with comprehensive platform and excellent support

The best features of this solution are that everything we get into a single platform, whether it's integration, API, or data modeling; everything is available in one platform. It's a hybrid, including cloud and on-premise solutions with good connectivity and good connectors. From the benefits of using Mule ESB, we could reduce the manual tasks to 50% in one to two years. The cost is still something we are trying to make lower because we see some advantages when we move from point-to-point integration to API-led connectivity. We have seen a lot of reusable assets, so the cost is reduced. Ultimately, we want to see how it's transformed into business revenue; that's what we are still looking into.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services is a stable and scalable product."

"They have best-in-class, quality support."

"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 product's most valuable feature is the real-time integration suite."

"Mule ESB helps a lot with our microservice architecture that we're trying to build, and it is still our go-to technology when it comes to that, so it's very promising for us."

"It's open source, and there are a lot of community resources. Mule ESB makes it easy to connect to other software applications."

"Mule ESB is a very easy-to-use and user-friendly solution."

"The most valuable feature for Mule is the number of connectors that are available."

"Most of our use cases are for Salesforce. So, the connectors for Salesforce have been really helpful. They've made development two times faster."

"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."

"I like that it's user-friendly. Compared to other ESBs, I find it easier to use. I like it better than other ESBs. I like the connectors, which make calling the APIs through the routers easier."

More Mule ESB pros

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."

"Onboarding on the solution is complex. It's hard to onboard partners and customer suppliers. It's one aspect that is not that straightforward."

"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."

"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 Anypoint platform consumes a lot of memory, and it would be great for developers if it were more lightweight."

"Limitation on external subscribers to listen to the messages on the bus."

"We would like to have a built-in logging framework in which we can do auditing."

"It's not easy to troubleshoot and we still can't make it work."

"One area that could be improved is the way that policies are propagated when APIs are moved from one environment to another. It's an issue, but when you develop and test the rest APIs in a lower environment and need to move them, there's a propagation process. This process moves certain aspects of the APIs, like the basic features. But when we move them, the policies don't always move with them. The policies should be able to move so we don't have to redo them manually. There are some APIs we use, but it's a bit tedious."

"It would be beneficial if users could navigate the UI easily without extensive training or learning curves."

"The initial setup could be more straightforward."

"It would be great to see implementing security modules as a feature."

More Mule ESB cons

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."

"This product is expensive, but it does offer value for money."

"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."

"Mule ESB is an expensive solution."

"The price of the Mule ESB commercial version is expensive. However, they have a free community version."

"This is expensive. In my next project, we had to go to other vendor."

"The solution is expensive."

"The licensing is yearly, and there are additional fees for services."

"The pricing must be improved."

More Mule ESB pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

17%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Media Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	36

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services?

The product's most valuable feature is the real-time integration suite.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services?

The tool is expensive because of its rich features.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Mule ESB?

The solution's drag-and-drop interface and data viewer helped us quite a lot.

See all answers

Comparisons

webMethods.io vs IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services

Compared 25% of the time

IBM B2B Integrator vs IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services

Compared 15% of the time

SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite vs IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services

Compared 11% of the time

OpenText Trading Grid vs IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services

Compared 8% of the time

SAP Process Orchestration vs IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services Competitors

IBM Integration Bus vs Mule ESB

Compared 21% of the time

Oracle Service Bus vs Mule ESB

Compared 13% of the time

webMethods.io vs Mule ESB

Compared 9% of the time

IBM B2B Integrator vs Mule ESB

Compared 9% of the time

IBM DataPower Gateway vs Mule ESB

Compared 5% of the time

More Mule ESB Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services

September 2025

IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services report

Download IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services product report

Buyer's Guide

Mule ESB

September 2025

Download Mule ESB product report

Overview

IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services are designed to alleviate the burden on internal resources by providing secure connectivity and collaboration with your customers, suppliers, and business partners. The solution is built on the cloud-based B2B integration and visibility capabilities of IBM Sterling B2B Collaboration Network and provides comprehensive service offerings for partner onboarding, B2B process management, and trading partner support.

Facilitate growth by rapidly growing and adapting your B2B community without burdening internal resources and capital
Reduce B2B total cost of ownership by reducing the cost and increasing the reliability of B2B operations

Accelerate B2B collaboration with global customers and suppliers by leveraging our B2B expertise.

IBM

For companies looking to modernize and unlock the value of existing on-premises systems and applications, an enterprise service bus (ESB) architecture serves as a critical foundation layer for SOA. When deployed as an ESB, the Mule runtime engine of Anypoint Platform combines the power of data and application integration across legacy systems and SaaS applications, with a seamless path to the other capabilities of Anypoint Platform and the full power of API-led connectivity.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Ube, PacificComp, University of Witwatersrand, Justice Systems, Camelot

Buyer's Guide

Business-to-Business Middleware

August 2025

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