Mule ESB vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus comparison

Salesforce and TIBCO are both solutions in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category. Salesforce is ranked #2 with an average rating of 7.8, while TIBCO is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.0. Salesforce holds a 20.4% mindshare in E, compared to TIBCO’s 3.8% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of Salesforce users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of TIBCO users who would recommend it.

Mule ESB

Read 50 Mule ESB reviews

3,686 Views
3,082 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Read 12 TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus reviews

786 Views
526 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Mule ESB

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 3, 2025

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus and Mule ESB compete in the middleware software domain. TIBCO stands out in support and pricing satisfaction, while Mule ESB is favored for its rich features and adaptability.

Features: TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus features robust integration capabilities, high scalability, and strong reliability management. Mule ESB is known for its lightweight architecture, flexibility, and extensive community support. TIBCO is tailored for enterprises needing comprehensive integration, while Mule excels in versatility across varied environments.

Room for Improvement: TIBCO can improve by enhancing its user interface, streamlining complex configurations, and broadening community support. Mule ESB could enhance its pricing structure, improve initial setup processes, and offer more direct customer service options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus offers straightforward deployment and strong support, ideal for enterprises valuing structured assistance. Mule ESB's flexible deployment models make it appealing for fast implementation. TIBCO provides traditional customer service, while Mule offers both community-driven and commercial support.

Pricing and ROI: TIBCO generally offers more favorable pricing and ROI, appealing to budget-conscious buyers. Mule ESB, despite higher initial costs, justifies its price with robust features and adaptability, making it appealing for those prioritizing long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed Mule ESB vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Mule ESB vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

April 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

Mule ESB

Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category, the mindshare of Mule ESB is 20.4%, down from 22.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus is 3.8%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

Featured Reviews

PurbayanSaha

Technology Consultant at Ernst & Young

Has API-led architecture and provides a unique, user-friendly, and scalable architecture for hosting APIs

There's room for improvement in multi-file transfer functionality. It's not convenient when using MuleSoft, and it should have better capability for handling large amounts of data. For example, applications like GoAnywhere can handle huge chunks of data, so the tool should also have something to facilitate that aspect of integration.

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Mustofa Yonus

Cheif Specialist- Licensing Systems at Roads & Transport Authority

A robust product that needs to improve the functionality it offers related to API lifecycle management

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a six to seven out of ten. My company consists of around 7000 employees, and we use the solution as an integrated service in around 300 to 400 systems, both internally and externally, making it a huge number. Our company uses the solution every minute and every second, and we can't function without it.

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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

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

"Mule Expression Language"

"We can use Java expressions anywhere in the flow."

"The most valuable feature is the Salesforce integration."

"The most valuable features of Mule ESB are its ease of use, documentation, ease to adapt to newer security and vulnerabilities, and a lot of help available. Additionally, there is a lot of flexibility, many patches available, and they provide APIs. They are a market standard."

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

"I like that Mule ESB provides fast and good technical support."

"Easy connectivity and easy integration."

More Mule ESB pros

"It is easy to develop. It has a very wide range of features. The older versions are very stable, and there are no issues with the product."

"The GUI and IDE features of this solution are easy to work with and to develop. We find application management easy using this solution. It is a stable product"

"The product’s most valuable feature is stability."

"The technology is really easy to learn."

"The most valuable features are the monitoring, ease of use, and easy to understand development GUI."

"It's very stable and reliable."

"The most attractive and beneficial feature is the ease of development."

"The solution is very stable."

More TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus pros

Cons

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

"From an improvement perspective, there should be fewer coding challenges for users in Mule ESB."

"The price of Mule ESB could improve."

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

"Lacking some connectors that could be included."

"In an upcoming release, I would like to see more additional concept for exception handling, batch processing, and increased integration with other application."

"In order to meet the new trend of active metadata management, we need intelligent APIs that can retrieve new data designs and trigger actions over new findings without human intervention."

"I would like to see support for BPM in the next release of this solution."

More Mule ESB cons

"If TIBCO could be able to sort the size of their base image in the Container edition, it would be really marvelous. Right now it's around 299 MB. We'd really want it to reduce to a few MBs."

"The stability of their latest version is not on par with their classic version 5.X."

"In the next release, there should be improvements made to the API manager."

"The solution is very expensive when you use multiple components, it would b better if this could be reduced."

"In the configuration, where we need to customize, it takes more time that we expect it to, ideally."

"Issues with the support, the fees, and the termination of the professional services are reasons we are looking for other solutions."

"The initial setup process could be easier."

"Migration to cloud solutions or products should be made convenient, transparent, and easily understandable."

More TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."

"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."

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

"Mule ESB is a costly solution. We pay approximately $80,000 annually for the system. The cost of the number of instances, annual subscription, and cloud hosting services are expensive."

"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."

"Plan your licensing model (cloud or on-premises or hybrid) that will allow seamless integration with new partners."

"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."

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

More Mule ESB pricing and cost advice

"When it comes to cost, TIBCO is much more competitive than a product like Pega."

"The licensing cost is a challenge for quite a few customers."

"The biggest issue disadvantage of TIBCO is that it is expensive."

"Its licensing cost is considerably high as compared to other ESBs."

"The price is on the higher side. For the same price, if I go to the previous version, I would have got a lot more capacity with similar kinds of features."

"Price-wise, I would say that the product is expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

24%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 ...

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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...

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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

What do you like most about TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus?

The most valuable feature of the solution is that the performance is robust.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus?

Price-wise, I would say that the product is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus?

I don't like the product's API management platform, as it doesn't offer users enough functionality to help with API lifecycle management, making it a product that is way behind its competitors. The...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 28% of the time

Oracle Service Bus vs Mule ESB

Compared 13% of the time

IBM B2B Integrator vs Mule ESB

Compared 8% of the time

webMethods.io vs Mule ESB

Compared 7% of the time

JBoss ESB vs Mule ESB

Compared 2% of the time

More Mule ESB Competitors

IBM Integration Bus vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Compared 52% of the time

Oracle Service Bus vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Compared 26% of the time

More TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Mule ESB

May 2025

Download Mule ESB product report

Buyer's Guide

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

April 2025

Download TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus product report

Also Known As

No data available

ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Overview

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

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus is a platform for developing, deploying, and managing applications that conform to a service-oriented architecture. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus is a lightweight enterprise service bus that helps organizations bridge the mediation gap in their SOA infrastructure. It reduces complexity and increases flexibility and reuse by replacing hard-coded service dependencies with configuration, and can be used to onboard services from a third-party environment or a TIBCO-based infrastructure. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus provides service mediation capabilities to the TIBCO ActiveMatrix SOA platform. Service mediation allows you to adapt to changing requirements for developing mediation flows.

TIBCO

Sample Customers

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

Colonial Life, CTBC Bank, New World Mobility, QUALCOMM, Swisscom Mobile, T-Mobile USA, Tata Teleservices, Telecom Italia

Buyer's Guide

Mule ESB vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

April 2025

Free Report: Mule ESB vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

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