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MuleSoft API Manager vs Postman 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.9
MuleSoft API Manager improves reusability and efficiency by automating processes, expediting development, and simplifying maintenance, enhancing organizational value.
Sentiment score
8.2
Postman's streamlined API workflows enhance collaboration, reduce manual testing time, minimize errors, and improve productivity, leading to cost savings.
A minimum of 50% time is saved when comparing manual to automation.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
MuleSoft API Manager's support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, though premium charges and priority confusion occasionally occur.
Sentiment score
6.6
Most users rely on Postman's documentation and community forums, reducing the need for direct technical support.
Our enterprise pays for a special success program, which provides priority support.
They can be slow in addressing security vulnerabilities.
I appreciate the ease of using Postman, especially its desktop version, due to the features it offers such as cookie management and environment synchronization.
There is a lot of support available through forums and user groups, which has been sufficient for me.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
MuleSoft API Manager is scalable and flexible, yet concerns exist about its cost, setup complexity, and hardware demands.
Sentiment score
7.2
Postman is scalable for diverse teams, but performance issues and lacking features affect heavy use and expanded scalability.
Postman does not have database validation available, which affects its scalability.
This solution is scalable.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
MuleSoft API Manager is reliable and stable, though it may face minor scaling issues with JMS or Kubernetes.
Sentiment score
8.0
Postman is rated highly for stability, with occasional latency or issues mainly related to large APIs and connection challenges.
There was an issue when trying to implement a request-reply pattern using JMS, which was not functioning as expected despite being documented.
I rate it ten out of ten for stability.
I have not experienced any issues or downtimes.
The tool is generally stable.
 

Room For Improvement

MuleSoft API Manager struggles with usability, integration, pricing, migration, and seeks improvements in security, automation, and scalability.
Postman needs better integrations, UI simplification, enhanced automation, data-driven testing, improved reporting, authentication, and database connectivity.
Introducing features related to auto governance without manual effort would make the API Manager smarter and more efficient for enterprises with complex landscapes.
Managing the cost of MuleSoft, particularly the billing model based on the number of active cores/threads, has been challenging.
One of the primary challenges with Postman is handling authentication issues, especially relating to tokens and passwords.
If they can enhance it to have a database kind of validation like we have in ReadyAPI, it would be better.
Maybe Postman can be a good contender and replicate some features such as more scripting and control over API calls.
 

Setup Cost

MuleSoft API Manager is often seen as costly, with pricing per core impacting expenses and necessitating growth planning.
Postman's free and reasonably priced enterprise versions with diverse licensing options cater to various user needs and preferences.
The cost for using MuleSoft is approximately $500,000 USD per year.
MuleSoft is typically more expensive compared to using Java or Spring Boot APIs hosted in containers.
Postman is open-source, so the cost is minimal compared to commercial platforms.
Postman's pricing model includes a basic free version, which is favorable given the Professional enterprise options offered.
Postman is much cheaper than the other tools.
 

Valuable Features

MuleSoft API Manager excels with robust development tools, security, scalability, integration, and analytics for efficient API management.
Postman offers a user-friendly interface, collaboration features, and supports API testing with automation, validation, and cloud accessibility.
MuleSoft's ability to connect to third-party monitoring platforms like AWS, Datadog, and Elastic makes operational analysis more efficient.
We can achieve complex requirements using MuleSoft's capabilities without excessive development time.
It has helped significantly since it is easy; the development team and QA team all use it, enabling us to automate almost 70% of our APIs using Postman.
The desktop version's features like cookie management, environment compatibility, security settings, proxy integration, and data synchronization add significant value.
I taught my business analyst to use it. I just showed them once, and it was easy for them to understand.
 

Categories and Ranking

MuleSoft API Manager
Ranking in API Management
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Postman
Ranking in API Management
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
61
Ranking in other categories
API Monitoring Software (1st), API Testing Tools (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of MuleSoft API Manager is 4.7%, down from 7.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Postman is 0.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

Dipanjan_Nandi - PeerSpot reviewer
Valuable testing stubs and policy enforcement with room for better security and cost management
From an API management perspective, MuleSoft's API Manager is not as powerful as some other tools available. Features like monetization and advanced security, which are present in Apigee, are missing. I also want the API Manager to be used as a separate product apart from MuleSoft's other integration solutions. Additionally, the licensing cost is high, and many clients are looking to switch due to this.
Anagha Mahadik - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution simplifies web service testing with impressive speed and accessibility
It is very easy for me to use and I highly prefer it compared to SoapUI and other products for performing its job. It is more handy and faster. It has impacted us very nicely. Postman is used for free by us. I'm not sure if there might be a paid version for multiple users. It is a very good product used for development. It is easy to install, as well as to learn, particularly for new users, even if they are not developers. I taught my business analyst to use it. I just showed them once, and it was easy for them to understand. For example, I gave them the URL and request format and asked them to test independently. They were able to use it on their own and do their testing as well. It was a good experience, especially for generally smart people, like those we usually hire in our company. It is pretty easy to explain, and learning it is not complex.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
16%
Insurance Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
How does Postman compare with Apache JMeter?
Postman lets you easily define variables, which then get updated automatically. This is a huge time-saver and makes processes very efficient. We can also export the test cases we create and share t...
What do you like most about Postman?
The product is easy to implement.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Postman?
Postman is open-source, so the cost is minimal compared to commercial platforms.
 

Also Known As

Anypoint API Manager
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
PayPal, Shopify, Microsoft, Adobe, Atlassian, Twitter, BestBuy, Coursera
Find out what your peers are saying about MuleSoft API Manager vs. Postman and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,491 professionals have used our research since 2012.