IBM MQ vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform comparison

IBM and Salesforce are both solutions in the Message Queue (MQ) Software category. IBM is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7, while Salesforce is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.2. IBM holds a 22.5% mindshare in MQ, compared to Salesforce’s 7.7% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

IBM MQ

Read 174 IBM MQ reviews

6,227 Views
4,546 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Read 60 MuleSoft Anypoint Platform reviews

10,232 Views
1,535 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

IBM MQ

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

IBM MQ and MuleSoft Anypoint Platform both excel in data integration and messaging, with each product showcasing distinct strengths in these areas. Based on assessment results, IBM MQ stands out for its stability and reliability in high-data-integrity scenarios, while MuleSoft provides superior API management and integration features.

Features: IBM MQ offers robust messaging capabilities, emphasizing seamless system connections, guaranteed message delivery, and high stability. It efficiently integrates disparate systems, ensures message persistence, and supports synchronized transactions. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform focuses on API management and integration, offering over 200 standard connectors and promoting ease of use with its visual integration design. It also provides hybrid deployment options and enhances self-service connectivity.

Room for Improvement: IBM MQ could enhance its modernized interfaces, graphical administration tools, and cloud integration capacities. Users seek a more user-friendly experience, better monitoring solutions, and lower licensing costs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform needs more competitive pricing, improved runtime management, and comprehensive debugging tools. Users also desire faster customer support and streamlined error logging.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM MQ primarily operates in on-premises and hybrid cloud environments, reflecting its strong presence in traditional enterprises. While technical support is usually responsive, improvements are needed in specific regions. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform supports diverse deployment models, including public and private clouds, offering flexibility. Its comprehensive support is appreciated, though users desire quicker resolutions and better accessibility.

Pricing and ROI: IBM MQ is considered a premium product with higher costs compared to open-source competitors, though it delivers positive ROI due to its features and reliability. Pricing structures are seen as straightforward yet expensive, especially for extensive licensing needs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is perceived as costly, particularly for mid-sized operations, with complex volume-based and vCore licensing. Both products offer significant ROI, as MuleSoft's scalability and integration capabilities attract dynamic, API-driven environments.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM MQ vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM MQ vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

December 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:

ROI

Sentiment score

6.1

IBM MQ is valued for reliability and cost savings, with returns within two years despite unclear direct financial impact.

Sentiment score

5.5

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform provides ROI through cost efficiency, reduced maintenance expenses, and enabling reuse in enterprises and smaller businesses.

It's a product which integrates the external systems with internal systems or among the systems themselves, making it an essential technology component required to integrate multiple systems.

Ashok Vedantham

Dev lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM MQ report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.9

IBM MQ support is responsive with quick issue resolution, but some users experience delays in accessing skilled assistance.

Sentiment score

6.7

MuleSoft Anypoint has highly-rated support with fast response times, though documentation and response times need improvement.

We cannot hold on to the project for a long time just to wait for IBM to fix the issues.

Ashok Vedantham

Dev lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

The response time for IBM MQ support could be better because when we are using IBM MQ and something goes wrong, support is required as the resource availability of the IBM product is very limited.

Md Al-Amin

Senior System Analyst at Thakral

With containerized flavors of these products, we are having a tough time dealing with PMRs because the versions are new to IBM.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM MQ report

I would probably rate the support for MuleSoft Anypoint Platform a nine on a scale from one to ten.

Greg O

Senior Validation Engineer at Weir Group PLC

The Salesforce team offers different levels of support.

Satish Vardhani

Senior Consultant at Radiotechnologies

The support team is responsive and helpful.

PietroDell'Erba

Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.5

IBM MQ is scalable and suitable for enterprises, though some note challenges with modernization and automation compared to cloud-native solutions.

Sentiment score

7.3

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform offers scalable, flexible solutions for enterprises, though automated scalability and data demands can be limiting.

IBM MQ handles many thousands of messages in a second, indicating good scalability.

Irfaan Rahim

Senior Software Test Analyst at CoCre8 Technology Solutions

In our environment, we do not have horizontal scaling for IBM MQ, but as demand increases, we would just vertically scale it.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

We've got 12 VMs running, and it's very easy to scale.

David Pizinger

Enterprise Technical Leader at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM MQ report

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is quite scalable, and it meets our use cases with no issues preventing implementation.

PietroDell'Erba

Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

MuleSoft provides the ability to scale, yet it is costly to do so.

reviewer2591856

Integration Lead at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.1

IBM MQ is praised for stability, reliability, efficient message handling, and performance across complex environments despite occasional external issues.

Sentiment score

7.7

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is stable, though users report occasional connector issues and variability in scalability and performance.

We have never had any downtime or crashes since it's been running.

Irfaan Rahim

Senior Software Test Analyst at CoCre8 Technology Solutions

The transaction is always guaranteed with IBM MQ, which is the main reason I have been working with it for fifteen years while dealing with financial transactions or messages.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

Otherwise, they're completely stable.

David Pizinger

Enterprise Technical Leader at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM MQ report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Room For Improvement

IBM MQ users seek enhanced security, cloud integration, intuitive interfaces, performance improvements, lower pricing, and active-active clustering.

MuleSoft users seek faster updates, improved support, better pricing, enhanced UI, and expanded Anypoint MQ and integration capabilities.

Having a graphical user interface would improve usability.

Irfaan Rahim

Senior Software Test Analyst at CoCre8 Technology Solutions

The pricing model for IBM MQ could be more flexible for clients.

Md Al-Amin

Senior System Analyst at Thakral

They don't meet our standards due to the timing to get a person with knowledge.

reviewer2721285

Information Technology Solution Consultant

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM MQ report

MuleSoft is considered expensive, so pricing is a major concern.

reviewer2591856

Integration Lead at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

When dealing with multiple transactions or trading, the system can lose control, and tracking becomes hectic.

Satish Vardhani

Senior Consultant at Radiotechnologies

Currently, it uses other standards, but adopting OpenAPI, the standard in the market, would be beneficial.

PietroDell'Erba

Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Setup Cost

IBM MQ's pricing is high compared to open-source alternatives, though enterprise agreements and flexible licensing can reduce costs.

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is costly, best for larger organizations, offering workload reduction but requires careful cost planning.

It's not cheap.

David Pizinger

Enterprise Technical Leader at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

It's possible to get some training, but the cost of this learning is expensive.

MykolaKuzmenko

SWIFT manager at Raiffeisen Bank Aval

The price of IBM MQ is definitely on the higher side.

Ashok Vedantham

Dev lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM MQ report

MuleSoft is considered one of the more expensive products in the market.

reviewer2591856

Integration Lead at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

I do not know the specific costs, but given that it is part of MuleSoft, I suspect it is not cheap.

PietroDell'Erba

Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

The platform reduces manual workload in maintaining infrastructure, but it does come with some cost considerations.

Satish Vardhani

Senior Consultant at Radiotechnologies

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Valuable Features

IBM MQ offers reliable message delivery, scalability, integration, security, and ease of use, ensuring data integrity across diverse platforms.

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform excels in API management, seamless integration, user-friendly design, scalability, and connectivity for hybrid environments.

These are financial transactions, so we do not want to lose the message at any cost.

KANCHAN CHALASANI

Software Engineer IV at Royal Cyber Inc.

There is a saying that for the last 30 years IBM MQ has never been hacked.

Md Al-Amin

Senior System Analyst at Thakral

It's time-tested, very stable, highly resilient, and has all the features to troubleshoot even if something goes wrong.

Ashok Vedantham

Dev lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM MQ report

The most valuable feature is the full lifecycle management, including Anypoint Designer and Exchange, as well as Discofolio API.

reviewer2591856

Integration Lead at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

The platform is integrated with Salesforce, making it preferable when using Salesforce products.

Satish Vardhani

Senior Consultant at Radiotechnologies

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform helps to standardize data integration approaches, making it easier to implement integration projects.

PietroDell'Erba

Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform report

Categories and Ranking

IBM MQ

Ranking in Message Queue (MQ) Software

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

174

Ranking in other categories

Business Activity Monitoring (1st), Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) (1st)

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Ranking in Message Queue (MQ) Software

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business-to-Business Middleware (1st), Workload Automation (4th), Cloud Data Integration (4th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Message Queue (MQ) Software category, the mindshare of IBM MQ is 22.5%, down from 22.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is 7.7%, down from 11.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Message Queue (MQ) Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM MQ	22.5%
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform	7.7%
Other	69.8%

Message Queue (MQ) Software

Featured Reviews

MykolaKuzmenko

SWIFT manager at Raiffeisen Bank Aval

Reliable payment processing is achieved with minimal disruption

Currently, we have some disadvantages; it's a bit difficult to use IBM ID to access support from the IBM site. To get nice support from IBM, we need to use IBM ID, and it's a bit complicated to integrate it with IBM support. Support can be better because sometimes we need explanations for some behaviors of the product, and it's not easy to reach the proper person in IBM support. They could add some new features into IBM MQ to make it better. A graphical user interface in addition to MQ Explorer could be useful, but we are satisfied with MQ Explorer as well.

Read full review

Greg O

Senior Validation Engineer at Weir Group PLC

Integration workflows have become transparent and secure while error tracking is streamlined

The best features in MuleSoft Anypoint Platform for me are transparency between logging in or deploying and using different environments. Managing different environments for the transparency of error logins or how to trace traceability is very important. It's very easy to use and sort, so you can see where everything has gone right and everything has gone wrong. I'm aware of the drag-and-drop interface in MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, and it's very, very quick. It's very time-saving and very efficient. The security features on MuleSoft Anypoint Platform help maintain data integrity in my organization; I would say it's second to none. It's one of the best out there that I have worked with because of the encryption and decryption, and there are a lot of security aspects. I would assess the platform's data mapping and transformation capabilities as amazing. Automation has been straightforward; the transformation and mapping have been easy to use, easy to source, and from the source to the target. I would say it has been very good.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

32%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	147

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	30

Questions from the Community

What is MQ software?

Hi As someone with 45+ years of experience in the Transaction and Message Processing world, I have seen many "MQ" solutions that have come into the market place. From my perspective, while each pro...

See all answers

What are the differences between Apache Kafka and IBM MQ?

Apache Kafka is open source and can be used for free. It has very good log management and has a way to store the data used for analytics. Apache Kafka is very good if you have a high number of user...

See all answers

How does IBM MQ compare with VMware RabbitMQ?

IBM MQ has a great reputation behind it, and this solution is very robust with great stability. It is easy to use, simple to configure and integrates well with our enterprise ecosystem and protocol...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Mule Anypoint Platform?

I architected solutions using Oracle SOA/OSB, Spring Boot, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform on cloud / on-premises and hybrid modes; What I see is though if you are an enterprise and have enough money th...

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How does TIBCO BusinessWorks compare with Mule Anypoint Platform?

Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether TIBCO BusinessWorks or Mule Anypoint platform integration and connectivity software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Mule...

See all answers

What can Mule Anypoint Platform be used for and what do you use it for most often?

This is a very flexible solution that comes with multiple uses. My organization mostly uses Mule Anypoint Platform for API management, as it lets us build new APIs easily and design new interfaces...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 35% of the time

Red Hat AMQ vs IBM MQ

Compared 7% of the time

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VMware Tanzu Data Solutions vs IBM MQ

Compared 5% of the time

PubSub+ Platform vs IBM MQ

Compared 4% of the time

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Redwood RunMyJobs vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Compared 17% of the time

Tidal by Redwood vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Boomi iPaaS vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Compared 3% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Compared 3% of the time

ActiveMQ vs MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM MQ

December 2025

Download IBM MQ product report

Buyer's Guide

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

December 2025

Download MuleSoft Anypoint Platform product report

Also Known As

WebSphere MQ

Data Integrator, Anypoint MQ

Overview

IBM MQ is a middleware product used to send or exchange messages across multiple platforms, including applications, systems, files, and services via MQs (messaging queues). This solution helps simplify the creation of business applications, and also makes them easier to maintain. IBM MQ is security-rich, has high performance, and provides a universal messaging backbone with robust connectivity. In addition, it also integrates easily with existing IT assets by using an SOA (service oriented architecture).

IBM MQ can be deployed:

On-premises
In the cloud
Hybrid cloud

IBM MQ supports the following APIs:

MQI (Message Queue Interface)
REST
.NET
MQTT
JMS
IBM MQ Light

IBM MQ Features

Some of the most powerful IBM MQ features include:

High availability
Stability and scalability
Flexible deployment options
Uniform clusters
Automated and intelligent workload balancing
Broad language, API, and messaging protocol support
Administrative features that simplify messaging management
Open standards development tools
Simple management tools

IBM MQ Benefits

Some of the benefits of using IBM MQ include:

Multi-style messaging: IBM MQ supports simple multi-style messaging, making it easy to connect diverse systems with support for message queuing, transactions, and more.
Reduced risk: With IBM MQ you will never lose a message, and messages are never delivered more than once.
Cloud-native: Because IBM MQ has a minimal infrastructure, it is suitable to be cloud-native, and therefore has the capability to always remain on.
Available anywhere: Using IBM MQ, you have access to secure messaging anywhere, at any time.
Secure: IBM MQ makes sure to keep your data safe by using TLS secured communications, providing access identity management, message-level security, and more measures to protect your information.
Easy for application programmers: To use IBM MQ, application programmers do not need to have any knowledge of communications programming.
Technical support: IBM MQ has a large user community and also provides support 24/7 as needed.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by IBM MQ users who are currently using the solution.

PeerSpot user Sunil S., a manager at a financial services firm, explains that they never lose messages are never lost in transit, mentioning that he can store messages and forward them as required: "Whenever payments are happening, such as incoming payments to the bank, we need to notify the customer. With MQ we can actually do that asynchronously. We don't want to notify the customer for each and every payment but, rather, more like once a day. That kind of thing can be enabled with the help of MQ."

Another PeerSpot reviewer, Luis L. who is a solutions director at Thesys Technologies, says that IBM MQ is a valuable solution and is "A stable and reliable software that offers good integration between different systems."

The head of operations at a financial services firm notes that "I have found the solution to be very robust. It has a strong reputation, is easy to use, simple to configure in our enterprise software, and supports all the protocols that we use."

In addition, a Software Engineer at a financial services firm praises the security benefits of it and states that “it has the most security features I've seen in a communication solution. Security is the most important thing for our purposes."

IBM

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform provides API management and integration capabilities with scalability, ensuring seamless connectivity across systems.

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform offers API management and integration capabilities within a user-friendly interface. With a range of connectors and the ability to handle integration patterns, it enables data integration across environments with support for API-led connectivity. High scalability, observability, batch processing, and tooling are key features, enhancing performance while simplifying deployment.

What are the standout features of MuleSoft Anypoint Platform?

API Management: Comprehensive tools for managing APIs effectively.
Integration Capabilities: Facilitates diverse integration patterns.
Connectors: Extensive library for connecting various systems.
Observability: Enhances monitoring and performance tracking.
Batch Processing: Manages large volumes of data efficiently.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Scalability: Adaptable to growing data demands across platforms.
Performance: Simplifies complex deployments and improves processing.
Flexibility: Supports multiple environments, from cloud to on-premises.
User-Friendly: Streamlines integration processes with robust tools.

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is employed by organizations for API management and seamless integration across systems in industries like retail and e-commerce. It connects enterprise applications in environments such as SAP and Salesforce. Users leverage it for data transformation and synchronization, achieving efficient real-time processing and a middleware layer across systems.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

Deutsche Bahn, Bon-Ton, WestJet, ARBURG, Northern Territory Government, Tata Steel Europe, Sharp Corporation

VMware, Gucci, MasterCard, Target, Time Inc, Hershey's, Tesla, Spotify, Office Depot, Intuit, CBS, Amtrak, Salesforce, Gap, Ralph Lauren

Buyer's Guide

IBM MQ vs. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

December 2025

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