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Frends vs MuleSoft API Manager 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Frends
Ranking in API Management
28th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MuleSoft API Manager
Ranking in API Management
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Frends is 0.7%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MuleSoft API Manager is 4.0%, down from 4.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MuleSoft API Manager4.0%
Frends0.7%
Other95.3%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

Lauri Vanhanen - PeerSpot reviewer
Development Manager at ELO
Integration platform has simplified logistics workflows and has streamlined complex order handling
The best aspect is that it is very easy to use. The UI is very intuitive, and you can learn it very quickly because the basic principles are straightforward and easy to search. Frends has a great UI, but the UI is missing role-based permissions. You can filter your integrations by roles and add several users to roles, but in the UI, the functionality for this kind of management feature is not optimal. User management or user role management could be improved.
D.Rajesh Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise Architect at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Improved Integration Efficiency and Potential for Further Enhancements in Monitoring and User Experience
The policies in MuleSoft API Manager are significant features. We get the policies by default, with more than 25 out-of-the-box policies. If any additional requirement exists specific to the customer, there is a custom policy framework. We can build the policy according to our requirement, and deploy and enable it at the API Manager level to consume across different business groups, environments, or organizations altogether within the platform. Developing the custom policy is not challenging; you just need to follow the custom policy framework to implement. The custom policy and the different levels of SLAs of the API Manager are notable. Regarding the monitoring side of the API Manager, MuleSoft provides substantial monitoring with logs, offering search capability, raw data accessibility, and different subscriptions. With the top tier, integration with third-party platforms such as ELK or Splunk becomes unnecessary because all search capabilities, dashboards, and functional monitoring can be built within the platform itself. This is excellent from the monitoring perspective, and there have been recent improvements focusing on observability. For DevOps, if you want to make your continuous integration and continuous deployment effective, irrespective of the tool, there are options to integrate. For example, you can use the Maven plugin, platform APIs, or CLI to build your end-to-end DevOps cycle.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product has valuable features for version control."
"One of the benefits is the speed of creating something new. Second, it's replacing the old integration quite fast. Then it is like the visibility of the integration and the possibility to see what is happening in the integration."
"The best aspect is that it is very easy to use."
"The user-friendly interface for constructing integration solutions is also a notable benefit."
"I like the approach of MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager and the kind of integration and flexibility it offers."
"The security features are good, and it's easy to configure the end-to-end integration with existing applications."
"If you adopt the whole platform, you can build composable applications. This will cut your time creating new applications and updating them – once you have everything running – by up to 50%."
"It can create high-cost solutions, allowing for a great deal of customization to make it well-suited for specific needs."
"Whenever there was an issue, the support was excellent."
"When using the Mulesoft Anypoint Platform, it has a wide range of connectors that are readily available to connect with the multiple applications."
"It is a good management tool for controlling purposes."
"The most valuable features of the solution for securing APIs stem from the tool's ability to allow users to deploy policies."
 

Cons

"Another enhancement includes the monitoring part. It would be nice to have some sort of maybe mobile app on which we can see how integrations are running if there are some problems, and getting those alerts on the mobile would be really nice."
"Logging should be better."
"One of the primary areas for improvement is a more mobile-friendly interface for the control center."
"It is a new application and lacks some essential features compared to competitors."
"Mulesoft is on the higher end in terms of pricing. This is considered high for small/mid-scale enterprises with some tens of APIs to be built and managed."
"The log management for this solution needs improvement."
"My advice to others is they will need strong technical support for this solution, however, they do not provide good support."
"We find that the enterprise level is lacking scalability."
"The upgrade is a very messy process; Mule 3.X to 4 or 4.2 requires you have to rewrite the APIs, and it is not just upgrading the build pack with a runtime."
"They should provide training and development programs to enable the skills and capabilities of users."
"The shift to a subscription-based pricing model has also introduced cost challenges, making it relatively expensive for some use cases."
"The API gateway and API runtime are too heavy, which means that it is not suitable for microservices."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is quite fair."
"Recent changes in their pricing have removed this benefit, moving towards process-specific pricing."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"I think that it is pretty expensive."
"It's not very expensive, reasonably priced. There are no additional costs."
"It is really expensive from a Zimbabwean perspective."
"MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager is an expensive solution."
"It is extremely high, and I would rate it one out of ten."
"I want MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager to be cheaper because when you scale up, it becomes very costly. Price-wise, I'd give it a seven out of ten."
"The product is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
35%
Educational Organization
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise44
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Frends?
Logging should be better. Third-party software logging should be integrated into the monitors of the front-end integrations, but it does not monitor the third-party connectors through that. Those l...
What is your primary use case for Frends?
We had many different applications for Frends. For file transferring of different types, we modified the files and then used it for logistical processes including warehousing, inventory checkups, a...
What advice do you have for others considering Frends?
If you need an integration platform, I would recommend Frends. I give this product a rating of 8 out of 10.
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager?
When it comes to pricing, I find it always expensive. The pricing is high, which is the biggest point where some customers are hesitant about adopting it, and their deployment strategy is also more...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Anypoint API Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Frends vs. MuleSoft API Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.