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IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services vs Mule ESB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
9
Ranking in other categories
Business-to-Business Middleware (6th)
Mule ESB
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (1st)
 

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 9.0%, down 15.5% compared to last year.
Mule ESB, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), holds 18.3% mindshare, down 18.7% since last year.
Business-to-Business Middleware Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services9.0%
SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite10.2%
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform8.7%
Other72.1%
Business-to-Business Middleware
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Mule ESB18.3%
IBM Integration Bus16.1%
IBM webMethods Hybrid Integration7.6%
Other57.99999999999999%
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
 

Featured Reviews

RT
Seeburger Lead EDI Developer/Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Effective business process handling with some room for improvement in mapping ease and user interactions
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 disadvantages, I do not see any challenges or improvements needed. Although, mapping might be a bit easier in SeeBurger compared to IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services.
Srinivas-Kanduri - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise integrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Integration architecture has enabled reliable multi-channel messaging and secure API management but now needs better analytics and simpler development
In my opinion, the real-time analytics part of Mule ESB is not up to the mark for the decision-making process. While there are some analytics features, they lack the standards needed for enterprise use. Compared to other analytics tools such as Power BI, MuleSoft falls short.Points for improvement in Mule ESB definitely include enhancing the analytics capabilities because currently, they rely on external logging tools such as Splunk or ELK, which is lagging behind compared to other tools such as Workato that offer more analytical features. Additionally, issues arise with AI-based use cases due to dependencies on Salesforce tools such as agent force, making development more complicated when it should be more independent. Developing AI-based agents without being tied to Salesforce applications could also enhance functionality.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Being a manufacturing company, we are dealing with different customers and catering to different orders, and EDI is very helpful for us because the ordering can be done via EDI and the orders can be processed outright, which is a big advantage."
"Overall, for how we use it and the way our organization is arranged, this solution works very well for us."
"The B2B Sterling platform is basically managed services, so we outsource our services to IBM and it relieves us of having resources in-house and 24/7 support."
"For us, we've basically outsourced the onboarding and translation of all of our electronic data interchange (EDI) with our customers."
"If you're in retail domain and are dealing with customers, then this is a good solution for you."
"IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services is a stable and scalable product."
"They have best-in-class, quality support."
"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."
"There are many already defined endpoint components such as HTTP, JMS, FTP, etc., and these are the main tools for communicating with various services."
"The solution doesn't require much code writing and we can develop APIs very easily."
"It is the best integration platform for those who are looking to implement or are going for API-based architecture and microservices-based architecture."
"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 ESB is a very easy-to-use and user-friendly solution."
"The product offers a community edition that is free of cost."
"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."
"The cloud and integration abilities are most useful allowing us to use applications such as Salesforce and DataWeave."
 

Cons

"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."
"Onboarding on the solution is complex. It's hard to onboard partners and customer suppliers. It's one aspect that is not that straightforward."
"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 setup is not straightforward, but it is fairly well documented."
"Onboarding on the solution is complex."
"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."
"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."
"The main reason for this rating is that SeeBurger is much easier to handle compared to IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services."
"It would be beneficial if users could navigate the UI easily without extensive training or learning curves."
"The current version will not be supported for much longer."
"Improvements could be made in performance."
"The price of Mule ESB could improve."
"MuleSoft ESB is a wonderful product. However, in order to help the developers utilize it extensively, I would suggest adding some scenario-based and audio-visual tutorials."
"Support, and with respect to licensing cost. Many of the customers feel that the licensing cost is much."
"The solution isn't as stable as we'd like it to be. There are some ongoing issues and therefore Mule has to provide frequent patches. Mule's core IP should be more stable overall."
"It is getting expensive and I recommend clients to use Camel ESB if enterprise support is not required."
 

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."
"The tool is expensive because of its rich features."
"They have a good pricing system, in relation to powerful features."
"This product is expensive, but it does offer value for money."
"This is expensive. In my next project, we had to go to other vendor."
"The price of the Mule ESB commercial version is expensive. However, they have a free community version."
"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."
"Mule ESB is an expensive solution."
"This product is cheaper than some offered by other vendors, although there is a problem because you have to pay for some third-party adapters."
"Plan your licensing model (cloud or on-premises or hybrid) that will allow seamless integration with new partners."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Media Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise39
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What is your primary use case for IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services?
My primary use case is using IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services ( /products/ibm-sterling-b2b-integration-services-reviews ) for business process modeling and mapping tasks. These tasks are simil...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services?
I would rate IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services a seven. The main reason for this rating is that SeeBurger is much easier to handle compared to IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services. Features li...
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 ...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Mule ESB?
In terms of costing, I consider it 50-50; I would not say it's 100% cost-effective because the platform itself is a little costly. We are trying to improve how efficiently we make our ecosystem. It...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Ube, PacificComp, University of Witwatersrand, Justice Systems, Camelot
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Informatica, Seeburger and others in Business-to-Business Middleware. Updated: July 2026.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.