No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services vs Mule ESB comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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 (7th)
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 7.2%, down 13.6% compared to last year.
Mule ESB, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), holds 19.0% mindshare, up 17.0% since last year.
Business-to-Business Middleware Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services7.2%
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform9.8%
SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite9.6%
Other73.4%
Business-to-Business Middleware
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Mule ESB19.0%
IBM Integration Bus16.2%
IBM webMethods Hybrid Integration7.6%
Other57.199999999999996%
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

"Overall, for how we use it and the way our organization is arranged, this solution works very well for us."
"The product's most valuable feature is the real-time integration suite."
"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."
"The solution is extremely scalable."
"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."
"For us, we've basically outsourced the onboarding and translation of all of our electronic data interchange (EDI) with our customers."
"They have multiple features for each kind of task and issue. The company has different channels to give information to the administration. Security and integration capabilities are also important. This product has helped to replace a lot of other solutions, saving time and cost."
"They have best-in-class, quality support."
"The most valuable feature is DataWeave; it allows for the transformation of data, for example to JSON or from JSON, and it's very powerful."
"It's open source, and there are a lot of community resources. Mule ESB makes it easy to connect to other software applications."
"It provides seamless support and transition."
"The solution has a good graphical interface."
"One of the key features I find unique and most useful in Mule ESB is the loosely coupled architecture, allowing for multi-delivery where the same data can be sent to multiple systems."
"The best feature for me was the easy connectivity and easy integration."
"The architecture based on events has several connectors which allow integration from external and internal applications of the company."
"Mule ESB is one of the best; it is easy to use and setup."
 

Cons

"Onboarding on the solution is complex."
"Onboarding on the solution is complex. It's hard to onboard partners and customer suppliers. It's one aspect that is not that straightforward."
"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."
"It's probably not as much as they sold us in their value proposition, so be cautious about that."
"The main reason for this rating is that SeeBurger is much easier to handle compared to IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services."
"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 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."
"The setup is not straightforward, but it is fairly well documented."
"There are some issues with both stability and scalability."
"In an upcoming release, I would like to see more additional concept for exception handling, batch processing, and increased integration with other application."
"The initial setup could be more straightforward."
"This solution could be improved by making it more flexible, and more user-friendly."
"Limitation on external subscribers to listen to the messages on the bus."
"The initial setup is not easy."
"There are some features on the commercial version of the solution that would be great if they were on the community version. Additionally, if they added more authorization features it would be helpful."
"The price of Mule ESB could improve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"They have a good pricing system, in relation to powerful features."
"The tool is expensive because of its rich features."
"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."
"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 expensive, but it does offer value for money."
"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."
"The solution is expensive."
"Plan your licensing model (cloud or on-premises or hybrid) that will allow seamless integration with new partners."
"The various features and components for this solution are no longer free."
"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."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Business-to-Business Middleware solutions are best for your needs.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Media Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Construction Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
10%
 

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 Seeburger, IBM, Salesforce and others in Business-to-Business Middleware. Updated: October 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.