IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs Oracle Service Bus comparison

IBM and Oracle are both solutions in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category. IBM is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0, while Oracle is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.5. IBM holds a 4.1% mindshare in E, compared to Oracle’s 11.4% mindshare. Additionally, 84% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Read 13 IBM WebSphere Message Broker reviews

851 Views
448 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

Oracle Service Bus

Read 31 Oracle Service Bus reviews

2,394 Views
1,123 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Oracle Service Bus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 3, 2025

Oracle Service Bus and IBM WebSphere Message Broker compete in the integration and middleware domain. Oracle Service Bus seems to have the upper hand due to its simplicity and versatility in various integration scenarios, despite similar support challenges.

Features: Oracle Service Bus is light, simple to learn, and excels in integration via robust adapters and connectors. It offers strong routing, aggregation, and stability. IBM WebSphere Message Broker is valued for integration capabilities with large-scale transactions and legacy systems, providing reliable and secure data integration and processing.

Room for Improvement: Oracle Service Bus faces challenges with RESTful service compatibility, scalability, and a complex licensing model. It also needs more cloud-based adapter offerings. IBM WebSphere Message Broker should reduce its complexity, enhance decoupling from IBM MQ, and address high costs and GUI performance issues.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: OSB offers flexibility across environments with hybrid and public clouds, although users experience slow support response times and licensing difficulties. IBM WebSphere Message Broker primarily supports on-premises deployment with similar support issues and needs better response times and resolutions.

Pricing and ROI: OSB is considered expensive but offers enterprise agreements with cost savings, although its pricing model is challenging. IBM WebSphere Message Broker is also high-cost, often deterring potential customers. Both products have indeterminate ROI but are noted for their reliability in scaling and operations.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs. Oracle Service Bus Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs. Oracle Service Bus

June 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:

Categories and Ranking

IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

8th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (16th)

Oracle Service Bus

Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

4th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category, the mindshare of IBM WebSphere Message Broker is 4.1%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Service Bus is 11.4%, up from 11.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

Featured Reviews

BrajendraKumar

Technical Architect at HCL Technologies

Offers large-sized business information processing with a time-saving setup and impressive stability

I primarily use two previews of the product for Dev and two for QA as part of the production process. Whatever tools our company is using, the cost of a license in IBM WebSphere Message Broker is about 80% of all these software or tools. The message routing capabilities satisfy workflow efficiency. The product supports message formats of XML, JSON, and SSID, which are around 24 KB to 50 KB in size. The solution supports communication protocols like STTP and TCP. Features like DataGraph need to be introduced in IBM WebSphere Message Broker. Some of the clients of our organization are using an outdated version of IBM WebSphere Message Broker for which the vendor doesn't provide direct support anymore. For the aforementioned version, our company professionals can solve the queries on their own without seeking support from IBM. During the installation of a prior version of IBM WebSphere Message Broker, sometimes I have to configure the failovers through the cluster, where issues arise, and I often seek help from the support team. The solution is being used by some medicine companies in our organization that receive sales orders from the EDR or JDE. I would not recommend the product to others as its becoming obsolete and they can rather choose a middleware solution from Amazon or Azure. But I would overall rate the product a nine out of ten.

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Awa Sri

Director at Nehish Software Solutions

Offers valuable features of API management and protocol definition

The initial setup process of Oracle Service Bus is quite easy. The installation of the product can be completed in one or two hours, but the total deployment time varies from case to case. I believe the entire deployment of Oracle Service Bus can be finished within a day. One engineer is enough to deploy the solution. The solution can be easily maintained.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Performance-wise, this solution is really good."

"The transactions and message queuing are the most valuable features of the solution."

"IBM WebSphere Message Broker is one of the best middleware solutions"

"We only use the basic features, but the most valuable one for us is the Publish-subscribe pattern."

"Integration and mapping are easy, which is a major advantage."

"Straightforward development and deployment."

"The solution has good integration."

"Message Broker is valuable because most of the applications are using MQ. Even in my current engagement, the few applications which I audit to onboard the bank are using MQ."

More IBM WebSphere Message Broker pros

"The interface is fine and the solution is quite robust."

"The solution integrates external systems by providing a lot of APIs for external transactions, such as open purchase orders and sales orders."

"It is stable."

"I am a part of the software developing team and I mainly use this solution for the integrating applications."

"What I found most valuable in Oracle Service Bus is its time to market. It's excellent."

"The main advantage of Oracle Service Bus is the possibility to integrate different systems using workflows and different architectures in the same product."

"This product is not complicated and very easy to learn."

"The communication between applications is already defined, which means that you don't have to redefine your service infrastructure at the lower level."

More Oracle Service Bus pros

Cons

"The installation configuration is quite difficult."

"The images and size of the containers are too big and I think that they should be more lightweight."

"Technical support is good but they could have a better response time."

"As our business requirements evolve, we require more dynamic capabilities to adapt and scale our services accordingly."

"Today I probably wouldn't go for Message Broker because of the cost structure, support, and the whole ecosystem around IBM."

"The user interface is designed mainly for experts, much in the way a BPM or another integration tool is."

"I know that Message Broker was a very tightly copied product with another IBM product, that is, IBM MQ. I would like to have a little bit more decoupling from the IBM MQ because it should not be a prerequisite for IBM WebSphere Message Broker usage."

"There is some lag in the GUI. There have been some performance issues and maybe it's because of the application data."

More IBM WebSphere Message Broker cons

"Lacks sufficient cloud compatibility."

"The main problem could be related to timeout issues. This can happen due to legacy systems that might not allow the use of microservices."

"There is significant room for improvement in the monitoring capabilities."

"What needs improvement in Oracle Service Bus is the connectivity between adapters such as the Salesforce adapter and database adapters. The limited number of adapters compatible with Oracle Service Bus makes you want to switch to a different solution."

"There are times when I select components in composite and they do not appear, and I cannot figure out why."

"The interface console is very slow. Even in production, we need to increase the RAM or CPU. And even after that, the performance is still not good in production."

"An area for improvement in Oracle Service Bus is the roadmap for its product launch. Currently, it's unclear, so Oracle should develop a roadmap for version 12c, so people can see what's coming out of that version of Oracle Service Bus. Cloud hosting is an additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of Oracle Service Bus."

"It's very complex and hard to learn. There's a steep learning curve."

More Oracle Service Bus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This product is more expensive than competing products."

"The licensing cost of IBM WebSphere Message Broker needs to be reduced"

"The solution is expensive."

"I feel with IBM, when you want certain functions or features, you have to continuously purchase add-ons. There are always additional fees."

"The price is very high and it's the main reason that we are searching for alternatives."

"IBM products are generally more stable and have more features, but also come at a greater cost."

"The solution is expensive."

"IBM software can be costly, but having a contract has helped manage and potentially lower costs over time."

"I'm not aware of how much Oracle Service Bus costs."

"The price of this solution is better than the subscription-based Mule ESB."

"Oracle Service Bus is a bit expensive"

"This is a very expensive product and the price varies depending on factors such as the number of processors and the number of users. Our licensing fees are approximately $300,000."

"The pricing is on the higher side."

"We have an unlimited yearly license."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

30%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM WebSphere Message Broker?

It is a scalable solution...The setup is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM WebSphere Message Broker?

IBM software can be costly, but having a contract has helped manage and potentially lower costs over time.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM WebSphere Message Broker?

There could be greater flexibility and agility in service creation for the product. As our business requirements evolve, we require more dynamic capabilities to adapt and scale our services accordi...

See all answers

What do you like most about Oracle Service Bus?

The stability is consistently high, with only one notable issue encountered.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Service Bus?

I view both Oracle and IBM products as expensive. There are no significant differences in pricing between these products.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Oracle Service Bus?

The main problem could be related to timeout issues. This can happen due to legacy systems that might not allow the use of microservices. It's a different viewpoint of the system, and such constrai...

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM Integration Bus vs IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Compared 49% of the time

webMethods.io vs IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Compared 17% of the time

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Compared 13% of the time

Mule ESB vs IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Compared 11% of the time

IBM BPM vs IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Compared 10% of the time

More IBM WebSphere Message Broker Competitors

Mule ESB vs Oracle Service Bus

Compared 27% of the time

IBM Integration Bus vs Oracle Service Bus

Compared 25% of the time

WSO2 Enterprise Integrator vs Oracle Service Bus

Compared 14% of the time

Red Hat Fuse vs Oracle Service Bus

Compared 9% of the time

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus vs Oracle Service Bus

Compared 7% of the time

More Oracle Service Bus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM WebSphere Message Broker

June 2025

Download IBM WebSphere Message Broker product report

Buyer's Guide

Oracle Service Bus

May 2025

Download Oracle Service Bus product report

Also Known As

WebSphere Message Broker

No data available

Overview

WebSphere Message Broker is an enterprise service bus (ESB) providing connectivity and universal data transformation for service-oriented architecture (SOA) and non-SOA environments. It allows businesses of any size to eliminate point-to-point connections and batch processing regardless of platform, protocol or data format.

IBM

Oracle Service Bus transforms complex and brittle architectures into agile integration networks by connecting, virtualizing, and managing interactions between services and applications. Oracle Service Bus delivers low-cost, standards-based integration for mission critical SOA environments where extreme performance, scalability and reliability are critical requirements.

Oracle Service Bus enables companies to use the values of their enterprise applications portfolio. From on-premise, to the cloud to mobile devices, Service Bus allows companies to leverage their existing investments in new ways by extending the performance and scalability leadership of Oracle SOA and API Management.

Oracle

Sample Customers

WestJet, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Sharp Corporation, Michelin Tire

MakeMyTrip Ltd., Griffith University, Colab Consulting Pty. Ltd., Pacfico Seguros Generales, IGEPA IT-SERVICE GmbH, Guangzhou Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Pacfico Seguros Generales, Bank Audi S.A.L., Rydges Sydney Airport, Intelligent Pathways, Nacional Monte de Piedad IAP

Buyer's Guide

IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs. Oracle Service Bus

June 2025

Free Report: IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs. Oracle Service Bus

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs. Oracle Service Bus and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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