IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs WSO2 Enterprise Integrator comparison

IBM and WSO2 are both solutions in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category. IBM is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.0, while WSO2 is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.0. IBM holds a 4.8% mindshare in E, compared to WSO2’s 5.9% mindshare. Additionally, 84% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 76% of WSO2 users who would recommend it.

IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Read 13 IBM WebSphere Message Broker reviews

971 Views
689 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

Read 20 WSO2 Enterprise Integrator reviews

2,011 Views
724 Comparison Views

76% willing to recommend

IBM WebSphere Message Broker

WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 3, 2025

IBM WebSphere Message Broker and WSO2 Enterprise Integrator are two prominent products in the field of enterprise integration. IBM WebSphere Message Broker tends to have the upper hand in scalability and performance, while WSO2 Enterprise Integrator offers flexibility and cost-effective solutions, appealing to budget-conscious organizations.

Features: IBM WebSphere Message Broker provides high throughput, support for complex integrations, and robust data handling capabilities, making it suitable for large enterprises. WSO2 Enterprise Integrator features a lightweight architecture, ease of integration with open-source technologies, and offers robust API management along with cloud-native development capabilities.

Room for Improvement: IBM WebSphere Message Broker could enhance its adaptability with open-source technologies, improve flexibility, and reduce cost complexities. WSO2 Enterprise Integrator could improve scalability for large enterprise requirements, expand its out-of-the-box adaptors, and provide enhanced advanced customization capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM WebSphere Message Broker benefits from established deployment processes and comprehensive enterprise-level support. On the other hand, WSO2 Enterprise Integrator offers straightforward deployment and strong community support, appealing to those seeking simpler setup and flexible service options.

Pricing and ROI: IBM WebSphere Message Broker incurs higher setup costs but delivers substantial ROI for businesses in need of extensive capabilities. Conversely, WSO2 Enterprise Integrator presents a more budget-friendly initial cost and remains attractive to smaller enterprises, delivering decent ROI particularly when economic efficiency is prioritized.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs. WSO2 Enterprise Integrator Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs. WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 880,255 peers since 2012

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)

9th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (17th)

WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

7th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Integration (32nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category, the mindshare of IBM WebSphere Message Broker is 4.8%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WSO2 Enterprise Integrator is 5.9%, up from 4.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
WSO2 Enterprise Integrator	5.9%
IBM WebSphere Message Broker	4.8%
Other	89.3%

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.

Read full review

Andrea Cuccarini

Technical director at Cremete

Effective data transformation and integration in complex environments with high functionality

Something that could be improved in WSO2 Enterprise Integrator is that the problem is not a lack of capability or functionalities. The problem is that it is a very complex environment. To put your hand on this environment is a very demanding task. This is the real problem. The problem is not about the product, but about the complexity to manage, to configure, to decide what to do. I have some experience using SAP R/3. It seems to me something similar. When you have to configure a situation with a client, especially for a client not in an industrial sector, but in a service sector, it is quite usual that you are in trouble for some reason. This is always the story that I found in the implementations I have done. Maybe there are only three or four big problems, in some other cases there are more than that, but this is the situation usually. For WSO2 Enterprise Integrator, not the same, but I must say it is quite often there is a need to put together some pieces and make it work in a coordinated way.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of IBM WebSphere Message Broker is the ability to facilitate communication with legacy systems, offering a multitude of great capabilities. For example, if there is a mainframe system in place with a web service serving as the front end. In that case, the solution enables efficient protocol transformations to convert all request payloads into a format that the legacy systems can accept, rendering the integration and transformation processes seamless and highly effective."

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

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

"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."

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

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

"The documentation, performance, stability and scalability of the tool are valuable."

"It has many interfaces and you can connect to any backend source that has another format, and convert it to the desired format."

More IBM WebSphere Message Broker pros

"The productivity is the most valuable feature. It is very easy to write remediations."

"The solution has two main parts: integration and transformation. It's very user-friendly and easy to understand for everyone."

"The solution's technical support is very knowledgeable."

"From the capabilities and functional possibility and anything else technical, it is a very well-done product, I have to say."

"In my opinion, the most valuable aspect of this solution is its extensive range of adaptors and connectors. This feature holds significant importance and provides great value to users."

"The solution's customer service is good."

"The drag-and-drop features for connectors are very valuable."

"It's a very complete product. It allows us to network security and add more layers of security to the system."

More WSO2 Enterprise Integrator pros

Cons

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

"The product's features are not being upgraded or enhanced by the vendor"

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

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

"The installation configuration is quite difficult."

"Stability and pricing are areas with shortcomings that need improvement."

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

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

More IBM WebSphere Message Broker cons

"One of the reasons that we are looking for a replacement is their way of defining integration. The language of the XML structures that I use to describe the integrations are not that standard, and it's not easy to find people who are familiar with this approach."

"The administration side is complex and could use significant improvements to enhance the solution's functionality."

"I would like to see better documentation for the open-source version."

"There are a lot of security settings that when you apply you have to re-apply again every time you modify a setting. It is something that really needs to be enhanced."

"The main issue with the product is pricing. It uses core-based pricing for WSO2 Enterprise Integrator and API Manager. It would be best if you had APIM by default. It provides many connectors for easy integration with third-party systems."

"They should introduce better pricing for small companies."

"If I have to buy software, then it becomes expensive for me."

"In my opinion, the administration model and interface, of Carbon, are lacking in terms of its features and user experience."

More WSO2 Enterprise Integrator cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."

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

"The solution is expensive."

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

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

"This product is more expensive than competing products."

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

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

"I rate the product price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"It is a low-cost solution."

"The solution costs about 20,000 or 30,000 euros per year, per instance."

"The open-source, unsupported version is available free of charge."

"The pricing of WSO2 Enterprise Integrator for enterprise subscriptions can be considered expensive, especially from the perspective of someone who prefers open-source software."

"The cost is better than IBM Cloud Pak."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

880,255 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

11%

Insurance Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

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 is your primary use case for IBM WebSphere Message Broker?

We use the product for exposing services at the application level, integrating with various architectures like WebSphere, and handling static service creation.

See all answers

What do you like most about WSO2 Enterprise Integrator?

WSO2's analytics capability is good, considering the ELC support they provide.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WSO2 Enterprise Integrator?

The product has reasonable and competitive pricing for enterprise customers. It is expensive for small businesses especially. They are using the open-source solution, and they find it expensive sin...

See all answers

What needs improvement with WSO2 Enterprise Integrator?

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM Integration Bus vs IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Compared 26% of the time

webMethods.io vs IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Compared 14% of the time

Mule ESB vs IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Compared 13% of the time

IIS vs IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Compared 10% of the time

IBM BPM vs IBM WebSphere Message Broker

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM WebSphere Message Broker Competitors

IBM Integration Bus vs WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

Compared 10% of the time

Mule ESB vs WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

Compared 9% of the time

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle Service Bus vs WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

Compared 6% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

Compared 6% of the time

More WSO2 Enterprise Integrator Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM WebSphere Message Broker

January 2026

Download IBM WebSphere Message Broker product report

Buyer's Guide

WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

December 2025

Download WSO2 Enterprise Integrator 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

WSO2 Enterprise Integrator, core to the WSO2 Integration Agile Platform, is an open source Integration product for cloud native and container-native projects. It enables enterprise integration experts to build, scale, and secure sophisticated integration solutions to achieve digital agility. Unlike other integration products, WSO2 Enterprise Integrator already contains integration runtimes, message brokering, business process modeling, analytics and visual tooling capabilities.

WSO2

Sample Customers

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

West

Buyer's Guide

IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs. WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

December 2025

Free Report: IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs. WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs. WSO2 Enterprise Integrator and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

880,255 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our IBM WebSphere Message Broker vs. WSO2 Enterprise Integrator report.

See our list of best Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) vendors.

We monitor all Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.