MuleSoft API Manager and Kong Gateway Enterprise both compete in the API management market. MuleSoft seems to have the upper hand with its comprehensive suite of features, strong connectivity, and high user satisfaction.
Features: MuleSoft API Manager offers extensive connectors, robust API management and development tools, and seamless integration capabilities. Kong Gateway Enterprise, on the other hand, stands out for its lightweight architecture, customizability with plugins, and open-source foundations.
Room for Improvement: MuleSoft needs to address its heavy runtime, reduce licensing costs, and enhance microservices and observability features. Kong Gateway Enterprise could improve by refining its pricing models, boosting resilience, and enhancing technical support services.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: MuleSoft excels in hybrid cloud deployment across environments and provides reliable customer service, though it can improve response times. Kong is praised for its open-source adaptability and competitive pricing, supported by commendable technical support.
Pricing and ROI: MuleSoft is seen as costlier due to its integrated platform with premium support, offering substantial ROI through efficient API reusability. Kong Enterprise presents a budget-friendly option, appealing to smaller organizations with satisfactory ROI due to its flexibility and low initial costs.
The technical support from Kong Gateway Enterprise would be rated about eight, as we missed local technical support.
Our enterprise pays for a special success program, which provides priority support.
They can be slow in addressing security vulnerabilities.
The scalability of this solution would be rated about eight or nine.
There was an issue when trying to implement a request-reply pattern using JMS, which was not functioning as expected despite being documented.
More plugins for additional integrations would be helpful and openness for traditional development languages, such as .NET, because many enterprises are looking for .NET solutions or incorporating with .NET solutions.
Introducing features related to auto governance without manual effort would make the API Manager smarter and more efficient for enterprises with complex landscapes.
Managing the cost of MuleSoft, particularly the billing model based on the number of active cores/threads, has been challenging.
The cost for using MuleSoft is approximately $500,000 USD per year.
MuleSoft is typically more expensive compared to using Java or Spring Boot APIs hosted in containers.
The most valuable features of Kong Gateway Enterprise are its seamless integration with Kubernetes and cloud, many plugins that can be incorporated in a solution, and its incorporation with low-code function systems.
MuleSoft's ability to connect to third-party monitoring platforms like AWS, Datadog, and Elastic makes operational analysis more efficient.
We can achieve complex requirements using MuleSoft's capabilities without excessive development time.
Kong delivers a next generation API platform built for modern architectures. With a lightnight-fast, lightweight, and flexible core, Kong delivers sub-millisecond latency across all your services. Kong's is deployment-, vendor-, and pattern-agnostic, allowing you to run your services how you want, where you want, and with who you want - from baremetal to cloud, monolith to microservices, service mesh, and beyond.
Mulesoft API Manager is the portion of the Anypoint Platform that is used for the designing, building, managing, and publishing of APIs. Anypoint Platform uses Mule as its core runtime engine.
Mulesoft API Manager is an extremely versatile solution. It offers users the ability to deploy their APIs in a number of different settings. You can use API Manager on a public cloud, a private cloud, or a hybrid. Additionally, users can use the solution to manage their deployments with ease. A few clicks are all you need to alter your deployment.
Benefits of Mulesoft API Manager
Some of the benefits of using Mulesoft API Manager include:
Reviews from Real Users
Mulesoft API Manager is a highly effective piece of software whose purpose is to enable users to design, build, manage, and publish APIs. It stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are the ease with which users can connect it to their applications and the high level of value that its support offers. It provides users with the ability to easily connect this solution with whatever program they need to join it with. Users can create connections without having to write code. It offers different types of support which ensure that users have a high level of understanding about the product and how to use it.
PeerSpot user Tolulope A., a technical lead specializing in integration and middleware at a financial services firm, notes the ease with which users can connect Mulesoft API Manager to their applications. He writes, “One good thing about MuleSoft is that they have a lot of connectors to those back-end applications. We don't really need to write code to be able to connect to a database or to connect with SAP. You just need credentials and the connectivity details. Most of the development of what we do is just drag and drop. They're able to connect with applications using standard connectors that are provided by ESB, by MuleSoft.”
The CEO & Co-Founder at a computer retailer notes the value of Mulesoft’s supporting documentation. They write, “The documentation is great; it is always up-to-date and well-presented. If any details are missing, then there is a blog available that contains a lot of details. There are also channels on YouTube to help you better understand the solution and what some of the processes look like.”
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