Microsoft Azure API Management vs MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 16, 2022

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Azure API Management and Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Most users of Microsoft Azure API Management say that the initial setup is simple and straightforward, with the exception of a few reviewers who mentioned they experienced some challenges with deployment. Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager users express mixed reviews. Some say that they did not have any issues with deployment, while some others say that it is somewhat complex.
  • Features: Valuable features of Microsoft Azure API Management include ease of use, stability, seamless user management, easy configuration, good integration, simplicity of use, flexibility, a solid developer portal, scalability, API management, compatibility with other Azure products, and high performance. Areas of the product that users feel need improvement include more integration options for third-party solutions, better documentation, an on-premise version rather than just a cloud version, a better user interface, and a more robust API gateway.

    Valuable features of Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager include API development, API management, great policy management, good gateway service, RTF, runtime fabric, clear and well-presented documentation, easy to integrate developer portal, flexibility, and excellent stability. Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager users feel that the analytics are lacking, as well as the scalability (on the enterprise level), and that the product could benefit from having more automations.
  • Pricing: Microsoft Azure API Management users say that the pricing is fair and reasonable in comparison to competitors. In contrast, users of Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager feel that the pricing is expensive and could be improved.
  • Service and Support: Some users of Microsoft Azure API Management feel that the service and support are average, while other users have expressed that they have been satisfied with it. From the reviews of Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager, it is apparent that their service and support are outstanding.
  • ROI: While none of the Microsoft Azure API Management users explicitly mention a direct ROI, users of Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager mention it adds a lot of value to the organization, noting that it has a noticeable impact.

Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager seems to be the more desirable product. With overwhelming responses applauding its stability and reliability, it is evident that users of Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager are happy with the solution. In addition, users had only positive experiences with service and support, and were satisfied with the ROI. Users consider it to be expensive, but worth the expense.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure API Management vs. MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager Report (Updated: September 2023).
744,865 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Most of the features are valuable to me.""The solution is reliable and very stable.""API Management does not take long to deploy.""The most valuable features of Microsoft Azure API Management are the easy configuration and deployment with automation.""Easy to integrate API management platform. It is a stable and scalable solution.""It's easier to use and has more features than Google.""The Application Gateway we have found to be the most useful in Microsoft Azure API Management. We have integrated the Microsoft Azure API Management with Application Gateway. Application Gateway is a type of load balancer that we are using for the high availability of our API calls.""Microsoft Azure API Management is 90 to 99 percent scalable. We have three instances running in parallel."

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"We can use both on-premises and cloud setups.""This is a good API management product.""MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager has the most valuable data components and can integrate APIs across multiple microservices.""Anypoint is very capable in terms of scalability.""The tool has a private area. It also has a cloud deployment option.""The ease of policy maintenance and API functionality are key features for me. They streamline business processes by allowing configurable control over policies, instead of writing codes and making maintenance more straightforward.""The initial setup was straightforward.""Overall, the platform is pretty good, I cannot say which one specific feature is good. The idea of an API manager is really interesting."

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Cons
"The licensing tiers can be misleading.""I'd like to have better flexibility and more capabilities.""The hybrid part could be improved because API Management is entirely cloud-based, but some of our resources are on-prem, so formatting is an issue. Our goal is dual implementation.""The product needs to introduce a developer portal.""Maybe the customization could be a bit better.""Technical support could be more helpful and responsive.""The scalability of this solution could be improved. The volume which the API Management task service can handle needs to be improved. Cost wise, this solution could be optimized.""When you start with Azure API management, you also need to onboard the Azure console and the Azure cloud environment, which comes with a price."

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"Monetization and cataloging can be improved.""When discussing potential enhancements overall, it primarily involves making it more user-friendly and lowering the pricing. There are several aspects that could benefit from improvement, or perhaps a few other areas to consider.""I would like to see MuleSoft expand the range of APIs you can manage with it beyond HTTP, GIPC, and others.""Since most components are situated in the cloud, there's one particular hosted in the cloud. This presents a considerable challenge. While all other components are implemented on-premises, this specific one isn't permitted to be hosted in the cloud as per customer requirements. Shifting this component to an on-premises environment requires a significant effort.""When compared to other integration technologies, it is slightly higher.""Their studio performance is very slow, it requires a lot of memory, and should be improved.""I'd suggest more control over MQ restarts and greater transparency in traffic management.""An area for improvement in MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager is the process of applying policies because it's manual. It would be great if MuleSoft could make the process easier, particularly by automating it."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Since everyone is isocentric here, it is reasonable for me."
  • "We pay for a yearly license."
  • "Licensing fees are paid on an annual basis."
  • "Azure's pricing is very competitive compared to platforms like Apigee and MuleSoft."
  • "Azure is a pay-as-you-go model. You build out your virtual environment and pay a monthly price depending on CPU cores, storage, etc."
  • "There are no additional costs above the main license."
  • "It's pay as you go. The subscription packages have room for different scales. It's calculated by the number of apps or computers you use. You do not have to use the enterprise subscription. These subscriptions have different pricing, so you can find one to meet your needs for scalability."
  • "Because of our partner relationship, our pricing is pretty decent. But in general, if I compare pricing, I think the initial offer that we got from Microsoft until the relationship kicked in was more expensive than AWS. There were some unexpected expenses because we had to pause. This was due to our inexperience and because we were doing this significant public cloud migration for the first time. We were using SAP on a public cloud for the first time."
  • More Microsoft Azure API Management Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "When it comes to determining price, the pre-sales team interacts with the customer's primary integration team and the price is negotiated based on the specific usage of the system."
  • "The licensing model is based on how many cores are used. It is a very simple licensing scheme."
  • "Anypoint is the most expensive solution on the market, as far as I know, though it's also the most capable."
  • "Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
  • "The price of Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager is very high."
  • "The pricing for this solution is cheaper than GCP and Bluemix."
  • "Pricing can be improved."
  • "I think that it is pretty expensive."
  • More MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: Apigee offers both cloud-based and on-prem options while Microsoft Azure API Management currently only offers a cloud-based solution. Both solutions are easy to use. Apigee allows for the ability… more »
    Top Answer:If you use Azure products, API Management is a great solution. It solves many of the problems of externalizing web services. For example, when you need versioning, establish a developer portal and… more »
    Top Answer:The tool's most valuable feature is the integration of CI/CD with the API gateway.
    Top Answer:The Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager was designed with its users in mind. Though it is a reasonably complex piece of software, it is easy to install and upgrade. While there are different things that one… more »
    Top Answer:I have found that Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager is the best integration tool out there for API management. It is easy to implement and learn; it provides several options for deployment, (including… more »
    Top Answer:It can create high-cost solutions, allowing for a great deal of customization to make it well-suited for specific needs.
    Ranking
    1st
    out of 62 in API Management
    Views
    39,344
    Comparisons
    32,368
    Reviews
    39
    Average Words per Review
    439
    Rating
    7.9
    4th
    out of 62 in API Management
    Views
    19,753
    Comparisons
    15,932
    Reviews
    25
    Average Words per Review
    423
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Azure API Management, MS Azure API Management
    Anypoint API Manager
    Learn More
    Overview

    Microsoft Azure API Management is a reliable and scalable way to publish, consume, and manage APIs running on an Microsoft Azure platform. Azure API Management provides all essential tools required for end-to-end management of APIs. It ensures optimal performance of the APIs by tracking and enforcing usage and authentication.

    Microsoft Azure API Management is primarily used to provide a central interface to create, provision, and manage APIs for web and cloud applications and services. Today's innovative enterprises are adopting API architectures to accelerate growth. With Microsoft Azure API Management, businesses can streamline their work across hybrid and multi cloud environments with a unified place to manage all their APIs.


    Microsoft Azure API Management Features


    Microsoft Azure API Management has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Manage APIs across clouds and on premises: Optimize API traffic flow by deploying API gateways side by side with the APIs hosted in Azure, other clouds, and on premises. Meet security and compliance requirements with a unified management experience and full visibility across all APIs.
    • Customized usage limits: By applying authentication, authorization, and usage limits, you can protect your resources by controlling how data and services are exposed to employees, partners, and customers.
    • API-first approaches: Accelerate your business by building apps faster and delivering immediate value to customers through API-first approaches. This helps you decouple front- and back-end teams through API mocking, API revisions and versioning, and automated API documentation.
    • Customizable developer portal: Improve API discoverability by creating a customizable developer portal for all your APIs. This enables you to simply manage and share APIs with internal teams, external partners, and customers.
    • Facades for back-end services: Transform your existing services and automatically turn legacy web services into modern REST-based APIs using facades.
    • Security for your API’s: Keep all your APIs behind a single static IP or domain, and help protect them with tokens, keys, and IP filtering.

    Microsoft Azure API Management Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Microsoft Azure API Management. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Monitor the health of APIs, configure throttling, identify errors, and rate limits.
    • Enforce flexible and fine-grained quotas and rate limits. Modify the shape and behavior of your APIs using policies. Improve latency and scale your APIs with response caching.
    • Connect on-premises APIs to cloud services by creating a façade that lets you safely integrate.
    • Create and manage user roles and define end-to-end API usage policies.
    • Consolidate and manage thousands of APIs across multiple platforms in a central interface.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Microsoft Azure API Management stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Some of these include its DevOps integration, its easy setup, and its dynamic pricing. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

    Cecil S., a Software Engineer, writes of the solution, “The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure API Management is the developer portal because it's very quick and easy to get something published."

    Dmitri E., an Integration Architect at MiBanco, notes, “In particular, in API Management, used as front-end APIs, it's easy to manage. We use Microsoft due to the stability of the company. It is easy to set up. The solution is scalable. It is stable as a product as well.

    Mulesoft Anypoint 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 Anypoint 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 Anypoint API Manager

    Some of the benefits of using Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager include:

    • The ability to deploy APIs and integrations in the location of your choice. Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager enables users to deploy APIs on their own servers or on the cloud via Mulesoft’s cloud service. It also allows users to change the deployment location with only a few clicks.
    • The ability to automatically protect your APIs with cutting-edge security software and protocols. Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager’s security software can automatically detect attacks against your APIs. This triggers an escalation of security protocols that push the attack to the perimeter of the system. The solution then proceeds to seal up any vulnerabilities. Mulesoft uses machine learning in order to adapt to any new threat that emerges.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Mulesoft Anypoint 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 Anypoint 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.”

    Offer
    Learn more about Microsoft Azure API Management
    Learn more about MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager
    Sample Customers
    adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH, Opensistemas
    Coca-Cola, Splunk, Citrix, UCSF, Vertu, State of Colorado, National Post, TiVo, Deakin, LLS, Oldcastle Precast, ParcelPoint, Justice Systems, Ube, Sumitomo Corporation, PacificComp, University of Witwatersrand, Groupe Initiatives, Camelot, Panviva
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Comms Service Provider6%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Insurance Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company35%
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Insurance Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Insurance Company7%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise58%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise70%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise69%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise73%
    Buyer's Guide
    Microsoft Azure API Management vs. MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager
    September 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure API Management vs. MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager and other solutions. Updated: September 2023.
    744,865 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Microsoft Azure API Management is ranked 1st in API Management with 39 reviews while MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager is ranked 4th in API Management with 27 reviews. Microsoft Azure API Management is rated 8.0, while MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Microsoft Azure API Management writes "Easy to set up with good access control but support could be better". On the other hand, the top reviewer of MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager writes "Streamlines integration for financial services and automotive sectors". Microsoft Azure API Management is most compared with Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Kong Enterprise, IBM API Connect and WSO2 API Manager, whereas MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager is most compared with Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Kong Enterprise, Layer7 API Management and IBM API Connect. See our Microsoft Azure API Management vs. MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager report.

    See our list of best API Management vendors.

    We monitor all API Management 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.