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Mule ESB vs Oracle SOA Suite comparison

 

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

Mule ESB
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
51
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (2nd)
Oracle SOA Suite
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (11th), SOA Governance (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Application Integration solutions, they serve different purposes. Mule ESB is designed for Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and holds a mindshare of 19.3%, down 22.4% compared to last year.
Oracle SOA Suite, on the other hand, focuses on Application Infrastructure, holds 3.8% mindshare, down 4.4% since last year.
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

PurbayanSaha - PeerSpot reviewer
Has API-led architecture and provides a unique, user-friendly, and scalable architecture for hosting APIs
There's room for improvement in multi-file transfer functionality. It's not convenient when using MuleSoft, and it should have better capability for handling large amounts of data. For example, applications like GoAnywhere can handle huge chunks of data, so the tool should also have something to facilitate that aspect of integration.
MANOHAR SADDALA - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables seamless integration with multiple systems
I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten. It's not much more dynamic, not as dynamic as you may think, like seeing it in the cloud. In order to use it, you need to have the download servers and then scale up your systems. Oracle SOA Suites serves as a middle layer between applications. For example, let's say you have SAP, and we have Salesforce or Oracle ERP system. Users connect to those systems and perform certain activities or transactions on the applications. Now, if any data needs to be synchronized or any integration needs to happen between these applications, we use the Oracle SOA Suite. It acts as the bridge between the applications, not between the users. It's like having endpoints between the applications. Currently, we have 20 endpoints; 20 systems are connected to it, which is great. Oracle SOA Suite is being used daily. We are using it to its maximum potential.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The connectivity the solution provides is excellent. There are often too many systems that we have to integrate and this helps with that."
"The most valuable feature for Mule is the number of connectors that are available."
"The most valuable feature is the Salesforce integration."
"This tool has exceptional API management and integration connectors in addition to multiple out of the box connectors."
"The transformation and the data format are the features that I like the most."
"The product offers a community edition that is free of cost."
"Easy connectivity and easy integration."
"The solution improved my company by modernizing the way we offer services and improving the user experience."
"Enables our Product Manager to post products to different outside EC platforms with only one interface and one process."
"The stability of the solution is the most valuable feature."
"The product allows you to visualize how a company is working currently by providing rich possibilities for analysis such as the audit trails and therefore shows where improvements might be valuable."
"Middleware jobs developing for EC, ERP, and shipping systems become easier."
"The solution's XSLT or XSL Transformation feature was very useful."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the option to design, and the development can happen at the same time."
"The ability to stand up a highly available SOA Suite, which has full DR capabilities, in a remote center and synchronize the databases using Data Guard."
"Valuable features include connectors and BAM."
 

Cons

"Documentation is cryptic, product releases are far too frequent, and upgrades become troublesome."
"There are limitations with the subscription model that comes with the product."
"From my perspective, Mule ESB is lightweight, but it can be improved when it comes to the agility of the system."
"There's room for improvement in multi-file transfer functionality. It's not convenient when using MuleSoft, and it should have better capability for handling large amounts of data. For example, applications like GoAnywhere can handle huge chunks of data, so the tool should also have something to facilitate that aspect of integration."
"Lacking some connectors that could be included."
"The stability could be improved."
"The initial setup could be more straightforward."
"The solution isn't as stable as we'd like it to be. There are some ongoing issues and therefore Mule has to provide frequent patches. Mule's core IP should be more stable overall."
"The solutions can improve the communication or translations between formats, such as JSON and XML. The JSON REST API could improve."
"The installation and adjustment process seems too complex."
"They supply lots of documentation but finding what we need is challenging at times."
"Other solutions might be better componets such as Salesforce."
"One area that could be better is the human task feature. It could be improved to provide more functionality and customization options because it has limited options available."
"The interface is too complicated. Making modifications still requires too much technical knowledge."
"It's also not developer-friendly."
"The deployment could be made easier by including add-ons like Hudson and Maven."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"This product is expensive, but it does offer value for money."
"The price of the Mule ESB commercial version is expensive. However, they have a free community version."
"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."
"The pricing must be improved."
"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."
"This is expensive. In my next project, we had to go to other vendor."
"The various features and components for this solution are no longer free."
"Oracle SOA Suite is an expensive solution."
"Based on my knowledge, Oracle SOA Suite doesn't have user-based licensing. It has a system-based licensing model, so you pay for whole systems. Oracle SOA Suite is an expensive solution, so it's a four out of ten for me."
"The pricing is not very high as compared to its competitors."
"Oracle pricing is expensive. Support is based on your license. AWS is much better than Oracle in this regard."
"This product is WebLogic based, hence it can be both resource hungry as well as expensive from a licensing point of view."
"The product is moderately priced."
"It is necessary to evaluate the requirement regarding the platform usage and what the main operation area of the platform will be."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 do you like most about Mule ESB?
The solution's drag-and-drop interface and data viewer helped us quite a lot.
What do you like most about Oracle SOA Suite?
The solution's XSLT or XSL Transformation feature was very useful.
What needs improvement with Oracle SOA Suite?
The solution’s initial setup is complex and could be improved. A big challenge for Oracle SOA Suite is that you don't get too many technical resources.
 

Also Known As

No data available
SOA Suite
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ube, PacificComp, University of Witwatersrand, Justice Systems, Camelot
7-Eleven, Arcor SAIC, Banca Transilvania, Eaton Corporation, Emdeon, Ferrovial, Griffith University, National Instruments, Pella Corporation, Vodafone Group Plc,
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Salesforce, Oracle and others in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). Updated: July 2025.
861,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.