Mule ESB vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus comparison

Salesforce and TIBCO are both solutions in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category. Salesforce is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.0, while TIBCO is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.0. Salesforce holds a 18.0% mindshare in E, compared to TIBCO’s 3.9% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Salesforce users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of TIBCO users who would recommend it.

Mule ESB

Read 52 Mule ESB reviews

4,072 Views
3,054 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Read 12 TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus reviews

696 Views
696 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Mule ESB

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 3, 2025

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus and Mule ESB compete in the middleware software domain. TIBCO stands out in support and pricing satisfaction, while Mule ESB is favored for its rich features and adaptability.

Features: TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus features robust integration capabilities, high scalability, and strong reliability management. Mule ESB is known for its lightweight architecture, flexibility, and extensive community support. TIBCO is tailored for enterprises needing comprehensive integration, while Mule excels in versatility across varied environments.

Room for Improvement: TIBCO can improve by enhancing its user interface, streamlining complex configurations, and broadening community support. Mule ESB could enhance its pricing structure, improve initial setup processes, and offer more direct customer service options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus offers straightforward deployment and strong support, ideal for enterprises valuing structured assistance. Mule ESB's flexible deployment models make it appealing for fast implementation. TIBCO provides traditional customer service, while Mule offers both community-driven and commercial support.

Pricing and ROI: TIBCO generally offers more favorable pricing and ROI, appealing to budget-conscious buyers. Mule ESB, despite higher initial costs, justifies its price with robust features and adaptability, making it appealing for those prioritizing long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed Mule ESB vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Mule ESB vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

September 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

Mule ESB

Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Ranking in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) category, the mindshare of Mule ESB is 18.0%, down from 22.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus is 3.9%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Mule ESB	18.0%
TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus	3.9%
Other	78.1%

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

Featured Reviews

Maharsh-Kapadia

Enterprise Integration Architect at Tata Consultancy

Transforms enterprise integration with comprehensive platform and excellent support

The best features of this solution are that everything we get into a single platform, whether it's integration, API, or data modeling; everything is available in one platform. It's a hybrid, including cloud and on-premise solutions with good connectivity and good connectors. From the benefits of using Mule ESB, we could reduce the manual tasks to 50% in one to two years. The cost is still something we are trying to make lower because we see some advantages when we move from point-to-point integration to API-led connectivity. We have seen a lot of reusable assets, so the cost is reduced. Ultimately, we want to see how it's transformed into business revenue; that's what we are still looking into.

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Mustofa Yonus

Cheif Specialist- Licensing Systems at Roads & Transport Authority

A robust product that needs to improve the functionality it offers related to API lifecycle management

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a six to seven out of ten. My company consists of around 7000 employees, and we use the solution as an integrated service in around 300 to 400 systems, both internally and externally, making it a huge number. Our company uses the solution every minute and every second, and we can't function without it.

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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

"The solution doesn't require much code writing and we can develop APIs very easily."

"The most valuable feature for Mule is the number of connectors that are available."

"The most valuable feature is the Salesforce integration."

"I am impressed with the product's connectors and scalability."

"We can use Java expressions anywhere in the flow."

"Mule ESB has a user-friendly design, and everything is in one place. The API and architecture are popular right now. Also, MuleSoft has a large and supportive online community."

"I like that it's user-friendly. Compared to other ESBs, I find it easier to use. I like it better than other ESBs. I like the connectors, which make calling the APIs through the routers easier."

"The connectors help to connect with a variety of applications."

More Mule ESB pros

"TIBCO has the platform in terms of speed and ease of use."

"The product’s most valuable feature is stability."

"The stability of this solution is excellent."

"The technology is really easy to learn."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that the performance is robust."

"It is easy to develop. It has a very wide range of features. The older versions are very stable, and there are no issues with the product."

"The most valuable features are the monitoring, ease of use, and easy to understand development GUI."

"The most attractive and beneficial feature is the ease of development."

More TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus pros

Cons

"In an upcoming release, I would like to see more additional concept for exception handling, batch processing, and increased integration with other application."

"The current version will not be supported for much longer."

"Mule ESB isn't as secure as IBM. Financial companies go with IBM for that reason."

"It should have some amount of logging."

"The payment system needs improvement."

"One area that could be improved is the way that policies are propagated when APIs are moved from one environment to another. It's an issue, but when you develop and test the rest APIs in a lower environment and need to move them, there's a propagation process. This process moves certain aspects of the APIs, like the basic features. But when we move them, the policies don't always move with them. The policies should be able to move so we don't have to redo them manually. There are some APIs we use, but it's a bit tedious."

"It's not easy to troubleshoot and we still can't make it work."

"The solution's setup needs to be a bit more straightforward and its support needs to respond faster."

More Mule ESB cons

"In the next release, there should be improvements made to the API manager."

"We'd like to see improvements in product support."

"The intermediate version that we are using has stability issues. These stability issues should be resolved, but it seems like TIBCO is not focusing on resolving these issues. The resolution timelines are quite high even for high-priority incidents. Its price should be lower. Its licensing cost is considerably high as compared to other ESBs."

"I don't like the product's API management platform, as it doesn't offer users enough functionality to help with API lifecycle management, making it a product that is way behind its competitors."

"Migration to cloud solutions or products should be made convenient, transparent, and easily understandable."

"Our version does not have cloud capabilities."

"In the configuration, where we need to customize, it takes more time that we expect it to, ideally."

"The initial setup process could be easier."

More TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the Mule ESB commercial version is expensive. However, they have a free community version."

"Mule ESB is an expensive solution."

"Regarding licensing and pricing, I find it somewhat flexible. They are more flexible with larger customers compared to small and medium ones, as their licensing model depends on ports and other factors. Large customers benefit from more flexibility in implementation and renewal compared to smaller ones."

"This is expensive. In my next project, we had to go to other vendor."

"The pricing must be improved."

"The various features and components for this solution are no longer free."

"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."

"The solution is expensive."

More Mule ESB pricing and cost advice

"When it comes to cost, TIBCO is much more competitive than a product like Pega."

"The licensing cost is a challenge for quite a few customers."

"Price-wise, I would say that the product is expensive."

"Its licensing cost is considerably high as compared to other ESBs."

"The biggest issue disadvantage of TIBCO is that it is expensive."

"The price is on the higher side. For the same price, if I go to the previous version, I would have got a lot more capacity with similar kinds of features."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

14%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	36

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	10

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 ...

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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...

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What do you like most about Mule ESB?

The solution's drag-and-drop interface and data viewer helped us quite a lot.

See all answers

What do you like most about TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus?

The most valuable feature of the solution is that the performance is robust.

See all answers

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

Price-wise, I would say that the product is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus?

I don't like the product's API management platform, as it doesn't offer users enough functionality to help with API lifecycle management, making it a product that is way behind its competitors. The...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 22% of the time

Oracle Service Bus vs Mule ESB

Compared 12% of the time

IBM B2B Integrator vs Mule ESB

Compared 9% of the time

webMethods.io vs Mule ESB

Compared 9% of the time

SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite vs Mule ESB

Compared 3% of the time

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IBM Integration Bus vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Compared 47% of the time

Oracle Service Bus vs TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Compared 26% of the time

More TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Mule ESB

August 2025

Download Mule ESB product report

Buyer's Guide

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

August 2025

Download TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus product report

Also Known As

No data available

ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Overview

For companies looking to modernize and unlock the value of existing on-premises systems and applications, an enterprise service bus (ESB) architecture serves as a critical foundation layer for SOA. When deployed as an ESB, the Mule runtime engine of Anypoint Platform combines the power of data and application integration across legacy systems and SaaS applications, with a seamless path to the other capabilities of Anypoint Platform and the full power of API-led connectivity.

Salesforce

TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus is a platform for developing, deploying, and managing applications that conform to a service-oriented architecture. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus is a lightweight enterprise service bus that helps organizations bridge the mediation gap in their SOA infrastructure. It reduces complexity and increases flexibility and reuse by replacing hard-coded service dependencies with configuration, and can be used to onboard services from a third-party environment or a TIBCO-based infrastructure. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus provides service mediation capabilities to the TIBCO ActiveMatrix SOA platform. Service mediation allows you to adapt to changing requirements for developing mediation flows.

TIBCO

Sample Customers

Ube, PacificComp, University of Witwatersrand, Justice Systems, Camelot

Colonial Life, CTBC Bank, New World Mobility, QUALCOMM, Swisscom Mobile, T-Mobile USA, Tata Teleservices, Telecom Italia

Buyer's Guide

Mule ESB vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

September 2025

Free Report: Mule ESB vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus

Find out what your peers are saying about Mule ESB vs. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Bus and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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