If you've found this article, you're probably looking for an enterprise-grade integration solution. In this article we compare MuleSoft and Celigo, two of the more popular integration platform as a service (iPaaS) vendors found in the market today.

What is MuleSoft

MuleSoft is a major player in the integration platform as a service (iPaaS) market focused on an API-led integration strategy. Acquired by Salesforce in 2018, MuleSoft is best known for its Anypoint Platform, which offers broad capabilities for API management and integration.

For ITSM professionals, MuleSoft's value lies in its ability to create a cohesive yet flexible integration network via its Anypoint Platform. Working like an enterprise service bus (ESB), Anypoint allows you to design, deploy, and manage APIs and integrations in a unified manner, supporting both SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) and microservices environments. 

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In recent years, MuleSoft has expanded its focus into process automation, offering robotic process automation (RPA) and intelligent document processing (IDP) functionality. These areas bring MuleSoft’s service offering closer to broad, intelligent automation platforms like Workato and UiPath but away from an integration service vendor.

What is Celigo

Celigo is a cloud-native iPaaS solution that offers a low-code platform for integrating various SaaS applications, automating business processes, and synchronizing data across cloud and on-premises IT systems.

Founded in 2011, Celigo initially focused on NetSuite integrations but has since expanded its capabilities to cover a wide range of business applications. With over 4,000 customers globally, Celigo provides pre-built integration templates (IntegrationApps), a visual integration builder, and AI-powered assistance for integration development and management.

Celigo is particularly known for its strength in e-commerce, finance, and marketing integrations, catering to small and medium-sized businesses as well as departments within larger enterprises. The company remains privately held and has raised over $78 million in venture capital funding.

MuleSoft vs. Celigo Integration Platform Comparison

Let’s go through how MuleSoft and Celigo compare in five common integration scenarios: API management, data integration, B2B/EDI integration, application integration and system integration.

API Management

MuleSoft's Anypoint Platform is built for API management. It provides an API Designer for creating RAML or OAS specifications, allowing you to define your API contract before implementation. An API Manager lets you set policies and monitor usage, giving you control over your API's behavior and performance. An API Portal offers documentation and interactive testing capabilities. Overall, MuleSoft gives you one of the most comprehensive solutions for managing API integrations.

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Celigo's API management solution enables communication between software systems via APIs. It provides tools to design, deploy, monitor, and manage APIs, ensuring secure connectivity across applications. Integrator.io supports REST and SOAP APIs and offers pre-built connectors and templates for quick integration setup, minimizing coding efforts.

Data Integration

MuleSoft approaches data integration through its own DataWeave data language, which allows for complex data manipulations. The AnyPoint platform supports batch processing for handling large volumes of data, and works with various data formats including XML, JSON, and CSV. The platform also has a large number of ETL/ELT features to support data integrations. 

Celigo offers data integration through integrator.io, which synchronizes data across systems in real-time or via scheduled batches. It supports databases, cloud applications, and on-premises systems. Users can map, transform, and cleanse data to maintain consistency and accuracy.

B2B/EDI Integration

MuleSoft supports B2B integrations through EDI message parsing and generation capabilities. It includes support for the AS2 protocol, commonly used in B2B communications. In addition, AnyPoint includes Partner Manager features to handle external data integrations and different data standards of partners.

Celigo facilitates B2B/EDI integration through a B2B Manager solution, enabling the exchange of electronic documents between trading partners through standards like X12 and EDIFACT. It provides pre-configured EDI templates for orders, invoices, and shipping notices, streamlining setup and reducing manual entry errors.

Application Integration

MuleSoft supports application integration through Anypoint Connectors for popular SaaS and on-premises applications. For custom applications, it offers a connector SDK. AnyPoint’s Flow Designer provides a visual environment for creating integration flows between different applications. 

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Celigo has pre-built connectors for SaaS applications like Salesforce, NetSuite, and Shopify through a drag-and-drop interface and automated workflows. In addition, Celigo has an universal connector feature to configure bespoke integrations using HTTP, FTP, JDBC, AS2, GRAPHQL or Webhooks.

System integration

As MuleSoft is owned by Salesforce, you can guarantee that they have deep ERP and CRM system integration capabilities. MuleSoft supports various system integration patterns, including real-time, batch, and event-driven architectures.

Celigo can handle system integrations between ERP systems, CRM platforms, HR systems, and other enterprise applications. The toolkit includes data transformation, error handling, and monitoring features.

Factors to consider when comparing MuleSoft and Boomi

While MuleSoft and Celigo both offer integration solutions, they have distinct characteristics. Here are some additional factors to consider:
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• Scalability and performance:
  MuleSoft has a strong track record of large enterprise deployments, using a clustered architecture for high-volume, mission-critical integrations. Celigo, while capable of handling significant workloads, is often favored by small to medium-sized businesses and for department-level integrations.
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• Monitoring:
  MuleSoft provides Anypoint Monitoring with customizable dashboards for comprehensive oversight. Celigo offers built-in monitoring and error handling capabilities within its Integration Platform, with a focus on user-friendly interfaces and AI-assisted error resolution.
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• Security and compliance: Both MuleSoft and Celigo have robust security features. MuleSoft offers Anypoint VPCs for isolated network environments and is often chosen for its enterprise-grade security. Celigo provides strong encryption and access controls, with a focus on cloud-to-cloud security measures.
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• Community and ecosystem:
  MuleSoft's ecosystem is generally larger and more established, reflecting its longer presence in the enterprise market. Celigo has a growing community, particularly strong in the NetSuite ecosystem and among mid-market businesses.
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• Ease of use: Celigo emphasizes user-friendliness with its low-code/no-code approach and pre-built integrations, making it accessible to business users. MuleSoft, while offering visual design tools, generally requires more technical expertise to fully leverage its capabilities.
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• API management:
  MuleSoft excels in comprehensive API management, offering tools for the entire API lifecycle. Celigo provides API creation and management capabilities, but with less depth compared to MuleSoft's specialized API tools.
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• Target market:
  MuleSoft typically targets large enterprises with complex integration needs, while Celigo often appeals to small and medium-sized businesses looking for quick implementation of common integrations.
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Why choose MuleSoft?

MuleSoft may be a good option for you if you’re consolidating your enterprise tech stack around Salesforce. It can handle most cloud-based integration patterns and a broad range of pre-built connectors to and from Salesforce apps.
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MuleSoft highlights:

• API creation and integration capabilities.
• Supports automation with a large template library and RPA access.
• Wide capabilities in composite service integration.

Why choose Celigo?

Celigo can be a solid choice if you're looking to integrate multiple cloud-based applications and systems into Netsuite. While it may not have the same depth of enterprise-level features as some other iPaaS solutions, it offers a robust set of pre-built integrations and a visual interface that makes it accessible to both technical and non-technical users.
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Celigo highlights:

• Extensive library of pre-built integrations for popular SaaS applications
• Cloud-native platform with strong support for cloud-to-cloud integrations eg. in Netsuite
• Specialized strength in e-commerce, finance, and marketing integrations
• Embedded iPaaS capabilities, allowing integration features to be built directly into SaaS applications

ONEiO as an Alternative to MuleSoft and Celigo

If you’re not sure if MuleSoft or Celigo is the best option for your integration needs, you may consider a third alternative, ONEiO.

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ONEiO gives you a streamlined, no-code integration service that stands out for several reasons:

Effortless integrations as a service

While MuleSoft and Celigo have some low- and no-code functionality, ONEiO is the first integration platform that offers end-to-end integrations as a service. This is especially valuable in case you don’t plan to hire a full team of system integrators to maintain your integration ecosystem.

Integration automation beyond pre-built connectors

ONEiO supports a wide range of endpoint types and data formats, including JSON, XML, CSV, and plain text. It provides robust mechanisms for both push (using webhooks and REST/SOAP) and pull (via API, SFTP, SQL) data processing. This flexibility ensures that ONEiO can handle various integration scenarios with ease.

Security and compliance

ONEiO offers strong security features, including encrypted credentials and support for multiple authentication standards (Basic Authentication, Token, API Key, OAuth, etc.). It also allows connections to internal networks and supports reverse proxies or whitelisting. The platform is built on AWS and ensures high availability and GDPR compliance

Business logic and data orchestration

ONEiO provides a no-code editor for creating business logic, transforming, and translating data. It supports various transformation options like regular expressions, case transformations, and date formatting. The platform’s rule robot automates rule creation based on common use cases, making it easy to adjust or add new rules without disrupting existing integrations.

When to choose ONEiO? 

ONEiO is especially well suited for seamless ITSM integration across internal and externally managed IT services. It offers a turnkey solution for the complex integration needs of both global enterprises and IT service providers.

ONEiO highlights:

• ONEAi artificial intelligence model trained specifically for IT service integration.
• Faster time-to-value. Typical integrations take 2 weeks from idea to production.
• 100% satisfaction guarantee based on proven enterprise-grade integration service.

Bottom line on MuleSoft vs Celigo

While MuleSoft and Celigo are both prominent players in the iPaaS market, each with its own strengths, they may not cover all integration scenarios in today's diverse enterprise IT landscape. MuleSoft is known for its comprehensive API management and enterprise-scale integrations, while Celigo is an option for cloud-to-cloud integrations, particularly for small to medium-sized businesses.

ONEiO offers a powerful, user-friendly alternative. Its no-code platform, flexible integration capabilities, robust security, comprehensive monitoring, and scalability make it a compelling choice for organizations seeking to simplify their integration processes while maintaining high standards of performance and reliability.