Comparing Enterprise iPaaS, According to Users

Comparing enterprise-level software is hard. Trying to get a straight answer that you trust from vendors can feel even harder. In a world where everything sounds like marketing spin, who can you trust? The people who use the software.

Enterprise iPaaS (EiPaaS) can be differentiated by the types of systems they specialize in integrating or their support for API developers. We’ve sifted through users’ reviews on TrustRadius to give you an eagle-eye view of their experiences with EiPaaS. These insights include products’ most common demographics, top pros and cons, and what makes each product stand out. These products were also highlighted in the EiPaaS market breakdown, so if you need a primer on any of the products, read more here!

Dell Boomi: Ideal for ETL or MSP

Dell Boomi, like most EiPaaS, has a user base with backgrounds predominantly in computer science or IT. There is a small  minority of users in finance and accounting, as well as a larger minority of consultants who implement and manage Boomi for clients.

Boomi stands out with users for its ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) capabilities. These users also recognize robust support from Boomi’s user community. Boomi is also comparatively easy and quick to set up.

Users also cite some drawbacks to the platform. Boomi’s functionality is limited if users don’t have prior coding experience. Boomi also struggles to handle large data loads. While this is a common complaint among EiPaaS since they handle the largest data loads of any iPaaS tier, Boomi is criticized in this regard more than its EiPaaS competitors. In this vein, users report that debugging integrations on the platform is a difficult process. These particular issues help explain the high frequency of consultant engagement with Boomi: for technical expertise with the platform, it can be easier for enterprises to outsource iPaaS management than to handle it in-house.

Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services: Best-in-Class for User Accessibility

Informatica’s Intelligent Cloud Services has a similarly CS/IT-focused user base to Boomi. The significant difference is a strain of higher education use cases, namely large universities. The greater diversity of use cases indicates the flexibility of Informatica’s platform, which is aided by its microservices architecture.

The flexibility of the platform also yields dividends for users’ experiences. They note a lower technical knowledge requirement to get the most value out of the platform. Specific features of Informatica’s data mapping, such as recognizing duplication fields and updating the original field instead, have also made users’ lives easier. Users also highlight Informatica’s hybrid integration security features to protect data on the platform.

Informatica’s accessibility for citizen integrators appears to come at the cost of developer functionality. Several users noted limited functionality for coding and SQL-savvy users on the platform, which can inhibit more advanced developers. Users also described insufficient customer support on addressing issues and keeping users in the loop about imminent updates to the platform.

Mulesoft’s Anypoint Platform: By Salesforce, For Salesforce

Mulesoft’s user base is more centralized into CS/IT backgrounds compared to the other EiPaaS on this list. It also features a high number of engineers who work with the platform, indicating a comparatively high average technical knowledge (even compared to other EiPaaS).

Mulesoft users identify three distinct trends that differentiate Mulesoft, possibly due to their higher average technical know-how. First, Mulesoft is notable because of its recent acquisition and integration directly with Salesforce. Second, users point to Anypoint’s support for microservices development, which has become an increasingly popular trend across innovative EiPaaS. 

Finally, Anypoint is frequently referenced as having ESB functionality. This could either be users confusing Mulesoft’s Anypoint platform with Mule ESB or confusion about Anypoint’s support for hybrid integration between cloud-based and on-premise systems.

The top advantages of Anypoint relate to its support for managing and developing APIs. Anypoint’s API management, including API access control, deployment, and the Anypoint Exchange for sharing API recipes, facilitate developers and citizen integrators alike.

There are situations where Mulesoft’s Anypoint platform is not ideal. Multiple users identify batch integration as a weakness for the platform, as well as a Flow Designer that could use a user-friendly UI update. Somewhat similarly to Informatica, there is more of a learning curve for developers to become proficient in using the platform.

Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC): Oracle’s In-House iPaaS

Oracle Integration Cloud is used in a wider range of industries than previous vendors on this list. However, the actual OIC users in these industries are overwhelmingly IT departments. This combination indicates that OIC can be used directly by a broader set of organizations, but those organizations usually also have in-house IT departments instead of a Managed Service Provider (MSP) to implement or manage the iPaaS.

Oracle Integration Cloud is designed primarily to integrate Oracle-to-Oracle and Oracle-to-Other systems. Users describe an extensive library of Oracle-centric connectors and adapters that makes OIC very effective if an organization already utilizes Oracle software.

Beyond intra-Oracle integration, users also highlight OIC’s training process and ease of use. For example, one long-term user pointed out multiple prebuilt functions that Oracle has implemented recently to make OIC more accessible for Line of Business users. The training process was also easy and rapid for multiple levels of users, as was the testing and development process.

Users do acknowledge aesthetic and functional limitations to OIC. Recent users advise that the user interface is less than intuitive, which points to the necessity of a training process before making full use of the platform. The same user also advised that OIC is overpowered for smaller businesses with a lower data input volume. OIC also places heavy emphasis on cloud-to-cloud integrations, to the detriment of on-premise and hybrid integrations.

TIBCO Cloud Integration (Including BusinessWorks and Scribe): Enterprise CRM Integration

TIBCO’s iPaaS user base falls into a similar pattern as Oracle’s. It is used across a variety of industries, but primarily by IT departments within those industries. It is most frequently used for integrating Microsoft Dynamics 365 with the rest of an organization’s applications and software.

Given its CRM integration specialty, TIBCO’s other benefits are in service of this functionality. Its data mapping capabilities are easy to learn and implement. It also includes extensive error tracking and management features for when records or fields fail to map over.  

TIBCO also struggles in some areas. MSPs note issues with client data security and privacy, as well as notification management. There is also a higher technical barrier for integrating generic APIs that are not SOAP or RESTful. Finally, TIBCO struggles to process high volumes of data quickly, which can lead to data bottlenecks in some cases.

Apples to Apples: How Users Rate Each EiPaaS

EiPaaS feature lists can look identical, but the quality and user experience of each feature can vary widely. We’ve averaged users’ ratings of key integration features from each platform for the best side-by-side comparison possible.

If you’re looking for more in depth reviews or use cases that look more like yours, check out all the EiPaaS offerings on the category page! If you think Enterprise iPaaS are more than you need, check out the iPaaS market landscape breakdown to see where you fit in best. Then take a look at the deep dives into the midmarket and small-scale  iPaaS segments.