This document compares proprietary and open source enterprise service bus (ESB) platforms based on 10 criteria: 1) ease of use, 2) maintainability and monitoring, 3) community, 4) enterprise support, 5) functionality, 6) flexibility, 7) extensibility, 8) connectors, 9) costs, and 10) licensing. Proprietary ESBs are generally more complex to install and maintain but offer more powerful administration tools and customization options, while open source ESBs are easier to install and use but have less robust tooling and support options. Costs tend to be higher for proprietary platforms.

1. ESB Comparison Criteria
S. No Criteria Proprietary Open Source
1 Ease of use Very complex installation One Click Installer (also for
Mac in some cases), start
using after minutes, unified
platform
2 Maintainability and Monitoring Powerful tooling (e.g. for
administration and monitoring),
Analysis of source code not
necessary, refactoring via GUI
Less powerful tooling (e.g.
for administration and
monitoring, integration of
further products from other
vendors required
sometimes), Analysis of
source code not necessary,
refactoring via GUI
3 Community Buy support, forums (but no real
community which helps)
Based on open source
projects, plus own
community
4 Enterprise Support 24/7 enterprise support, SLAs as
you wish, deployments with
thousands of servers
24/7 enterprise support, less
guarantees than proprietary
support, check for local
consulting and support
5 Functionality Integration features + many more
(BAM, CEP, EDA, etc., etc., etc.)
Integration features + some
more
6 Flexibility (Make a change request + wait
long + pay) OR (pay a lot + get it
quickly)
Open source, change what
you want
7 Extensibility Do it yourself (tough) OR pay Standards-based, defacto
standards
8 Connectors Adapters for technologies and
business products
Adapters for technologies
and business products
9 Costs MUCH (and even more) LESS
10 Licensing Complex price list, pay for
everything (upgrades, migration to
VM, „you-name-it“)
Subscription model,
upgrades inclusive,
predictive costs, downgrades
possible
API Manager Features- Proprietary V/S Open source
S. No Feature Oracle API Manager MuleSoft API Manager
1 Complete API Management Solution Yes Yes
2 Capacity to Catalog and Daisy Chain Catalogs Yes Yes
3 Award-Winning ESB In proprietary In Open Source
4 Policy Management Yes Yes
5 Mobile Integration Support Yes Yes
6 API Gateway at DMZ Yes Yes
7 Developer-Centric User Interfaces and Portals Yes Yes
8 Monitoring and Management Yes Yes
9 License Cost More Subscription Model