MuleSoft pricing model, licensing, subscriptions | Infomentum

How is MuleSoft licensed?

MuleSoft licensing is a subscription based model which is renewed on an annual basis. The pricing plans are consistent regardless of the deployment approach taken: Cloud, On-Premise or even a Hybrid of the two. The Anypoint base subscription is the default entry point and other add-on functionality can be purchased on top of it.

Licensing is driven by the number of cores needed to run the APIs or applications (a core is described as a unit of processing power).

How many cores do I need to purchase?

The answer depends on many factors and is something we will help you understand through a collaborative exercise of Demand Planning and Calculating Capacity. During this activity, we dig deeper into your sizing requirements (cores) based on what you need today and in future years. Through a deep understanding of your project needs, we create an initial view of your API-led architecture. We also establish a complexity level for each API based on a set of needs: Transactions per Second (TPS), Response Times (ms), Payload Size (kb), and High Availability (HA).

Often customers don't have all the information to drive out an accurate sizing. In this case, the base platform is a good starting point. All MuleSoft Anypoint Platform subscriptions come with a minimum license entry point of 4 non-production and 2 production vCores. You can then procure additional vCores when needed without having to upgrade your subscription to the next tier.

What can I achieve with 1 core?

The table below provides an overview of what you can achieve with 1 core or vCore. It demonstrates a set of sample APIs with a different makeup of TPS, Payload Size and Response times.

The table shows the boundaries of what 1 core allows you to achieve for 1 API. However, customers can run multiple APIs across 1 core with many of those APIs running at nowhere near the type of boundaries listed below.

Are there any other factors to consider?

Yes, it's not just about the core count. The following factors should be considered when building up the appropriate subscription:

The no need for any additional components like MuleSoft Connectors, Anypoint MQ (a multi-tenant, cloud messaging service), API Management or Analytics.
The type of Support Model which suits your needs and provides you with the necessary response times to meet your SLAs. MuleSoft categorises their support into Gold, Platinum and Titanium. A snapshot of what each support level provides is detailed in the table below.

Technical support	GOLD	PLATINUM	TITANIUM
Support hours	8 x 5	24 x 7	24 x 7
Response time	24 hours	P1 - 2 hours	P1 - 45 mins
Number of support incidents	20	Unlimited	Unlimited

MuleSoft's support models: Gold, Platinum, Titanium

Our recommendations

CloudHub (iPaas) provides the fastest way of getting started and the easiest way to manage the Anypoint Platform. It also means that the run costs of your infrastructure are included, unlike for the On-Premise or Hybrid options.
With CloudHub, you have to assign a minimum of 0.1 vCore to an API regardless of whether it consumes that capacity or not. So, you get a maximum of 10 APIs for 1 core. If your APIs are not maximising this minimum count, consider bundling some APIs into Sub-System APIs. This should, however, be done only in case APIs are logically similar, and their features can be easily decoupled in the future.
Plan how and when you will be building your APIs. This will significantly affect the utilisation of your cores. Very likely the core count will steadily ramp up over time. You won't need the full projection on day 1!
Manage your non-production core count effectively. Consider how many those environments you really need. You may not need all non-prod APIs to stay active across all environments. Look at potentially switching APIs off across some environments to free up the core count.

MuleSoft Anypont Platform subscriptions

MuleSoft's licensing model is based on an annual subscription, which makes it very easy to start and scale. The subscription approach is built around the default entry-point (Base Subscription) with a flexibility of adding various extra components when needed without upgrading to the next subscription level.

You can dive deep and explore in details the MuleSoft subscription plans (base and add-on).

PLANS	Gold	Platinum	Titanium
BASE
Mule runtime	✅	✅	✅
Anypoint Management Center	✅	✅	✅
Anypoint Design Center	✅	✅	✅
Anypoint Exchange	✅	✅	✅
Unlimited API portals	✅	✅	✅
Anypoint Connectors - Select & Community	✅	✅	✅
Anypoint Premium Connectors	£	£	£
ENTERPRISE-SCALE
High availability		✅	✅
Business groups		✅	✅
External identity management		✅	✅
Flexible hybrid deployment		✅	✅
Global cloud deployment		✅	✅
Anypoint Runtime Fabric		✅	✅
Anypoint MQ	£	£	£
Anypoint Security	£	£	£
MISSION CRITICAL
Distributed log management and search			✅
Customisable log data retention and locality			✅
End-to-end transaction tracing			✅
Advanced data analysis			✅
Support level (see more)	Gold	Platinum	Titanium

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Pricing questions & answers

How much does an additional vCore cost for the Anypoint Platform?

Beyond the subscription pricing it is possible to purchase additional vCores for your Anypoint Platform via your MuleSoft Account Exec. Additional vCores might be offered by MuleSoft at a discounted price considering a number of factors, which may include:

the total number of vCores being purchased
the length of commitment on the overall subscription
type of the environments - whether the vCores will be used on Non-Production or Production.

It's essential to build a picture of your purchasing requirements as early as possible in licence negotiations. If you are targeting additional vCores at a future time, gain a commitment on the price that runs for the duration of your subscription period.

Is there a free MuleSoft option?

There is a Community Edition of the Anypoint Platform. Though perfect for exploring Mule and Anypoint Studio it comes with many constraints in terms of product features and so is not typically appropriate for production use cases.

What is the difference in pricing of ESB, CloudHub , on premise and API?

The price for the Mule ESB (the runtime engine of Anypoint Platform), CloudHub, on premise and API is the same. MuleSoft’s pricing plan is consistent with its unified, hybrid integration strategy across cloud, on premise, integration use-cases and API use-cases. The Anypoint base subscription is the default entry point and other add-on functionality can be purchased on top of it.

What is a core?

A Core refers to a Physical CPU Core or a Virtual Core (vCPU), which is a logical partition of a Physical CPU Core. The minimum vCore size for an application on Cloudhub is 0.1 vCore and so only one Mule Application (API) can be deployed in one 0.1 vCore.

Is Mule ESB open source?

Anypoint Platform (formerly known as Mule ESB) is based on an Open Source technology. The Mule ESB runtime engine, the core of the platform, is very efficient and lightweight, demanding low CPU and memory usage.

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