Frequently Asked Questions

What is Saddle?

Saddle is an extension for the Mule enterprise service bus (ESB) based on the NetBeans platform. It adds extended message handling capabilities which provide universal access to, and the processing of, virtually any message format. Saddle can support the needs of advanced ESB developers or provide immediate plug and play results to business analysts with limited programming experience. A user-friendly, enhanced graphical configuration frontend provides information and support to the user exactly where and when it is needed. This significantly simplifies the whole integration project cycle: prototyping, testing and deployment, maintenance and monitoring. This cost free extension supports both the community and enterprise editions of Mule v2 and v3.


You will find all details about Saddle in the Saddle Fact Sheet.

Why Use Saddle?

Saddle reduces project realization time and expands the number of users who can use & configure Mule. Thanks to its intuitive graphical interface, configuration becomes easier and errors are reduced due to robust configuration management policies and on the fly testing. For new developers, use of the graphical presentation of the integration environment will speed up communications with non-technical departments or clients that need to understand business rules or implement new processes.

More experienced developers will appreciate Saddle’s use of open standards and its powerful API. Both types of users will benefit from the choice of developing in a drag and drop mode, direct coding, or even a mix of the two. That way, pre-existing business logic can be included in a heartbeat.

How much does Saddle cost?

Absolutely nothing.

Saddle is an Open Source project published under the CPAL license. You are free to download, use, change, distribute Saddle or to do whatever you want with it as long as it is compliant to the license terms.