Migrate from Iguana to Mirth Connect — 8-Week Sprint, Zero-Downtime Cutover
Iguana licensing fees keep climbing. Mirth Connect (now NextGen Connect) is open-source, vendor-neutral, and runs the majority of US healthcare integration workloads. We move teams off Iguana — channel by channel, with parity testing and zero-downtime production cutover — typically in 8 weeks for a 20-channel deployment, on a fixed-price sprint package starting at $34,500.
Talk About: Iguana → Mirth Migration
Tell us about your environment in 60 seconds. A solutions architect will reach out within 24 hours to confirm scope.
Why Teams Do This Sprint
Licensing cost
Iguana is per-server commercial; Mirth Connect is open-source. The 5-year TCO difference for a 20-channel deployment typically runs $200K+, even after factoring in managed support.
Talent pool depth
There are dramatically more Mirth Connect / NextGen Connect engineers in the US labor market than Iguana specialists, which lowers your hiring cost and reduces key-person risk.
FHIR R4 maturity
Mirth's FHIR R4 implementation has converged with the spec faster than Iguana's. If your roadmap includes ONC (g)(10), payer-provider FHIR, or SMART on FHIR, Mirth is the lower-friction path.
Cloud-native deployment
Mirth runs cleanly in Docker on AWS ECS, Azure Container Apps, GCP Cloud Run, or Kubernetes. Iguana's deployment story is more rigid, especially for multi-tenant SaaS topologies.
Open-source extensibility
Mirth's Groovy and JavaScript transformer model is more familiar to most engineering teams than Iguana's Lua-only model. Hiring is easier; onboarding is faster.
Vendor-neutral roadmap
Open-source means no vendor lock-in. You're not negotiating against an annual renewal cycle for the next decade.
The Sprint, Week by Week
Fixed scope, fixed dates. You see exactly what happens in each week.
| Week | Phase | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Discovery + Iguana audit | Channel inventory, complexity map, risk register, environment access provisioned |
| Week 2 | Mirth Connect environment setup | Dev/staging/prod environments on AWS, Azure, GCP, or your data center |
| Weeks 3–5 | Channel-by-channel migration | Lua → JavaScript/Groovy transformer rewrite, line-by-line parity tests, regression suite |
| Week 6 | Parallel running | Both engines live in production; messages mirrored to both; outputs diff'd and reconciled |
| Week 7 | Production cutover | Traffic shifted in batches per channel; rollback plan ready; downstream systems validated |
| Week 8 | Iguana decommission + handover | Documentation, runbooks, optional managed support transition (Silver tier from $6,800/mo) |
Mirth Connect vs Iguana Integration Engine
Honest comparison. Mirth wins on cost and flexibility; the other side has its own strengths.
| Dimension | Mirth Connect | Iguana Integration Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Open-source + managed support | Per-server commercial license + maintenance |
| Transformer language | JavaScript or Groovy | Lua only |
| FHIR R4 maturity | Mature, US Core profiles | Catching up |
| Cloud-native deployment | Docker, K8s, ECS/Cloud Run native | VM-friendly, container support added later |
| US talent pool | Large | Specialized, smaller |
| Vendor lock-in | None — open source | Commercial vendor relationship |
| 5-year TCO (20 channels, w/ support) | ~$540K | ~$750K+ |
When to Migrate, When to Stay
We'd rather you stay on a tool that's working than churn for the sake of it.
- ✓You're hitting a license renewal cycle and the next renewal hurts
- ✓You're hiring and Iguana talent is scarce in your market
- ✓Your roadmap includes FHIR R4, ONC (g)(10), or SMART Backend Auth
- ✓You want cloud-native containerized deployment
- ✓You want vendor-neutral architecture for the next decade
- ·Your Iguana deployment is stable, paid for, and not on a renewal cliff
- ·Your team has deep institutional Lua expertise
- ·Migration cost exceeds the 5-year TCO delta — true for very small deployments
- ·You depend on Iguana-specific monitoring features your team hasn't replaced yet
Pricing — All Numbers Public
Three productized sprint sizes, plus an optional managed-support continuation.
60-minute call with a senior Mirth engineer. We review your Iguana deployment, channel count, complexity, and produce a written go/no-go effort estimate. No commitment.
Iguana → Mirth Migration Sprint
Standard sprint package. Discovery, environment setup, channel-by-channel rewrite with parity testing, parallel running, cutover, decommission. Fixed price, fixed timeline.
Iguana Migration, Mid-Size Estate
Adds extra weeks for the additional channels and a longer parallel-running window. Suited for regional health systems and multi-site practices.
Enterprise Migration
For large estates with custom Lua scripts, multi-tenant deployments, and complex regulatory testing. Includes dedicated PM and steering committee.