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Apache APISIX vs Kong Konnect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache APISIX
Ranking in API Management
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Kong Konnect
Ranking in API Management
14th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
AI Observability (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Apache APISIX is 2.5%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kong Konnect is 1.0%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Kong Konnect1.0%
Apache APISIX2.5%
Other96.5%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

AB
Associate Consultant at Ernst & Young
User-friendly platform simplifies traffic management and boosts API management through integrated plugins
The most valuable features of Apache APISIX include routing for upstream and frontend services, masking using proxy rewrite, and the integration of different plugins like Prometheus and Grafana. These plugins are self-integrated, allowing features like JWT authentication, rate limiting, and diverse authentication methods without extra integration. The tool is beneficial for its plugin orchestration which enhances API management with redirection, response rewrite, key authentication, and observability with Grafana and Prometheus.
KajalSharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Development Engineering Testing at HighLevel
Centralized gateway testing has improved debugging speed and validates real-world API behavior
Kong Konnect requires some improvement, but overall the experience is quite positive. One thing I can think of currently is around debugging visibility. While I know that the analytics are helpful, sometimes getting very detailed request-level insights during failures, especially in CI runs, required additional digging. A bit more granular and easily accessible logs would make troubleshooting faster. Also, in some cases, configuration changes were not immediately intuitive to validate from a testing standpoint. Having better tooling or previews to simulate how a policy change would impact API behavior could be useful. Nothing major, but these kinds of improvements would make it even more efficient for teams, especially our teams, which heavily rely on automation and CI pipelines. Better integration visibility with CI/CD tools would make it easier to quickly correlate test failures and gateway behavior without switching between multiple dashboards. This should be improved.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable features of Apache APISIX include routing for upstream and frontend services, masking using proxy rewrite, and the integration of different plugins like Prometheus and Grafana."
"I recommend Apache APISIX to others because of its many useful features."
"Kong Konnect has positively impacted my organization by making our development easier and helping us push new routes to our current customers."
"From that standpoint, the core of it is that our debugging time during regression cycles reduced roughly by 25% to 30%, mainly because the gateway layer helped us quickly identify whether issues were coming from authentication policies, rate limiting, throttling, or the backend services."
"Kong Konnect has impacted my organization positively, particularly in enhancing security and providing a compliance dashboard for applications, making it a very positive impact on my organization."
"Kong Konnect provides centralized API management, which means there is one place to manage all the APIs, with a good plugin subsystem for authentication, logging, and rate limiting, plus a hybrid architecture that improves scalability and developer productivity while reducing engineering time and costs."
"Technical support from Proofpoint was absolutely excellent."
"Their tech support is excellent; when I raise an incident or a support ticket, it gets answered in four hours."
"Kong Konnect has positively impacted our organization by securing our APIs, which is one of the main concerns for us, and securing our APIs has benefited our organization by improving compliance and reducing incidents."
"The documentation is excellent, and it includes a developer portal, which helps create a common distribution channel for APIs within and outside the enterprise."
 

Cons

"The user interface is limited and does not support all features of Apache APISIX."
"The routing algorithms in Apache APISIX, such as node-based and round-robin, could be improved. Introducing more plugins and supporting AI features can enhance the solution."
"I wish Kong Konnect could improve by having a built-in notification system whenever any APIs get pinged so that we can receive alerts and send them to the developer."
"Kong Konnect requires some improvement, but overall the experience is quite positive."
"Pricing was the issue as it becomes very expensive due to the nature of local circumstances."
"The learning curve is the first issue when starting with Kong Konnect, as understanding the concepts such as services, routes, plugins, and the control and data planes takes time."
"Kong Konnect's RBAC needs to evolve more, as they currently offer only one or two levels of RBAC in terms of organization and teams."
"I do not rate Kong Konnect a nine out of ten because the configuration can be complex and not beginner-friendly."
"When comparing documentation, Kong's documentation is not on par with Google, Amazon, or other cloud providers."
"Kong Konnect needs improvement in the UI."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Apache APISIX?
The routing algorithms in Apache APISIX, such as node-based and round-robin, could be improved. Introducing more plugins and supporting AI features can enhance the solution.
What is your primary use case for Apache APISIX?
The primary use case for Apache APISIX is to mask the API endpoints for my microservices and use self-given APIs in Apache APISIX and mask those with the actual real ones. This helps to prevent use...
What advice do you have for others considering Apache APISIX?
I rate Apache APISIX an eight out of ten overall. For new users, I advise going through the official documentation deeply to implement the solution efficiently.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kong Konnect?
I do not have detailed information about the pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Kong Konnect, as these are managed by the sales teams.
What needs improvement with Kong Konnect?
Kong Konnect can be improved by enhancing documentation and increasing support, as token integration presents challenges and has implementation complexities that need addressing. I do not rate Kong...
What is your primary use case for Kong Konnect?
Kong Konnect serves as my main API Gateway for microservices, and it manages traffic between OpenShift and Kubernetes services, making it very helpful for monitoring API performance in my day-to-da...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Apache APISIX vs. Kong Konnect and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.