Apiary vs Kong Gateway Enterprise comparison

Oracle and Kong are both solutions in the API Management category. Oracle is ranked #37, while Kong is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.9. Oracle holds a 0.4% mindshare in APIM, compared to Kong’s 7.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Oracle users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Kong users who would recommend it.

Apiary

Read 4 Apiary reviews

434 Views
434 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Read 25 Kong Gateway Enterprise reviews

6,455 Views
6,455 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Apiary

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Apiary and Kong Gateway Enterprise compete in the API management market. While Apiary is noted for its cost-effectiveness and strong support, Kong Gateway Enterprise is considered superior for its advanced features, making it a preferred option for those valuing scalability and security.

Features: Apiary provides API documentation and collaboration tools, GitHub integration for version control, and supports multiple API notations like Swagger. Kong Gateway Enterprise offers robust scalability, plugin-based network services, and seamless integration capabilities, essential for managing and securing microservices.

Room for Improvement: Apiary could benefit from enhanced scalability and more advanced security features. Adding more role-based control options and improving performance in high-demand environments would further strengthen its offering. Kong Gateway Enterprise could improve initial deployment complexity, simplify its configuration process, and offer more straightforward user interface options for less technical users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Apiary is praised for its easy integration and responsive support, ensuring smooth deployment for users. Kong Gateway Enterprise, while challenging to deploy, compensates with extensive documentation and versatility across on-premises and cloud environments, appealing to enterprise needs. Its adaptability allows integration into diverse setups.

Pricing and ROI: Apiary's relatively low setup costs offer a quick ROI, particularly for organizations focused on improving API development processes efficiently. In contrast, Kong Gateway Enterprise requires a higher initial investment but delivers substantial long-term ROI through its comprehensive features and scalability, aligning with the needs of larger organizations seeking advanced management capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Apiary vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Apiary vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

September 2025

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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

Apiary

Ranking in API Management

37th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Ranking in API Management

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Apiary is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kong Gateway Enterprise is 7.1%, up from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Kong Gateway Enterprise	7.1%
Apiary	0.4%
Other	92.5%

API Management

Featured Reviews

Phil Wilkins

Enterprise Integration Architect at Capgemini

The ability to configure rules to check for consistency has helped

Apiary provides a free tier of the platform which allows a small group of developers to collaborate easily on the design of open source APIs. In addition to this, it provides mock endpoints allowing people to experiment with the API without depending or having to stand up a real backend. With our clients, using Apiary allows us to very quickly pull together an API definition (particularly when using API Blueprint). The whole API design process for the simpler use cases can be done in a relatively short workshop which makes it a lot easier to agree, publish, version-manage an API definition with suitable documentation. This can then be evolved and enhanced (particularly in the documentation aspects). With the ability to support Swagger (Open API v2 and introducing/ed support for v3) and API Blueprint makes it a very versatile tool.

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Sudhanshu Dev

Senior Principal DevOps Engineer at barq

Custom plugin capability with enhanced high traffic handling and lightweight performance

We use Kong for our API gateway, handling all public traffic. It is an open-source tool, and even though we are a startup, it provides us with stability without incurring high costs initially Kong has helped us by performing smoothly even when we receive millions of requests, which prevents any…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I find the generation of mock services very useful, especially when demonstrating for new consumers."

"Git integration"

"I do like the overall performance of the solution."

"In two years, there was one time the service was down for an hour or so."

"Quick and easy way to share a new API design with teams."

"The most valuable features of Kong Enterprise are the out-of-the-box open source easy functionality."

"The most valuable feature of Kong Enterprise is its capability to integrate with various security tools."

"Kong enterprise has significantly enhanced our ability to manage and secure our Microservices. Its most valuable feature is monitoring."

"The route limiting feature is very valuable."

"Based on my experience, I would definitely recommend Kong Gateway Enterprise to other people."

"Kong Enterprise has excellent plugin support."

"Good at intercepting traffic and modeling APIs around that."

"We use the solution for load-balancing, caching, and rate-limiting APIs."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pros

Cons

"Swagger (OpenAPI Specification) and Blueprint Support"

"I would like an integrated option to download a Swagger version of the definition."

"The Oracle release cycle is very bad because the patches only update once a year."

"More plugins for additional integrations would be helpful and openness for traditional development languages, such as .NET, because many enterprises are looking for .NET solutions or incorporating with .NET solutions."

"The tool needs to improve in areas like documentation and UI."

"Kong Enterprise has decided not to support the web portal feature anymore, but I think that feature should stay in the on-premises solution."

"The developer portal needs to be improved."

"The main challenge, in my opinion, is the price. It's difficult to convince our management to approve the budget to purchase it from our vendor. There are no technical problems."

"They could focus more on pricing."

"There should be an easier way to integrate with other solutions, even though it's the same API solution layer. Comparability will be a good improvement."

"We are facing issues with the solution's features like reports and traffic analysis."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is easy to get started with personal (free) accounts, but a subscription is required for additional features."

"There is a free subscription option to start and try the service."

"There are many factors that influence the price of Kong Enterprise, such as scale, licenses, and usage."

"Kong Enterprise is cheaper than Apigee. I rate its pricing as four out of ten."

"It's expensive in Thailand (10 million baht, in Thai currency)."

"There is a need to pay towards the licensing charges...In some areas, the functionalities are available free of charge."

"The price is really reasonable compared to that of alternative solutions."

"The licensing fees are paid yearly."

"Kong Enterprise's pricing is reasonable for our company size."

"I don't have any information on licensing costs currently."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Large Enterprise	19

Questions from the Community

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How does Kong Enterprise compare with Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager?

The Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager was designed with its users in mind. Though it is a reasonably complex piece of software, it is easy to install and upgrade. While there are different things that ...

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What do you like most about Kong Enterprise?

The tool's feature that I find most beneficial is rate limiting. In our usage, especially in the financial sector, we prioritize limiting API usage. This is crucial because we provide APIs to other...

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What needs improvement with Kong Enterprise?

More plugins for additional integrations would be helpful and openness for traditional development languages, such as .NET, because many enterprises are looking for .NET solutions or incorporating ...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

Apigee vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 11% of the time

Kong Konnect vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 9% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

API Management

August 2025

Download Apiary product report

Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise

September 2025

Download Kong Gateway Enterprise product report

Overview

Apiary's pioneering APIFlow solution provides the framework and tools for developing application programming interfaces (APIs) that share enterprise services and data and help create modern, cloud-based applications and experiences. APIFlow spans the API creation lifecycle, including design, governance, testing, and documentation, while supporting API Blueprint and OpenAPI industry standardsץ

Oracle

Kong delivers a next generation API platform built for modern architectures. With a lightnight-fast, lightweight, and flexible core, Kong delivers sub-millisecond latency across all your services. Kong's is deployment-, vendor-, and pattern-agnostic, allowing you to run your services how you want, where you want, and with who you want - from baremetal to cloud, monolith to microservices, service mesh, and beyond.

Kong

Sample Customers

Microsoft, salesforce.com, Bloomberg, GoodData, Viacom, Akamai Technologies, DigitalGlobe

Cargill, Zillow, Ferrari, WeWork, Healthcare.gov, Yahoo! Japan, Giphy, SkyScanner

Buyer's Guide

Apiary vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

September 2025

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