Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Kong Konnect comparison

Kong Gateway Enterprise and Kong Konnect are both solutions in the API Management category. Kong Gateway Enterprise is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.7, while Kong Konnect is ranked #25 with an average rating of 8.5. Kong Gateway Enterprise holds a 7.2% mindshare in APIM, compared to Kong Konnect’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Kong Gateway Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Kong Konnect users who would recommend it.

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Read 25 Kong Gateway Enterprise reviews

7,416 Views
5,455 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Kong Konnect

Read 2 Kong Konnect reviews

388 Views
316 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Kong Konnect

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Kong Gateway Enterprise and Kong Konnect based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two API Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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

Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. Kong Konnect

June 2025

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Helped 860,168 peers since 2012

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

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Ranking in API Management

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Kong Konnect

Ranking in API Management

25th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Kong Gateway Enterprise is 7.2%, up from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kong Konnect is 0.9%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management

Featured Reviews

ASHOK YADAV

Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Offers OIDC, Rate Limiting, Lambda functions but lacks software upgrades

Upgrading Kong Gateway Enterprise should be more sophisticated and innovative. The main issue is with the update process. Our DevOps and admin teams need to update multiple files, which is cumbersome. For instance, in cases where Palantir countries are involved, they have to update many files, which is not ideal. However, for other tasks like configuring the message routing and services and handling all the configurations, the process is acceptable. The software version upgrade process should be improved. Additionally, the DevOps portal should be integrated more natively. There are a few other areas for improvement, such as implementing automatic load balancing. The status of the office team, whether it is up or down, should be checked at the API gateway level to facilitate load balancing.

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Shahnawaz_Alam

Senior Software Engineer at Netenrich

Significant email security benefits combined with efficient spam filtering, yet cost hinders long-term use

The integration with our on-prem Exchange was very straightforward; the only thing we did was redirect all email traffic over Proofpoint, so Proofpoint did everything independently, and we were very happy. I am still receiving emails from Proofpoint's site. Not using it at the moment, but in the short term we will be tackling that portion of the product as well. We cannot provide feedback regarding Dynamics because we are not experienced enough at the moment; we have initiatives going on but did not get enough feedback from end users. Based on my overall experience with Proofpoint, considering the cost perspective, I would rate it a 7 out of 10.

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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

"Kong Enterprise comes with some ready plug-ins, which is very good for the customers."

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

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

"It boasts remarkable speed and stability, and these qualities, particularly the gateway's resilience, are standout features for me."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it seamlessly supports a vast number of tools."

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

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

"The solution's technical support is good and fast in terms of responsiveness and problem-solving skills."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pros

"The documentation is excellent, and it includes a developer portal, which helps create a common distribution channel for APIs within and outside the enterprise."

"Technical support from Proofpoint was absolutely excellent."

Cons

"We would like to see an automatic data API when we have a table in the database."

"Kong Enterprise can improve the customization to be able to do the integration properly."

"The developer portal needs to be improved."

"The software version upgrade process should be improved."

"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The open-source version of Kong does not support a dashboard, which would be very helpful."

"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."

"The OS upgrades are not as frequent as they should be and they are bulky."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise cons

"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."

"Pricing was the issue as it becomes very expensive due to the nature of local circumstances."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Kong Enterprise's pricing is at par compared to the other technologies."

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

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

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

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

"The licensing fees are paid yearly."

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

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

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

13%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

24%

Insurance Company

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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 ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kong Konnect?

The pricing deserves a high rating for consideration. Cost was the reason we stopped using it. Pricing was the issue as it becomes very expensive due to the nature of local circumstances.

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What needs improvement with Kong Konnect?

Pricing might be a topic to consider regarding improvements. I may advise Proofpoint to adjust marketing solutions based on each country itself.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Kong Konnect?

The clients mainly were using Proofpoint for email security, which is the primary use case. We have used Proofpoint for email security.

See all answers

Comparisons

WSO2 API Manager vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 13% of the time

Apigee vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 11% of the time

Apache APISIX vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 6% of the time

More Kong Gateway Enterprise Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise

June 2025

Download Kong Gateway Enterprise product report

Buyer's Guide

API Management

June 2025

Download Kong Konnect product report

Overview

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

Kong Konnect facilitates efficient management and integration of APIs, providing a streamlined experience for developers to manage their services with high scalability.

Kong Konnect is a comprehensive platform tailored for API development and management. It offers an intuitive interface that simplifies the process of connecting, managing, and securing APIs. Organizations benefit from its scalable architecture, ensuring it meets diverse operational demands and optimizes service delivery, supporting a robust API ecosystem that aligns with modern development practices.

What are the key features of Kong Konnect?

API Gateway: Efficiently handles routing, transformations, and more for effective API management.
Security Management: Includes authentication and traffic control to protect data.
Analytics and Monitoring: Provides insights into API usage and performance metrics.
Developer Portals: Offers customizable portals for developer engagement and onboarding.
Plugin Architecture: Extends functionality through a rich library of plugins.

What benefits or ROI should users expect?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces operational costs through streamlined API processes.
Scalability: Easily adapts to increased API traffic without performance losses.
Improved Security: Enhances data protection through advanced security features.
Enhanced Developer Productivity: Accelerates development timelines with easy-to-use tools.
Better User Engagement: Improves collaboration through robust developer support.

In tech industries, Kong Konnect is often implemented to advance cloud-native applications by enhancing API connectivity and security. Financial services utilize it to ensure compliance and secure data sharing. Telecommunications deploy it to handle high data throughput efficiently.

Kong

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. Kong Konnect

June 2025

Free Report: Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. Kong Konnect

Find out what your peers are saying about Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. Kong Konnect and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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