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 #4 with an average rating of 7.9, while Kong Konnect is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.8. Kong Gateway Enterprise holds a 5.8% mindshare in APIM, compared to Kong Konnect’s 1.0% 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 26 Kong Gateway Enterprise reviews

5,991 Views
5,991 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Kong Konnect

Read 5 Kong Konnect reviews

861 Views
827 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: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. Kong Konnect

February 2026

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Helped 881,757 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

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Kong Konnect

Ranking in API Management

13th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

AI Observability (25th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Kong Gateway Enterprise is 5.8%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kong Konnect is 1.0%, up from 0.4% 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	5.8%
Kong Konnect	1.0%
Other	93.2%

API Management

Featured Reviews

Evgeny Shkard

Enterprise Architect at El Al

Seamless integration and efficient security boost API management capabilities

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. I mostly missed local resellers or partners that we could use within our enterprise, because it was difficult for some tech personnel to work with remote tech support.

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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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like everything about it. It provides the security we need."

"The route limiting feature is very valuable."

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

"There are a few features that I like about Kong when it comes to authentication and authorization. Specifically, being able to use Kong for role-based access control (RBAC), and then further being able to integrate the RBAC mechanism with our enterprise directory, was very useful."

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

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

"Protocol transformation is the most valuable feature of Kong Enterprise."

"In terms of stability, the tool's team has made some good efforts, and my company is very happy with the product's approach."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pros

"Kong Konnect has positively impacted my organization by making our development easier and helping us push new routes to our current customers."

"Technical support from Proofpoint was absolutely excellent."

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

"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."

Cons

"Kong Enterprise needs to improve its pricing, which starts at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Pricing should be based on API usage rather than monthly. It should improve its documentation as well."

"The software version upgrade process should be improved."

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

"Because it is open-source, it should be less expensive than others."

"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 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."

"It becomes difficult if you try to scale it up to multiple clusters."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise cons

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

"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 needs improvement in the UI."

"When comparing documentation, Kong's documentation is not on par with Google, Amazon, or other cloud providers."

"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 and Cost Advice

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

"The licensing fees are paid yearly."

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

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

"The product is reasonably priced because it goes by the SaaS model."

"Basically, my company uses the tool's open-source version."

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

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

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

17%

Outsourcing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Large Enterprise	20

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?

See all answers

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

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing indicates that licensing is a bit high in comparison.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Kong Konnect?

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.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Kong Konnect?

I use Kong Konnect most often as a current gateway. A specific example of how I use Kong Konnect as a current gateway involves onboarding microservices into Kong Konnect where we pass the host map ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Apache APISIX vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 14% of the time

WSO2 API Manager vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 13% of the time

Apigee vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 7% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 5% of the time

More Kong Gateway Enterprise Competitors

WSO2 API Manager vs Kong Konnect

Compared 12% of the time

Axway AMPLIFY API Management vs Kong Konnect

Compared 7% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs Kong Konnect

Compared 7% of the time

SwaggerHub vs Kong Konnect

Compared 7% of the time

Traefik Enterprise vs Kong Konnect

Compared 5% of the time

More Kong Konnect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise

January 2026

Download Kong Gateway Enterprise product report

Buyer's Guide

Kong Konnect

January 2026

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

February 2026

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: February 2026.

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