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Kong Konnect vs Microsoft Azure API Management 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.0
Kong Konnect boosts efficiency, improves scalability and security, and offers notable ROI, enabling faster deployments and cost savings.
Sentiment score
5.9
Microsoft Azure API Management enhances efficiency and operations, reducing integration time by 90%, favored for usability over platforms like AWS.
Time saved is a relevant metric; it used to take us a week, but now it takes us only a day.
Lead Software Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
I have seen a return on investment with Kong Konnect, as it helps manage security very well, allows for faster API deployments saving developer time, and reduces salary costs with better uptime and minimal downtime, thus preventing potential business loss.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
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.
Software Development Engineering Testing at HighLevel
If I am working in AWS and with Azure, I see that Azure is much easier and helps save time while also being able to manage and deploy the API services.
Network Security Engineer at Movate
We have seen significant financial benefits after using the product.
Consultant at Fujitsu
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
Kong Konnect offers 24/7 efficient customer service with fast issue resolutions, multiple support tiers, and responsive assistance.
Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft Azure API Management support is mixed, with premium support praised and other areas needing improvement in efficiency and expertise.
Technical support from Proofpoint was absolutely excellent.
Senior Software Engineer at Netenrich
When I raise an incident or a support ticket, it gets answered in four hours.
API Technical Architect at Independent API Consultant
They offer twenty-four-hour support with SLA-based response times.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
The initial support engineers are often not qualified.
Consult Manager at Conscia
I logged an incident, and it was resolved promptly within three hours.
Solution Architect at Cognizant
They are always ready to listen to customer requirements and resolve issues promptly.
Database Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Kong Konnect offers efficient scalability for microservices, handling traffic spikes with auto-scaling and independent control on various platforms.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Azure API Management offers seamless scalability for medium to large enterprises, though costs increase with higher usage levels.
It supports auto-scaling of gateway nodes, especially in cloud setups, which helps it adjust dynamically based on traffic spikes without manual intervention.
Software Development Engineering Testing at HighLevel
The platform is fully scalable, providing various ways to manage data planes or runtimes.
IT Soulutoin Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Kong Konnect's scalability is very high, handles growth well, and since it is a stateless gateway, it scales easily in Kubernetes using horizontal scaling.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
I've worked with multiple tools from an observability perspective, such as Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Splunk, and Elasticsearch, and I find KQL and APIM amazing and filled with useful features.
Associate Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
There are no limitations to adding any number of devices.
Network Security Engineer at Movate
Microsoft Azure API Management is extremely scalable.
Consult Manager at Conscia
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Kong Konnect is highly rated for stability, effectively managing API environments with minimal outages and stable performance.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Azure API Management is stable and reliable, though performance may vary with hybrid versions and specific customizations.
Most of the time, the gateway handled routing and policies reliably, even during heavy regression cycles and heavy customer throughput.
Software Development Engineering Testing at HighLevel
It was very fast, and we did not experience any interruptions.
Senior Software Engineer at Netenrich
Kong Konnect is very stable with no issues regarding reliability in my experience.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
Microsoft Azure API Management is very stable.
Consult Manager at Conscia
With high scalability and availability, it supports many users and endpoints without significant issues.
Solution Architect at Cognizant
Microsoft Azure API Management is generally stable.
Technical Solution Architect at liwa
 

Room For Improvement

Kong Konnect could improve by enhancing documentation, simplifying configuration, and adding features like better RBAC, UI, and GRPC API support.
Microsoft Azure API Management needs improvements in security, integration, cost transparency, documentation, performance, deployment options, scalability, and analytics.
A bit more granular and easily accessible logs would make troubleshooting faster.
Software Development Engineering Testing at HighLevel
The licensing model could be simplified, especially in how they charge and track usage.
IT Soulutoin Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
When comparing documentation, Kong's documentation is not on par with Google, Amazon, or other cloud providers.
API Technical Architect at Independent API Consultant
The service is extensive and expensive, and this added flexibility would make it more manageable and less prone to errors.
Consult Manager at Conscia
They should enhance AI capabilities and more advanced integration features with other platforms.
Consultant at Fujitsu
In the future, I want to see the tool offer API integrations.
Network Security Engineer at Movate
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers appreciate Kong Konnect's reasonable setup costs but find licensing and unclear pricing models challenging to evaluate.
Enterprise users find Azure API Management cost-effective and flexible, despite premium tier expense and licensing complexity challenges.
Pricing was the issue as it becomes very expensive due to the nature of local circumstances.
Senior Software Engineer at Netenrich
I wouldn't say that the setup cost is much more compared to using any other product.
CTO at Keogh Innovation
While the pricing model isn't very clear on how usage is tracked, the initial cost and setup for using Kong Konnect are reasonable.
IT Soulutoin Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
However, once you scale up to your full volume, it'll be more expensive.
Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It costs around 30,000 Kronas a month, which translates to about $3,000 dollars monthly.
Consult Manager at Conscia
I would rate it three to four on the lower side of the cost scale.
Solution Architect at Cognizant
 

Valuable Features

Kong Konnect provides API management with analytics, scalability, security features, and pre-built plugins to enhance efficiency and productivity.
Microsoft Azure API Management provides seamless integration, strong security, and user-friendly tools for effective API management and monitoring.
The documentation is excellent, and it includes a developer portal, which helps create a common distribution channel for APIs within and outside the enterprise.
IT Soulutoin Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
When I mention scalability, it means that when we experience peak traffic, Kong made it easy for us to scale and spawn new machines.
Lead Software Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The security features of Kong Konnect have helped my team mainly by allowing us to use auth and JWT for applications needing external identity provider authentications, such as LDAP or other authentication providers that need to be connected to back-end applications.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
The platform's most valuable features are its rule-based permissions and comprehensive API lifecycle management capabilities.
Consultant at Fujitsu
The ability to create a subscription model for APIs allows companies to monetize valuable data and share it securely.
Consult Manager at Conscia
The analytics phase of API Management is very beneficial for tracking API usage and identifying suspicious users.
Solution Architect at Cognizant
 

Categories and Ranking

Kong Konnect
Ranking in API Management
13th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
AI Observability (13th)
Microsoft Azure API Management
Ranking in API Management
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Kong Konnect is 1.0%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure API Management is 12.4%, down from 17.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure API Management12.4%
Kong Konnect1.0%
Other86.6%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

AK
CTO at Keogh Innovation
Centralizes API and AI control planes and has enabled federated self-service for many teams
The whole area of API and AI management is quite complex, with so many different ways of being able to do things. I think a positive of Kong is that it's so configurable and extendable, but that is also a con because there are so many ways of achieving the same thing that I think often people are either confused or struggle to get going as to how to solve a particular problem. In my mind, a more opinionated deployment of Kong itself or even how to solve certain use cases would be something I would like to see, so a more opinionated use of their products and configuration of their products on how to solve the most common use cases. That's probably the main thing about needed improvements for Kong Konnect. It's a pretty fully-fledged platform; there obviously are portions of it that could be improved. But I think overall as a platform, it's really good, and I think it can help the majority of organizations looking to manage their throughput of APIs or AI traffic. The majority of what I've said before probably covers the improvements needed for Kong Konnect. There probably are some API Ops and AI Ops changes that could be improved, which is not necessarily the Kong Konnect product, but some of the toolchains around it. I'm thinking around, especially if it's API Ops, about topics like better GitOps processes and the ways of being able to roll back changes when there are issues. At the moment, a lot of that is either non-existent or is hand-cranked. I would like to see the ability to roll back configurations when there are issues being added to the product.
AD
Technical Solution Architect at liwa
Has supported smooth channel partner integration and data analysis for several years
We use the existing services hosted in Microsoft Azure API Management without making any changes. For transformation capabilities, we utilize ADF, Data Factory instead of Microsoft Azure API Management. Regarding security features in Microsoft Azure API Management, we utilize token bearer authentication. As retailers with integration to our channel partners, we haven't experienced any security issues with Microsoft Azure API Management since it isn't exposed to external parties. We use a basic Azure function hosted in Microsoft Azure API Management rather than the integrated developer portal. Tracking analytics and performance analytics in Microsoft Azure API Management is straightforward. We use basic features for performance analytics and log analytics due to additional subscription charges. We enabled log analytics for Microsoft Azure API Management in the past month to investigate issues such as unreachable endpoints or request timeouts.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise54
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kong Konnect?
The processing of the license for Kong Konnect is normally handled by procurement, so in large enterprises, that's not something I've had to deal with, so I can't really comment on that at all. Set...
What needs improvement with Kong Konnect?
The whole area of API and AI management is quite complex, with so many different ways of being able to do things. I think a positive of Kong is that it's so configurable and extendable, but that is...
What is your primary use case for Kong Konnect?
My main use case for Kong Konnect, at least with the clients that I work with, is to create a centralized single pane of glass for all of their control planes, whether it be for their API gateways ...
How does Apigee differ from Azure API Management?
Apigee offers both cloud-based and on-prem options while Microsoft Azure API Management currently only offers a cloud-based solution. Both solutions are easy to use. Apigee allows for the ability...
Which is better - Azure API Management or Amazon API Gateway?
If you use Azure products, API Management is a great solution. It solves many of the problems of externalizing web services. For example, when you need versioning, establish a developer portal and ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure API Management?
The pricing is medium, which I find to be reasonable for the value we receive.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Azure API Management, MS Azure API Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH, Opensistemas
Find out what your peers are saying about Kong Konnect vs. Microsoft Azure API Management and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.