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Kong Konnect vs WSO2 API Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 16, 2025

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 Konnect
Ranking in API Management
13th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
AI Observability (18th)
WSO2 API Manager
Ranking in API Management
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Kong Konnect is 1.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WSO2 API Manager is 4.2%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
WSO2 API Manager4.2%
Kong Konnect1.0%
Other94.8%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

SA
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.
MM
Manager, Integration Technical Delivery at United Delta
Middleware integration has become smoother and manages API lifecycles and scopes effectively
Regarding WSO2 API Manager, I have no drawbacks or areas for improvement. However, regarding the Micro Integrator, I had some issues while developing complex services because it was mainly designed to be used for simple services, not complex ones. While using complex services, I encountered some issues. I communicated this with WSO2, and they released other products that solved everything related to my concern. These products were released before my concern was raised. When I explored them, they were pretty good, and I did not see the same issues I had experienced. WSO2 is enhancing themselves, and their products are fine. The previous concern was about the previous product, so it is resolved now since there are new products available. I would like WSO2 to improve quality or response time in support, or both.

Quotes from Members

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

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."
"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."
"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."
"Their tech support is excellent; when I raise an incident or a support ticket, it gets answered in four hours."
"The capability to define processes and seamless integration with APIs enhances our operations."
"It's very scalable, which is one of the best features."
"WSO2 API Manager has everything that any API Manager product could have."
"There are a lot of tools to help the manager. WSO2 is very easy to install. It has all the principal functionalities that you think about when you want to put up the management solution. It's a very friendly tool."
"Based on the information I have, the solution's most valuable feature is its capability of implementing custom solutions."
"The scalability is fine for our purposes."
"WSO2 API Manager has a user-friendly model."
"The most beneficial feature of WSO2 API Manager is its capability to use Swagger to define and then populate the API."
 

Cons

"Pricing was the issue as it becomes very expensive due to the nature of local circumstances."
"When comparing documentation, Kong's documentation is not on par with Google, Amazon, or other cloud providers."
"Kong Konnect needs improvement in the UI."
"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's RBAC needs to evolve more, as they currently offer only one or two levels of RBAC in terms of organization and teams."
"Dashboards for application monitoring of the APIs would be beneficial, allowing us to check for faulty APIs."
"The solution’s interface should be more user-friendly."
"We have encountered some concerns with concurrency. Our integrations do not handle high-volume transactions, and when benchmarking, some issues arose with concurrent testing."
"I would like it to be a more convenient development platform with the ability to write orchestrations and so on. Our problem with this product is that in my country, we are the only enterprise that has been using this product. We're missing a lot of knowledge from colleagues to consult with, and we also aren't able to recruit people with relevant skills. It is a big problem. The small team that is maintaining this product is the only team that can actually relate to any technical issue. The support that we're getting from the company is not great. There is also a cultural gap there because they're from Sri Lanka, and it is not easy. They're putting in a lot of effort, but they are not meeting our expectations."
"The solution could be more user friendly for engineers."
"The user interface could be a bit better."
"I can say that user management is not really flexible. So, if I want to create 1,000 store users, I can't do it as a publisher. You have to register as a store user using the store URL."
"The price and the complexities attached to the solution are two areas of concern where improvements are required."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We use the open-source version of WSO2 API Manager, there is no cost."
"For our projects, we found the pricing to be a little high."
"It is an open-source product."
"My previous company paid about 1.2 million dollars, and my current company pays about 300k. Both companies are at the enterprise level."
"WSO2 API Manager is quite an expensive tool. I rate the product's pricing a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is low and ten is high."
"The solution costs less than 20,000 euros a year. I'm not sure of the exact number."
"It's not expensive, but it could be cheaper."
"There is a subscription-based pricing structure and also the open-sourced version available."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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.
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 ...
What needs improvement with WSO2 API Manager?
Regarding WSO2 API Manager, I have no drawbacks or areas for improvement. However, regarding the Micro Integrator, I had some issues while developing complex services because it was mainly designed...
What is your primary use case for WSO2 API Manager?
My major use cases for WSO2 API Manager are mainly for system integration between multiple layers because we are working on the middleware layer between the systems.
What advice do you have for others considering WSO2 API Manager?
The thing that I hoped WSO2 had in their integration products, not WSO2 API Manager, was AI agents, and now they have this. I believe at this stage, they have the things that the market is going th...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
1. eBay 2. StubHub 3. Cisco 4. Verizon 5. T-Mobile 6. Vodafone 7. Orange 8. BT Group 9. Telstra 10. Deutsche Telekom 11. Swisscom 12. AT&T 13. Sprint 14. Telefonica 15. O2 16. British Airways 17. Lufthansa 18. Emirates 19. Qatar Airways 20. Etihad Airways 21. Air France 22. KLM 23. American Express 24. Visa 25. Mastercard 26. PayPal 27. Western Union 28. Citibank 29. HSBC 30. Barclays 31. Santander 32. Goldman Sachs
Find out what your peers are saying about Kong Konnect vs. WSO2 API Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.