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Akana API Management vs Kong Gateway Enterprise comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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

Akana API Management
Ranking in API Management
28th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Kong Gateway Enterprise
Ranking in API Management
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Akana API Management is 0.6%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kong Gateway Enterprise is 6.0%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

Saurav Krishna - PeerSpot reviewer
Authentication mechanism is easy to implement but improvement is needed in documentation
For API security purposes, we use the tool to host all our APIs. This allows us to take advantage of the security features provided by the platform. With the solution, we can implement rules such as rate limiting and restricting the number of API calls for each user. It acts as a secure gateway…
AmitKanodia - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides role-based access control and can be easily customized with Lua script
Kong is meant for north-south communications, so it will be interesting to see what solutions they can come up with in the realms of east-west communications, service-to-service communications, and Zero Trust architecture. I believe that if they can provide for these areas, then they will be able to solve the overall integration and security concerns for microservices architecture in general.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool's authentication mechanism is easy to implement. We had to define a few parameters."
"It allowed us to publish and replace pre-essential transactions in one place, with a uniformity in terms of control and policies."
"Good interface, intuitive solution."
"This is a solid intrusion prevention system that combines a firewall and antivirus in a single solution."
"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 companies and must ensure they adhere to their allocated usage limits. Without rate limiting, there's a risk of excessive usage, which could result in significant costs."
"In our buying companies' perspective, it was easier to use compared to other platforms. The markets were pretty familiar with the solutions."
"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."
"Kong's most valuable features are its lightweight performance when handling millions of requests and the ability to write custom plugins to enhance security, such as end-to-end encryption, even in the open-source version."
"Protocol transformation is the most valuable feature of Kong Enterprise."
"We use the solution for load-balancing, caching, and rate-limiting APIs."
"Kong Enterprise has excellent plugin support."
 

Cons

"Akana API Management needs to improve its documentation."
"Lacks an integrated billing feature."
"The product has new features that we are going to implement in the next few months, such as API management and analytic reporting."
"The technical support team's response time needs to be improved."
"The software version upgrade process should be improved."
"The solution should include policy features that are available in other solutions like MuleSoft API manager but missing in Kong Enterprise."
"The open-source version of Kong does not support a dashboard, which would be very helpful."
"Kong Enterprise fails to provide live tracing of the APIs, which is possible nowadays."
"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."
"The ease of billing is lost when Kong is not available directly on the Azure marketplace. This is one area where they can improve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For us, the pricing and licensing policies were for an on-premise installation with a fixed cost structure, that matched our budgeting policies."
"The product is reasonably priced because it goes by the SaaS model."
"Kong Enterprise's pricing is reasonable for our company size."
"I don't have any information on licensing costs currently."
"Kong Enterprise is cheaper than Apigee. I rate its pricing as four out of ten."
"The licensing fees are paid yearly."
"The price is really reasonable compared to that of alternative solutions."
"It's expensive in Thailand (10 million baht, in Thai currency)."
"There are many factors that influence the price of Kong Enterprise, such as scale, licenses, and usage."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Healthcare Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Akana API Management?
The tool's authentication mechanism is easy to implement. We had to define a few parameters.
What needs improvement with Akana API Management?
Akana API Management needs to improve its documentation.
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 ...
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...
What needs improvement with Kong Enterprise?
The open-source version of Kong does not support a dashboard, which would be very helpful. We use an open-source tool called Konga for basic dashboard needs, but it lacks support. It would be bette...
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

British American Tobacco, Credit Suisse, Daimler, eBay, FOX, Liberty Mutual, Marriott, Mayo Clinic, Skandia, Tata communications
Cargill, Zillow, Ferrari, WeWork, Healthcare.gov, Yahoo! Japan, Giphy, SkyScanner
Find out what your peers are saying about Akana API Management vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.