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Akana API Management vs Kong Gateway Enterprise comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Akana API Management
Ranking in API Management
27th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
3.5
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
7.9
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, 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 6.8% 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

"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."
"The tool's authentication mechanism is easy to implement. We had to define a few parameters."
"Kong enterprise has significantly enhanced our ability to manage and secure our Microservices. Its most valuable feature is monitoring."
"The most valuable feature of Kong Enterprise is its capability to integrate with various security tools."
"Good at intercepting traffic and modeling APIs around that."
"Kong Enterprise comes with some ready plug-ins, which is very good for the customers."
"Protocol transformation is the most valuable feature of Kong Enterprise."
"The solution provides good performance."
"Kong Gateway helped to improve performance. It's good enough for our users."
"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."
 

Cons

"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."
"Akana API Management needs to improve its documentation."
"The tool needs improvement in UX."
"We are facing issues with the solution's features like reports and traffic analysis."
"They could focus more on pricing."
"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."
"We would like to see an automatic data API when we have a table in the database."
"The technical support team's response time needs to be improved."
"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."
 

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 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 is a need to pay towards the licensing charges...In some areas, the functionalities are available free of charge."
"I don't have any information on licensing costs currently."
"Kong Enterprise's pricing is at par compared to the other technologies."
"The product is reasonably priced because it goes by the SaaS model."
"Basically, my company uses the tool's open-source version."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Healthcare Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
21%
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: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.