Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Amazon API Gateway 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

Amazon API Gateway
Ranking in API Management
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
44
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 March 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Amazon API Gateway is 13.5%, down from 14.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kong Gateway Enterprise is 6.3%, up from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

Dinesh Agrawalla - PeerSpot reviewer
Requires minimal configuration and easy-to-launch
I would like to improve the restrictions and security elements of the solution, as there are certain configurations that are not currently supported. There are certain restrictions that cannot be implemented without web access. In the next release, I would like a feature that can validate requests and filter out any jQuery injections. Additionally, I would like to prioritize these requests. I've noticed that such features are usually not available in web applications.
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

"t is easy for integrations if it is deployed in AWS Services."
"Integrating API Gateway with other AWS services was easy. It worked out of the box, so it worked perfectly."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a stable solution with an uptime of 99.99 percent."
"The solution is solid, robust, and scalable."
"API Gateway offers a multitude of configuration parameters that enable versatile request filtering and protection against potential attacks."
"The technical support is very strong. We've had issues with the solution and configuration and we got very good support."
"It's a low-code solution that helps our company manage operations seamlessly"
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The solution provides good performance."
"Kong Enterprise has excellent plugin support."
"In our buying companies' perspective, it was easier to use compared to other platforms. The markets were pretty familiar with the solutions."
"Protocol transformation is the most valuable feature of Kong Enterprise."
"Kong Gateway helped to improve performance. It's good enough for our users."
"In terms of stability, the tool's team has made some good efforts, and my company is very happy with the product's approach."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it seamlessly supports a vast number of tools."
"The route limiting feature is very valuable."
 

Cons

"I believe that there could be more features associated with analytics since it is an area where the product lacks."
"I believe better governance and monitoring features would be beneficial."
"The only real problem is that you have to know a lot about what is outside of the API gateway in order to make the best use of it."
"When it comes to DDoS protection, I would like to see that become available at the API Gateway level."
"It's hard to configure. There's a lot of options but it's very hard, it's very confusing."
"Amazon API Gateway needs to focus on minimizing latency."
"Amazon API Gateway can improve the user interface in some areas it could be more polished."
"The user interface could be improved, as well as customer support and having a local customer representative in a country."
"Understanding the configurations and knowing what needs to be done can be a bit difficult initially."
"The OS upgrades are not as frequent as they should be and they are bulky."
"The main challenge, in my opinion, is the price. It's difficult to convince our management to approve the budget to purchase it from our vendor. There are no technical problems."
"Kong Enterprise can improve the customization to be able to do the integration properly."
"It becomes difficult if you try to scale it up to multiple clusters."
"The tool needs to improve in areas like documentation and UI."
"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."
"We would like to see an automatic data API when we have a table in the database."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Amazon API Gateway is a very cheaply priced product."
"There is an annual licensing cost to use Amazon API Gateway."
"There are no licensing fees."
"The solution's price is reasonable."
"My understanding is that it easily goes to $14,000 or $15,000 USD each month for each account, and we have several such accounts."
"The product is expensive."
"This is a pay-per-use service, where you only pay for what you use."
"The solution's pricing is cheap and based on the number of requests coming to Amazon API Gateway."
"There is a need to pay towards the licensing charges...In some areas, the functionalities are available free of charge."
"Kong Enterprise's pricing is reasonable for our company size."
"The licensing fees are paid yearly."
"The price is really reasonable compared to that of alternative solutions."
"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."
"Kong Enterprise's pricing is at par compared to the other technologies."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which API Management solutions are best for your needs.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Insurance Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Apigee or Amazon API Gateway?
Amazon API Gateway is a platform that supports the creation and publication of API for web applications. The platform can support thousands of simultaneous API calls, and it provides monitoring, ma...
How does Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager compare with Amazon API Gateway?
I have found that Mulesoft Anypoint API Manager is the best integration tool out there for API management. It is easy to implement and learn; it provides several options for deployment, (including ...
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 ...
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...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Autodesk, Fox Digital Consumer Group, iFlix, UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), Miovision, Olympusat, PhotoVogue, Royale International Group, Veracode
Cargill, Zillow, Ferrari, WeWork, Healthcare.gov, Yahoo! Japan, Giphy, SkyScanner
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon API Gateway vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.