Kong Gateway Enterprise vs WSO2 API Manager comparison

Kong and WSO2 are both solutions in the API Management category. Kong is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.7, while WSO2 is ranked #6 with an average rating of 7.8. Kong holds a 7.2% mindshare in APIM, compared to WSO2’s 5.0% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Kong users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of WSO2 users who would recommend it.

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Read 25 Kong Gateway Enterprise reviews

7,416 Views
7,416 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

WSO2 API Manager

Read 41 WSO2 API Manager reviews

5,669 Views
5,669 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Kong Gateway Enterprise

WSO2 API Manager

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

Kong Gateway Enterprise and WSO2 API Manager are prominent competitors in API management. Kong Gateway Enterprise leads with scalability and integration, while WSO2 is favored for its open-source flexibility and rich documentation.

Features: Kong Gateway Enterprise offers features such as plugin architecture for enhanced scalability, role-based access control, and custom Lua scripting. WSO2 API Manager provides comprehensive API lifecycle management, an effective API store for testing and documentation, and robust integration features.

Room for Improvement: Kong Gateway Enterprise could improve in customization and pricing flexibility, live API tracing, and developer portal functionalities. WSO2 API Manager requires enhancements in user interface design, documentation, and technical support.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Kong Gateway Enterprise supports varied environments like hybrid, public, and private clouds, yet its technical support response time needs improvement. WSO2 API Manager's on-premises approach is noted for cloud integration, but it faces criticism for complex deployment procedures.

Pricing and ROI: Kong Gateway Enterprise is viewed as expensive compared to alternatives despite its features. The open-source edition provides economical options, but enterprise pricing is a concern. WSO2 API Manager is praised for cost-effectiveness, appealing to budget-conscious users. Both solutions promise ROI through reduced complexities and effective API management.

To learn more, read our detailed Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. WSO2 API Manager Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. WSO2 API Manager

July 2025

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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

7.6

Kong Gateway Enterprise offers scalability, advanced features, and reduces detection time, supporting efficient API delivery with economic benefits.

Sentiment score

7.6

WSO2 API Manager offers high ROI with cost efficiency, operational improvements, and valuable support, though perceptions may vary.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Kong Gateway Enterprise report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the WSO2 API Manager report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.9

Kong Gateway Enterprise support is helpful and responsive, but users note delays and desire quicker, more capable assistance.

Sentiment score

6.6

Customer service varies with subscription level, with helpful responses often, while open-source users rely on forums and documentation.

The technical support from Kong Gateway Enterprise would be rated about eight, as we missed local technical support.

reviewer2704218

Enterprise Architect at a transportation company with 5,001-10,000 employees

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The support is good, with well-defined documentation and helpful blogs.

AnilKumar40

Senior Principal Architect at 6d Technologies

For more quotes and insights, download the WSO2 API Manager report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.2

Kong Gateway Enterprise is praised for scalability across applications, but smaller entities face challenges due to resource constraints.

Sentiment score

7.5

WSO2 API Manager is scalable, supporting container deployments, horizontal and vertical scaling, but involves manual provisioning challenges.

The scalability of this solution would be rated about eight or nine.

reviewer2704218

Enterprise Architect at a transportation company with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Kong Gateway Enterprise report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the WSO2 API Manager report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.9

Kong Gateway Enterprise is stable with few issues, excellent architecture, and recommended strong configuration for optimal performance and versatility.

Sentiment score

7.3

WSO2 API Manager is stable with minor issues, quick bug fixes, and high ratings, benefiting from Tomcat's foundation.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Kong Gateway Enterprise report

The system is stable for our low-concurrency use cases.

AnilKumar40

Senior Principal Architect at 6d Technologies

For more quotes and insights, download the WSO2 API Manager report

Room For Improvement

Kong Gateway Enterprise needs better pricing, integrations, API management, documentation, customization, support, and AI features for improved user experience.

WSO2 API Manager requires UI improvements, better documentation, competitive pricing, enhanced support, and solutions for stability, performance, and integration issues.

More plugins for additional integrations would be helpful and openness for traditional development languages, such as .NET, because many enterprises are looking for .NET solutions or incorporating with .NET solutions.

reviewer2704218

Enterprise Architect at a transportation company with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Kong Gateway Enterprise report

Our integrations do not handle high-volume transactions.

AnilKumar40

Senior Principal Architect at 6d Technologies

For more quotes and insights, download the WSO2 API Manager report

Setup Cost

Kong Gateway Enterprise pricing is competitive, especially compared to Apigee, with value dependent on organizational needs and region.

WSO2 API Manager offers an open-source version and a subscription model, with costs varying based on features and usage.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Kong Gateway Enterprise report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the WSO2 API Manager report

Valuable Features

Kong Gateway Enterprise provides scalable, secure API management with integration support, high performance, and adaptability via open-source community backing.

WSO2 API Manager provides robust security, flexibility, scalability, and powerful integration with user-friendly features for seamless API management.

The most valuable features of Kong Gateway Enterprise are its seamless integration with Kubernetes and cloud, many plugins that can be incorporated in a solution, and its incorporation with low-code function systems.

reviewer2704218

Enterprise Architect at a transportation company with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Kong Gateway Enterprise report

The product's capabilities for integrating with REST APIs are valuable.

AnilKumar40

Senior Principal Architect at 6d Technologies

For more quotes and insights, download the WSO2 API Manager report

Categories and Ranking

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Ranking in API Management

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

WSO2 API Manager

Ranking in API Management

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Kong Gateway Enterprise is 7.2%, up from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WSO2 API Manager is 5.0%, up from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management

Featured Reviews

ASHOK YADAV

Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Offers OIDC, Rate Limiting, Lambda functions but lacks software upgrades

Upgrading Kong Gateway Enterprise should be more sophisticated and innovative. The main issue is with the update process. Our DevOps and admin teams need to update multiple files, which is cumbersome. For instance, in cases where Palantir countries are involved, they have to update many files, which is not ideal. However, for other tasks like configuring the message routing and services and handling all the configurations, the process is acceptable. The software version upgrade process should be improved. Additionally, the DevOps portal should be integrated more natively. There are a few other areas for improvement, such as implementing automatic load balancing. The status of the office team, whether it is up or down, should be checked at the API gateway level to facilitate load balancing.

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VishalSingh14

IT Engineer at Reliance Industries Ltd

Easy to deploy APIs and easy to manage CORS configuration

I have used WSO2 Store and WSO2 API Manager at the architecture level. I worked on two versions, namely WSO2 API Manager 2.6.0 and 5.7.0. I have also worked with WSO2 Identity Server versions 5.7 and 5.11. There are certain things that Apigee handles better than WSO2 API Manager. The user interface of WSO2 API Manager is much easier than that of Apigee. The scope of flexibility was much greater in Apigee. In WSO2 API Manager, we had little flexibility and were restricted to a specific software or tool. On the other hand, we had the scope of customization in Apigee.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

13%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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 ...

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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...

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What needs improvement with Kong Enterprise?

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What do you like most about WSO2 API Manager?

It is possible to scale up and scale down with the solution...I can say that I have not seen any issues related to scalability.

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What needs improvement with WSO2 API Manager?

We have encountered some concerns with concurrency. Our integrations do not handle high-volume transactions, and when benchmarking, some issues arose with concurrent testing. It is uncertain whethe...

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What is your primary use case for WSO2 API Manager?

We use WSO2 API Manager ( /products/wso2-api-manager-reviews ) to integrate our telecom products with third-party REST APIs. We are orchestrating services where our business process defines the int...

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Comparisons

Apigee vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Kong Konnect vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Apache APISIX vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 6% of the time

More Kong Gateway Enterprise Competitors

Apigee vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 20% of the time

Apache APISIX vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 10% of the time

3scale API Management vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 5% of the time

More WSO2 API Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise

July 2025

Download Kong Gateway Enterprise product report

Buyer's Guide

WSO2 API Manager

June 2025

Download WSO2 API Manager product report

Overview

Kong delivers a next generation API platform built for modern architectures. With a lightnight-fast, lightweight, and flexible core, Kong delivers sub-millisecond latency across all your services. Kong's is deployment-, vendor-, and pattern-agnostic, allowing you to run your services how you want, where you want, and with who you want - from baremetal to cloud, monolith to microservices, service mesh, and beyond.

Kong

WSO2 API Manager is a comprehensive platform that allows organizations to design, publish, and manage APIs.

It provides a centralized interface for API governance, security, and analytics.

With features like API monetization and developer portal, it enables businesses to drive innovation and create new revenue streams.

WSO2

Sample Customers

Cargill, Zillow, Ferrari, WeWork, Healthcare.gov, Yahoo! Japan, Giphy, SkyScanner

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

Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. WSO2 API Manager

July 2025

Free Report: Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. WSO2 API Manager

Find out what your peers are saying about Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. WSO2 API Manager and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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