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Amazon API Gateway vs Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Layer7 API Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.4
Amazon API Gateway is praised for cost-effectiveness, time savings, and secure infrastructure, offering financial benefits for users.
Sentiment score
7.6
Kong Gateway Enterprise offers scalability, advanced features, and reduces detection time, supporting efficient API delivery with economic benefits.
Sentiment score
6.7
Layer7 API Management offers business growth and protection, with varying ROI timelines; quick benefits are observed by many users.
API Gateway saves time and secures my infrastructure, allowing effective deployment.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Amazon API Gateway offers strong customer support, especially for enterprise plans, with variable response times based on support tier.
Sentiment score
6.9
Kong Gateway Enterprise support is helpful and responsive, but users note delays and desire quicker, more capable assistance.
Sentiment score
7.3
Layer7 API Management is praised for support and resources, though some users note post-acquisition service challenges.
Within 15 minutes, we had a support engineer allocated via Amazon, and we were able to resolve the issue promptly.
Technical support is excellent, deserving a ten out of ten rating.
Many common cases are already covered through guides and resources.
The technical support from Kong Gateway Enterprise would be rated about eight, as we missed local technical support.
Technical support is excellent, and I would rate them as ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Amazon API Gateway excels in scalability, efficiently managing traffic for diverse users, perfect for small teams and large enterprises.
Sentiment score
7.2
Kong Gateway Enterprise is praised for scalability across applications, but smaller entities face challenges due to resource constraints.
Sentiment score
7.3
Layer7 API Management efficiently scales to handle significant traffic, supporting millions of daily requests with proper configuration.
We've significantly increased our traffic from hitting it once or twice a minute to now hitting it ten to fifteen times within a minute.
I haven't observed any significant issues indicating a lack of scalability, as it can be efficiently managed through configurations.
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
The scalability of this solution would be rated about eight or nine.
All nodes communicate with one primary database, affecting connections and causing crashes under high load.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.6
Amazon API Gateway is highly stable and reliable, with minimal disruptions and a 99.99% uptime, supporting millions globally.
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
7.6
Layer7 API Management is stable and reliable, with minor scalability issues, often resolved through updates and support.
I've deployed it for a client with millions of users without issues.
Our applications are stable, owing partly to our architecture, which is spread across three regions.
I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.
Without rebooting for ninety to one hundred eighty days, cache builds up in Linux boxes, causing memory utilization issues.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon API Gateway requires enhancements in pricing, integration, security, technical support, feature richness, and reduced latency for improved user experience.
Kong Gateway Enterprise needs better pricing, integrations, API management, documentation, customization, support, and AI features for improved user experience.
Layer7 API Management needs improvements in UI, documentation, integration, functionality, training, policy tools, monitoring, reporting, and migration.
A local version of the API Gateway would be beneficial for testing purposes without incurring extra costs.
It's important to consider the type of gateway endpoint carefully.
Although I find AWS API Gateway better than Oracle in many aspects, the network connectivity challenges force us to consider using Oracle API Gateway for our new product, LOS (Load Origination System).
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.
Broadcom's push for upgrades from version nine to ten, ten to 10.3, and onwards to twelve needs improvement in migration processes, especially with service dependencies.
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise users find Amazon API Gateway's serverless, pay-as-you-go pricing competitive and flexible, despite potential high-volume cost concerns.
Kong Gateway Enterprise pricing is competitive, especially compared to Apigee, with value dependent on organizational needs and region.
Layer7 API Management offers competitive pricing with Essential and Enterprise tiers, though perceived costly for smaller enterprises.
However, 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.
It is a really cheap product, but if used incorrectly, it can become expensive.
It is expensive.
Seeing other products makes the tool's pricing seem high.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon API Gateway provides scalable integration with AWS, robust security, and cost-effective management for API applications.
Kong Gateway Enterprise provides scalable, secure API management with integration support, high performance, and adaptability via open-source community backing.
Layer7 API Management excels with robust security, scalability, and features like content routing and drag-and-drop functionality.
Additionally, it's cost-effective, even as our workload and the number of APIs we manage have increased.
It acts as a master tool, offering easy configuration and excellent integration capabilities with third-party services.
The solution is solid, robust, and scalable.
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.
The flexibility to develop APIs for various platforms, from front-end applications to ATM machines, is valuable.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Amazon API Gateway is 12.6%, down from 14.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kong Gateway Enterprise is 7.2%, up from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Layer7 API Management is 2.9%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

Rahul Kundu - PeerSpot reviewer
Cost-effective serverless routing with room for extended timeout settings
We are using API Gateway to route the traffic to our Lambdas. Every API pass is linked to some of the Lambdas. When traffic hits CloudFront, it redirects it to API Gateway, which then redirects it to the respective Lambda server. We have different kinds of services invoked through these Lambdas…
ASHOK YADAV - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
NikhilChaudhari - PeerSpot reviewer
Valued for its drag-and-drop functionalities, the available policy options, and the excellent security features
I work as a PG developer, primarily dealing with Layer7 API Management and MuleSoft API management. My focus is mainly on VM management platforms such as Layer7 and Apigee Layer7 API Management is most valued for its drag-and-drop functionalities, the available policy options, and the excellent…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
13%
Insurance Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare 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...
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...
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 se...
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 sof...
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...
What needs improvement with Kong Enterprise?
More plugins for additional integrations would be helpful and openness for traditional development languages, such as...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Layer7 API Management?
Pricing is more than average. While I am used to Layer7 API Management ( /products/layer7-api-management-reviews ), s...
What needs improvement with Layer7 API Management?
Broadcom's push for upgrades from version nine to ten, ten to 10.3, and onwards to twelve needs improvement in migrat...
 

Also Known As

No data available
No data available
CA API Management, CA Live API Creator, Espresso Logic, CA API Gateway
 

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
1. IBM  2. Microsoft  3. Oracle  4. Salesforce  5. SAP  6. Cisco  7. Dell  8. HP  9. Adobe  10. VMware  11. Accenture  12. Capgemini  13. Deloitte  14. PwC  15. Ernst & Young  16. Infosys  17. TCS (Tata Consultancy Services)  18. Wipro  19. Cognizant  20. HCL Technologies  21. Tech Mahindra  22. Fujitsu  23. Hitachi  24. NEC  25. NTT Data  26. Ericsson  27. Nokia  28. Siemens  29. AT&T  30. Verizon  31. Vodafone  32. Orange
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google and others in API Management. Updated: June 2025.
861,803 professionals have used our research since 2012.