Apiary vs Kong Gateway Enterprise comparison

Oracle and Kong are both solutions in the API Management category. Oracle is ranked #37, while Kong is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.7. Oracle holds a 0.4% mindshare in APIM, compared to Kong’s 7.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Oracle users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Kong users who would recommend it.

Apiary

Read 4 Apiary reviews

417 Views
413 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Read 25 Kong Gateway Enterprise reviews

7,148 Views
7,148 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Apiary

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Apiary and Kong Gateway Enterprise compete in the API management market. While Apiary is noted for its cost-effectiveness and strong support, Kong Gateway Enterprise is considered superior for its advanced features, making it a preferred option for those valuing scalability and security.

Features: Apiary provides API documentation and collaboration tools, GitHub integration for version control, and supports multiple API notations like Swagger. Kong Gateway Enterprise offers robust scalability, plugin-based network services, and seamless integration capabilities, essential for managing and securing microservices.

Room for Improvement: Apiary could benefit from enhanced scalability and more advanced security features. Adding more role-based control options and improving performance in high-demand environments would further strengthen its offering. Kong Gateway Enterprise could improve initial deployment complexity, simplify its configuration process, and offer more straightforward user interface options for less technical users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Apiary is praised for its easy integration and responsive support, ensuring smooth deployment for users. Kong Gateway Enterprise, while challenging to deploy, compensates with extensive documentation and versatility across on-premises and cloud environments, appealing to enterprise needs. Its adaptability allows integration into diverse setups.

Pricing and ROI: Apiary's relatively low setup costs offer a quick ROI, particularly for organizations focused on improving API development processes efficiently. In contrast, Kong Gateway Enterprise requires a higher initial investment but delivers substantial long-term ROI through its comprehensive features and scalability, aligning with the needs of larger organizations seeking advanced management capabilities.

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

Buyer's Guide

Apiary vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

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:

Categories and Ranking

Apiary

Ranking in API Management

37th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Apiary is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kong Gateway Enterprise is 7.1%, up from 5.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management

Featured Reviews

Phil Wilkins

Enterprise Integration Architect at Capgemini

The ability to configure rules to check for consistency has helped

Apiary provides a free tier of the platform which allows a small group of developers to collaborate easily on the design of open source APIs. In addition to this, it provides mock endpoints allowing people to experiment with the API without depending or having to stand up a real backend. With our clients, using Apiary allows us to very quickly pull together an API definition (particularly when using API Blueprint). The whole API design process for the simpler use cases can be done in a relatively short workshop which makes it a lot easier to agree, publish, version-manage an API definition with suitable documentation. This can then be evolved and enhanced (particularly in the documentation aspects). With the ability to support Swagger (Open API v2 and introducing/ed support for v3) and API Blueprint makes it a very versatile tool.

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Sudhanshu Dev

Senior Principal DevOps Engineer at barq

Custom plugin capability with enhanced high traffic handling and lightweight performance

We use Kong for our API gateway, handling all public traffic. It is an open-source tool, and even though we are a startup, it provides us with stability without incurring high costs initially Kong has helped us by performing smoothly even when we receive millions of requests, which prevents any…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Quick and easy way to share a new API design with teams."

"I do like the overall performance of the solution."

"Git integration"

"In two years, there was one time the service was down for an hour or so."

"I find the generation of mock services very useful, especially when demonstrating for new consumers."

"Protocol transformation is the most valuable feature of Kong Enterprise."

"The route limiting feature is very valuable."

"It boasts remarkable speed and stability, and these qualities, particularly the gateway's resilience, are standout features for me."

"The features I like include ease of operation and implementation in a cloud environment, the dashboarding features for API statistics, and the user-friendly developer portal."

"It offers a wide range of plugins that we leverage, including OIDC, Rate Limiting, Lambda functions, and more."

"Based on my experience, I would definitely recommend Kong Gateway Enterprise to other people."

"Kong Enterprise has excellent plugin support."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it seamlessly supports a vast number of tools."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pros

Cons

"Swagger (OpenAPI Specification) and Blueprint Support"

"I would like an integrated option to download a Swagger version of the definition."

"The Oracle release cycle is very bad because the patches only update once a year."

"From an improvement perspective, the product should offer more readily available connectors and also allow for more seamless AI integrations."

"The technical support team's response time needs to be improved."

"They could focus more on pricing."

"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."

"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The software version upgrade process should be improved."

"The developer portal needs to be improved."

"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."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a free subscription option to start and try the service."

"It is easy to get started with personal (free) accounts, but a subscription is required for additional features."

"It's expensive in Thailand (10 million baht, in Thai currency)."

"Kong Enterprise's pricing is at par compared to the other technologies."

"The price is really reasonable compared to that of alternative solutions."

"The licensing fees are paid yearly."

"Basically, my company uses the tool's open-source version."

"The licensing is expensive."

"Kong Enterprise's pricing is reasonable for our company size."

"There is a need to pay towards the licensing charges...In some areas, the functionalities are available free of charge."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

12%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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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 ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Kong Enterprise?

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 ...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

API Management

July 2025

Download Apiary product report

Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise

August 2025

Download Kong Gateway Enterprise product report

Overview

Apiary's pioneering APIFlow solution provides the framework and tools for developing application programming interfaces (APIs) that share enterprise services and data and help create modern, cloud-based applications and experiences. APIFlow spans the API creation lifecycle, including design, governance, testing, and documentation, while supporting API Blueprint and OpenAPI industry standardsץ

Oracle

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

Sample Customers

Microsoft, salesforce.com, Bloomberg, GoodData, Viacom, Akamai Technologies, DigitalGlobe

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

Buyer's Guide

Apiary vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

July 2025

Free Report: Apiary vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

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