Apiary vs Kong Gateway Enterprise comparison

Oracle and Kong are both solutions in the API Management category. Oracle is ranked #36, while Kong is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.9. Oracle holds a 0.7% mindshare in APIM, compared to Kong’s 5.6% 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

663 Views
663 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Read 26 Kong Gateway Enterprise reviews

6,004 Views
6,004 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: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Apiary vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

March 2026

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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

36th

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

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Apiary is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kong Gateway Enterprise is 5.6%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Kong Gateway Enterprise	5.6%
Apiary	0.7%
Other	93.7%

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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Evgeny Shkard

Enterprise Architect at El Al

Seamless integration and efficient security boost API management capabilities

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. I mostly missed local resellers or partners that we could use within our enterprise, because it was difficult for some tech personnel to work with remote tech support.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Vey high - very easy API design with no setup effort"

"The feature I find most valuable is that it offers authentication and allows us to develop communication points."

"Git integration"

"This solution has allowed us to standardize API definitions and bring consistency into our shared components, reducing the effort and cost of using functionality across domains within the organization, with Apiary being crucial to our good API strategy."

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

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

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

More Apiary pros

"The solution provides good performance."

"I like everything about it. It provides the security we need."

"This is a solid intrusion prevention system that combines a firewall and antivirus in a single solution."

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

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

"There are a few features that I like about Kong when it comes to authentication and authorization. Specifically, being able to use Kong for role-based access control (RBAC), and then further being able to integrate the RBAC mechanism with our enterprise directory, was very useful."

"Good at intercepting traffic and modeling APIs around that."

"Kong enterprise has significantly enhanced our ability to manage and secure our Microservices. Its most valuable feature is monitoring."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pros

Cons

"Validation messages could be a bit clearer."

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

"Swagger (OpenAPI Specification) and Blueprint Support"

"Better Swagger support."

"I don't think this solution is very stable so we try to manage stability from our side."

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

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

"We are facing issues with the solution's features like reports and traffic analysis."

"The solution should include policy features that are available in other solutions like MuleSoft API manager but missing in Kong Enterprise."

"They could focus more on pricing."

"For us, implementing Kong Gateway Enterprise with existing infrastructures and the cloud in tandem requires more effort than implementing MuleSoft or Azure APIM or AWS."

"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."

"The motivation to move to Enterprise edition is still license and cost based."

"Kong Enterprise has decided not to support the web portal feature anymore, but I think that feature should stay in the on-premises solution."

"There should be an easier way to integrate with other solutions, even though it's the same API solution layer."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

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

"I don't have any information on licensing costs currently."

"The product is reasonably priced because it goes by the SaaS model."

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

"Kong Enterprise is cheaper than Apigee. I rate its pricing as four out of ten."

"The licensing is expensive."

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

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Large Enterprise	20

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?

Bringing in additional features to Kong Gateway Enterprise would not necessarily help it. Improving the existing features, increasing security, and adding robustness would be more beneficial. The f...

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TIBCO Cloud API Management vs Apiary

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Compared 13% of the time

WSO2 API Manager vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 12% of the time

Apigee vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 7% of the time

Kong Konnect vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 7% of the time

More Kong Gateway Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

API Management

February 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise

March 2026

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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

March 2026

Free Report: Apiary vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

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