Apigee vs Kong Gateway Enterprise comparison

Google and Kong are both solutions in the API Management category. Google is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2, while Kong is ranked #6 with an average rating of 7.7. Google holds a 13.7% mindshare in APIM, compared to Kong’s 6.7% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Kong users who would recommend it.

Apigee

Read 88 Apigee reviews

18,900 Views
14,821 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Read 24 Kong Gateway Enterprise reviews

8,128 Views
6,310 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Apigee

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

Apigee and Kong Gateway Enterprise are competitive solutions in the API management sector. Based on the data, each has distinctive advantages with Apigee leading in developer tools and analytics, whereas Kong excels in customization and plugin flexibility.

Features: Apigee offers a Drupal-based Developer Portal, extensive analytics dashboard, and various monetization models, making it a strong choice for businesses needing detailed control and insights on API usage. Kong Gateway Enterprise is recognized for its high performance, plugin-based architecture, and Lua scripting support for customizable APIs, offering in-depth operational flexibility and integration.

Room for Improvement: Apigee requires enhancements in role-based access management, integration with version control systems, and a more straightforward installation process. Kong Gateway Enterprise could improve its developer portal, provide more isolated data plans, and enhance its policy features to maintain its competitive edge.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Apigee supports multiple deployment models like public, private, on-premises, and hybrid cloud, but varies in technical support response. Kong succeeds with varied deployment environments and facilitates seamless service operations, backed by its open-source community and enterprise support.

Pricing and ROI: Apigee, while robust, comes at a higher cost primarily based on API call volumes, potentially limiting smaller companies. Kong Gateway's competitive pricing, including a community version, ensures accessibility and lower initial investment, making it attractive for startups and mid-sized firms.

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

Buyer's Guide

Apigee vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

April 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 850,760 peers since 2012

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

Apigee

Ranking in API Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

API Testing Tools (8th)

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Ranking in API Management

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Apigee is 13.7%, down from 15.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kong Gateway Enterprise is 6.7%, up from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management

Featured Reviews

ShawkyFoda

Senior Consultant at Goverment

Provides high visibility and control with good traffic monitoring

Analytics is one of the areas needing enhancement, specifically more visibility and control over traffic to improve capacity management and high availability. The replication process between Master and Slave for disaster recovery takes too long. Dependencies on analytics impact the performance of the user interface, which should be separate. The complex setup process on-premises, especially with multi-node installations, could also be improved. Additional control in product declarations, based on operations like POST and GET, is needed.

Read full review

AmitKanodia

Cloud & Integration CoE Head at Capgemini

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.

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

"Apigee is very easy to use, and you can code in any language."

"The features I found most valuable are how the APIs are published, the whole process of finalizing the API, and then controlling it."

"The most valuable feature is the API gateway."

"A simple platform that's easier to work with than IBM API Connect. Support for it is really good and gives it advantage over other providers."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"Apigee is relatively easy to use for developers."

"Deploying Apigee is straightforward and does not involve significant difficulties."

"The analytics feature is quite good."

More Apigee pros

"In terms of stability, the tool's team has made some good efforts, and my company is very happy with the product's approach."

"In our buying companies' perspective, it was easier to use compared to other platforms. The markets were pretty familiar with the solutions."

"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."

"Kong Gateway helped to improve performance. It's good enough for our users."

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

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

"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."

"Kong's most valuable features are its lightweight performance when handling millions of requests and the ability to write custom plugins to enhance security, such as end-to-end encryption, even in the open-source version."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pros

Cons

"The analytical aspect of it could be better. I think it is fair if Apigee lets you configure some of the metrics of the key details you want to monitor in terms of analytics."

"Apigee is demanding on the infrastructure so the setup cost is very high for an on-premises deployment."

"The solution could add even more functionalities."

"I am still struggling to understand how we can use Apigee as a hybrid system. The pricing of this solution could also be improved as there are multiple new products coming onto the market at competitive price points."

"An area for improvement would be to provide more information while troubleshooting."

"I have heard there maybe be some security issues that need to be addressed. If this is the situation I would encourage taking a look at the security matters."

"The number one area this solution could be improved is by implementing support. Support is not a part of this solution."

"The pricing for the product was a bit higher. I also found it challenging to manage sometimes."

More Apigee cons

"The ease of billing is lost when Kong is not available directly on the Azure marketplace. This is one area where they can improve."

"Understanding the configurations and knowing what needs to be done can be a bit difficult initially."

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

"Because it is open-source, it should be less expensive than others."

"The tool needs improvement in UX."

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

"Kong Enterprise needs to improve its pricing, which starts at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Pricing should be based on API usage rather than monthly. It should improve its documentation as well."

"The developer portal needs to be improved."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's pricing is fair. You need to pay additional costs for the support."

"It is not suited for small companies. It's expensive."

"It was fairly expensive. I don't know what the standard pricing is. I want to say that it's something like $80,000 for 800 million requests (approximately) a year."

"As most of the customers say, the tool is a bit expensive."

"Pricing options need to be chosen on a case-by-case basis."

"Apigee is expensive and not cost-effective. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate it an eight for the high cost. The changes individuals need to make on their side are costly."

"The current version of Apigee is not too expensive, but we are currently in talks with Google to understand their roadmap for Apigee X. However, we anticipate that with the introduction of Apigee X, the pricing will likely increase."

"It is an expensive solution."

More Apigee pricing and cost advice

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

"The licensing is expensive."

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

"The licensing fees are paid yearly."

"There are many factors that influence the price of Kong Enterprise, such as scale, licenses, and usage."

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

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which API Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

850,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does Apigee differ from Azure API Management?

Apigee offers both cloud-based and on-prem options while Microsoft Azure API Management currently only offers a cloud-based solution. Both solutions are easy to use. Apigee allows for the ability...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Apigee?

We can customize the dashboard.

See all answers

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?

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure API Management vs Apigee

Compared 26% of the time

IBM API Connect vs Apigee

Compared 10% of the time

WSO2 API Manager vs Apigee

Compared 8% of the time

Layer7 API Management vs Apigee

Compared 6% of the time

IBM DataPower Gateway vs Apigee

Compared 4% of the time

More Apigee Competitors

WSO2 API Manager vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 12% of the time

Kong Konnect vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 7% of the time

IBM API Connect vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 6% of the time

More Kong Gateway Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Apigee

May 2025

Download Apigee product report

Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise

May 2025

Download Kong Gateway Enterprise product report

Overview

Apigee is a platform for developing and managing APIs. Apigee offers an interface for your core services by wrapping them with a proxy layer which is then accessed by other developers. With Apigee, you can design and build APIs and then securely share their services and data without exposing any code.

Because app developers make HTTP requests to an API proxy rather than directly to your services, your services are separated from the developers. All the developer needs to know is the URL of the API proxy endpoint, necessary query parameters, authorization credentials (if they exist), and the response data format.

The API proxy isolates the app developer from your backend service. Therefore, you are free to change the service implementation if the public API remains consistent. By maintaining a consistent frontend API, existing client apps will continue to work regardless of changes on the backend.

Key capabilities of the Apigee API management platform include:

Security: Protect APIs, messages, and backends with configurable policies such as OAuth, API key verification, XML/JSON threat protection, and access control.
API gateway: Secure and mediate the traffic between clients and backends, and between a company’s APIs and the developers who use the APIs.
Developer portal: Attract and engage application developers, enabling them to discover, explore, purchase, and test APIs and register to access and use the APIs.
API console: The console helps developers learn and work with APIs.
API lifecycle management: Manage the process of designing, developing, publishing, deploying, and versioning APIs.
Automated documentation: Automate the development of API documentation and software development kits.
Machine learning: Utilize machine learning and analytics to generate actionable insights and reports.

API monitoring: Apigee offers monitoring tools for API troubleshooting, security, and optimization.

Reviews from Real Users:

Apigee stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Several major ones are its rich developer portal, its advanced analytics, and its central monitoring system.

Carlos R., a software architect at Caja Los Andes writes, “The central monitoring feature is the most valuable. It also provides security for the APIs and high availability for our use cases. Apigee is the best product in the industry in comparison to other API management solutions. It helps in fast development, which is a top point. It also supports a lot of industry standards and has excellent documentation.”

An associate vice president at a tech services company notes, “The analytics function and the developer portal are the two valuable features of Apigee. The analytics part is very good, and the developer portal is quite rich in features. The authentication mechanisms are quite easily built into Apigee, which is something that most of the other products have also now started supporting.”

Google

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

Adobe, advance.net, Amadeus, AT&T, Bechtel, Belly, Burberry, Chegg, Citrix, Dell, eBay, Equifax, GameStop, First Data, Globe, HCSC, Intralinks, Kao, Meredith, Mitchell, Orange, Pearson

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

Buyer's Guide

Apigee vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

April 2025

Free Report: Apigee vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

Find out what your peers are saying about Apigee vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

850,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Apigee vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise report.

See our list of best API Management vendors.

We monitor all API Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.