Apigee vs Kong Gateway Enterprise vs WSO2 API Manager 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 25 Kong Gateway Enterprise reviews

8,128 Views
6,310 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

WSO2 API Manager

Read 41 WSO2 API Manager reviews

6,187 Views
4,467 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Apigee

Kong Gateway Enterprise

WSO2 API Manager

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Apigee, Kong Gateway Enterprise, and WSO2 API Manager based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in API Management.

To learn more, read our detailed API Management Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

API Management

April 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:

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. The mindshare of WSO2 API Manager is 4.9%, up from 4.1% 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.

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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.

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's best features are flexibility and breadth of capabilities."

"It has all the features necessary to work in anything from a basic scenario to advanced applications."

"The stability of the solution is good. There aren't issues surrounding bugs or glitches. We don't find that it crashes or freezes. It's pretty reliable."

"The security that you have with Apigee is very good and aligns with compliance."

"I simply like how you can personalize your products and put them into product categories. That's what I like the most."

"Easy interface to monetize and deliver APIs with very easy integration for third-party development environments/delivery."

"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."

"The initial setup isn't too complex."

More Apigee pros

"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."

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

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

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

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

"The solution provides good performance."

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

"Kong Enterprise comes with some ready plug-ins, which is very good for the customers."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pros

"As far as I am aware this solution is the first API Publisher that allows you to create and publish API and to manage the API lifecycle."

"One of the great things about WSO2 API Manager is that it is so easy to adopt. And because it's an open source solution, we're able to extend the implementation any time to suit our company needs better."

"It is a scalable solution because it can be scaled horizontally and vertically."

"WSO2 API Manager provides OAuth2 token capabilities that our customers use to interact, onboard new customers, and provide approvals whenever a customer is onboarded."

"The most interesting feature is its Mac-based function."

"The product is easy to use."

"There are a lot of tools to help the manager. WSO2 is very easy to install. It has all the principal functionalities that you think about when you want to put up the management solution. It's a very friendly tool."

"Most of the time, we need to install a plug-in without having any lapse in services or restarting the application. The WSO2 platform can do all deployments without any downtime."

More WSO2 API Manager pros

Cons

"Apigee on premise is quite complex and it is always moving faster."

"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."

"Role-based access management needs to be improved. It would also be nice if the solution could be integrated with code versioning systems like Git/Bitbucket."

"Areas like traffic handling of incoming requests, security features between third-parties and Apigee, and between Apigee and internal network servers, resources, or JSON areas, etc."

"I would like to see the support improved. I think the time frame should be shorter for responses when it comes to technical support. This is not the ideal situation you want to be in when you need support."

"I would like them to add features, such as caching and mediation policies."

"Technical support model for OPDK should be more exposed and mature in terms of providing support during installation, run, and debug of Apigee in production on OPDK mode."

"We've encountered challenges in leveraging Connect functionality, prompting us to explore additional tools, such as Fergus, to address implementation and security issues."

More Apigee cons

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

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

"The open-source version of Kong does not support a dashboard, which would be very helpful."

"The developer portal needs to be improved."

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

"We would like to see an automatic data API when we have a table in the database."

"The OS upgrades are not as frequent as they should be and they are bulky."

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

More Kong Gateway Enterprise cons

"They are developing another platform called Choreo that allows you to create API itself using the WSO2 programming language Ballerina. It would be great if they added a direct connection between Choreo and API Manager, that would be great. I think they are working on that, but I'm not sure."

"Basically, mTLS is a certificate-based communication protocol that WSO2 API Manager doesn't support."

"Dashboards for application monitoring of the APIs would be beneficial, allowing us to check for faulty APIs."

"The price and the complexities attached to the solution are two areas of concern where improvements are required."

"WSO2 API Manager could improve by adding external API security features, which is one area where there is room for enhancement. Internally, API security is strong, and all other necessary features are already available. It has a solid marketplace, supports both Docker and standalone setups, and offers great enterprise integration. The developer portal has greatly improved the user experience, making it simple and user-friendly wherever we’ve implemented it. Overall, it’s not as complicated as other API gateways."

"The pricing models offered by WSO2 API Manager could be more flexible and should offer different options so that more people can access them."

"We had some problems with the reverse proxy not being able to invoke fully qualified domain names, so we have to build some custom scripts to solve this issue."

"WSO2 API Manager could improve the API approval system."

More WSO2 API Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Since it was acquired by Google, we can get a license based on our requirements and the cost level will depend on cloud access and support."

"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."

"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."

"The solution’s pricing could be more competitive."

"Based on your usage of the APIs you can take a decision to go with either an on-cloud or OPDK version. Get in touch with the sales representatives of Apigee."

"Compared to other products, Apigee had higher pricing."

"If the budget is not a concern then I will choose to go with Apigee over WSA-2, but if it is then I would prefer the latter solution."

"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."

More Apigee pricing and cost advice

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

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

"The licensing is expensive."

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

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

"The licensing fees are paid yearly."

"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

"It's not expensive, but it could be cheaper."

"For our projects, we found the pricing to be a little high."

"WSO2 API Manager is a low-cost solution. It is one of the most affordable solutions."

"WSO2 API Manager is a costly solution, and its pricing is not competitive enough compared to other products."

"We use the open-source version of WSO2 API Manager, there is no cost."

"WSO2 API Manager is quite an expensive tool. I rate the product's pricing a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is low and ten is high."

"I am using the free version."

"It is an open-source product."

More WSO2 API Manager pricing and cost advice

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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

14%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

18%

Government

Manufacturing 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 clou...

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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...

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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 sof...

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...

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...

See all answers

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 sc...

See all answers

What needs improvement with WSO2 API Manager?

We have encountered some concerns with concurrency. Our integrations do not handle high-volume transactions, and when...

See all answers

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 RES...

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

Layer7 API Management vs Apigee

Compared 6% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs Apigee

Compared 6% of the time

Apache APISIX vs Apigee

Compared 4% of the time

More Apigee Competitors

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

Layer7 API Management vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 6% of the time

More Kong Gateway Enterprise Competitors

Apache APISIX vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 11% of the time

3scale API Management vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 5% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs WSO2 API Manager

Compared 3% of the time

More WSO2 API Manager 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

Buyer's Guide

WSO2 API Manager

April 2025

Download WSO2 API Manager 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

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

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

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

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in API Management. Updated: April 2025.

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