We performed a comparison between IBM API Connect and Kong Enterprise based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two API Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."One of the most valuable features is that we can seamlessly and harmoniously expose our capabilities, from a security point of view."
"What's best about IBM API Connect is the excellent administration. The development tool that builds the API is also very simple, and user-friendly, and it doesn't consume too much time. Another valuable feature in IBM API Connect is its good reporting feature, particularly for operations, but the most valuable feature of the solution for the customer is security. IBM API Connect provides a DMZ and a security gateway between the external and internal environment, so you can publish your API safely. IBM API Connect can also integrate with any tool or middleware that works on open standards without the need for development or coding, so integration with the solution is easier."
"The most valuable feature of IBM API Connect is the security of the protocol."
"The management of the API and API portal is good."
"It is easy to use and stable."
"The interface is very nice. It makes the solution easy to use and navigate."
"API Connect's most valuable feature is its ability to act as a gateway. It's very easy to configure security and everything else in it. You don't have to kill yourself implementing custom configurations."
"The services that I consume through IBM API Connect are beneficial. It can handle multiple API management."
"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."
"I like everything about it. It provides the security we need."
"The route limiting feature is very valuable."
"The solution provides good performance."
"The most valuable features of Kong Enterprise are the out-of-the-box open source easy functionality."
"Kong Enterprise has excellent plugin support."
"Documentation for the CLI is not very complete. Also, the support could be improved, and we have had several problems with backing up and restoring the product."
"It should be cheaper."
"The monetization of the API could be improved. The pricing for the consumer is also very important to improve this solution."
"Our main pain points are in these two areas: creating a better developer portal and improving stability in terms of synchronization and monetization."
"It's based on a little bit dated architecture. A lot of evolution has happened after that. It's an evolving field. Kong is a Kubernetes-based platform. Kong runs on Kubernetes, but all the other ones are in microservices. So, there's a lot of improvement that can be done."
"The installation process could use improvement. I hope that in the next release, the installation process is easier."
"We ran it on top of the Kubernetes cluster, so it wasn't a standalone service. In the worst-case scenario, API Connect couldn't stay online if all the containers went down. We had to restart all the services. We shut down all the containers automatically one by one."
"The implementation of IBM API Connect is complex, as it's an enterprise solution with many components that require more than one person. It's not a single product that you work on, and this is an area for improvement, but normally, it's good. Having a more structured model for IBM API Connect support is also room for improvement that would help customers better."
"We would like to see an automatic data API when we have a table in the database."
"Kong Enterprise can improve the customization to be able to do the integration properly."
"Because it is open-source, it should be less expensive than others."
"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."
"The developer portal needs to be improved."
"It becomes difficult if you try to scale it up to multiple clusters."
IBM API Connect is ranked 5th in API Management with 22 reviews while Kong Enterprise is ranked 9th in API Management with 6 reviews. IBM API Connect is rated 7.6, while Kong Enterprise is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of IBM API Connect writes "Stable and scalable solution for API management, but it needs more versatility and integration with different platforms". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Kong Enterprise writes "Provides role-based access control and can be easily customized with Lua script". IBM API Connect is most compared with IBM DataPower Gateway, Apigee, Microsoft Azure API Management, MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager and 3scale API Management, whereas Kong Enterprise is most compared with Microsoft Azure API Management, MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager, Amazon API Gateway, WSO2 API Manager and 3scale API Management. See our IBM API Connect vs. Kong Enterprise report.
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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.
