IBM Cloud Pak for Integration vs Kong Gateway Enterprise comparison

IBM and Kong are both solutions in the API Management category. IBM is ranked #27 with an average rating of 8.5, while Kong is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.7. IBM holds a 0.5% mindshare in APIM, compared to Kong’s 7.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Kong users who would recommend it.

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Read 5 IBM Cloud Pak for Integration reviews

1,293 Views
621 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

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Kong Gateway Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Kong Gateway Enterprise and IBM Cloud Pak for Integration compete in the API management and integration space. Kong Gateway Enterprise stands out in pricing and support, whereas IBM Cloud Pak for Integration is notable for its extensive features, suggesting its higher cost is worthwhile.

Features: Kong Gateway Enterprise provides high-performance API gateway capabilities, excellent scalability, and seamless integration with multiple platforms. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration offers robust integration features, including comprehensive data integration, AI-driven automation, and multi-cloud flexibility.

Room for Improvement: Kong Gateway Enterprise could enhance its integration capabilities to compete with more comprehensive solutions, improve its AI-driven functionalities, and support even broader platform agnosticity. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration may benefit from simplifying its deployment model, reducing operational complexity, and offering more cost-effective options for smaller businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Kong Gateway Enterprise is praised for its straightforward deployment and configuration, coupled with responsive customer service. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, despite its complex deployment model, provides detailed documentation and strong customer support, catering well to organizations with intricate environments.

Pricing and ROI: Kong Gateway Enterprise is cost-effective, with attractive ROI prospects, suitable for budget-conscious organizations. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, while involving higher upfront costs, promises long-term ROI with its expansive features and scalability, making it ideal for strategic investments.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Cloud Pak for Integration vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

July 2025

Download the complete report

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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

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Ranking in API Management

27th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Integration (16th)

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 IBM Cloud Pak for Integration is 0.5%, down from 0.5% 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

Neelima Golla

Senior Software Engineer at NessPRO Italy

A hybrid integration platform that applies the functionality of closed-loop AI automation

I recommend using it because, in today's context, the cloud plays a significant role. Within the same user interface, you can develop applications and manage multiple applications, making it a more user-friendly option. Moreover, you can explore various other technologies while deploying on the cloud, broadening your knowledge of cloud technologies. In my case, the transition led to my learning of Kubernetes, enabling multi-scaling and expanding my technical skills. It was a valuable experience, and I had the opportunity to learn many new things during the migration process. I can easily rate it an eight or nine out of ten.

Read full review

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

"It is a stable solution."

"The most preferable aspect would be the elimination of the command, which was a significant improvement. In the past, it was a challenge, but now we can proceed smoothly with the implementation of our policies and everything is managed through JCP. It's still among the positive aspects, and it's a valuable feature."

"Cloud Pak for Integration is definitely scalable. That is the most important criteria."

"The most valuable aspect of the Cloud Pak, in general, is the flexibility that you have to use the product."

"Redirection is a key feature. It helps in managing multiple microservices by centralizing control and access."

"The solution's technical support is good and fast in terms of responsiveness and problem-solving skills."

"Kong Enterprise has excellent plugin support."

"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 companies and must ensure they adhere to their allocated usage limits. Without rate limiting, there's a risk of excessive usage, which could result in significant costs."

"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."

"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."

"The tool's scalability is good...The solution's technical support is good."

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

"The solution provides good performance."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise pros

Cons

"The pricing can be improved."

"Its queuing and messaging features need improvement."

"The initial setup is not easy."

"Setting up Cloud Pak for Integration is relatively complex. It's not as easy because it has not yet been fully integrated. You still have some products that are still not containerized, so you still have to run them on a dedicated VM."

"Enterprise bots are needed to balance products like Kafka and Confluent."

"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 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."

"It becomes difficult if you try to scale it up to multiple clusters."

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

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

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

"The software version upgrade process should be improved."

"Kong Enterprise fails to provide live tracing of the APIs, which is possible nowadays."

More Kong Gateway Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing model is very flexible."

"It is an expensive solution."

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

"The licensing is expensive."

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

"The licensing fees are paid yearly."

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

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

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

"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

Financial Services Firm

20%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

Insurance Company

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

What do you like most about IBM Cloud Pak for Integration?

The most preferable aspect would be the elimination of the command, which was a significant improvement. In the past, it was a challenge, but now we can proceed smoothly with the implementation of ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Integration?

Enterprise bots are needed to balance products like Kafka and Confluent.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Cloud Pak for Integration?

It manages APIs and integrates microservices at the enterprise level. It offers a range of capabilities for handling APIs, microservices, and various integration needs. The platform supports thousa...

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?

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

Comparisons

IBM App Connect vs IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Compared 37% of the time

IBM API Connect vs IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Compared 13% of the time

IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Compared 8% of the time

webMethods.io vs IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Compared 8% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM Cloud Pak for Integration Competitors

WSO2 API Manager vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 12% of the time

Apigee vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Apache APISIX vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Kong Konnect vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs Kong Gateway Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

More Kong Gateway Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

API Management

July 2025

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Integration product report

Buyer's Guide

Kong Gateway Enterprise

August 2025

Download Kong Gateway Enterprise product report

Overview

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration gives you complete, flexible integration using capabilities you need to move at today's speed of business, including the tools to help you achieve your application modernization goals as part of your journey to the cloud.

IBM

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

CVS Health Corporation

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

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

July 2025

Free Report: IBM Cloud Pak for Integration vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise

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