IBM DataPower Gateway vs Kong Enterprise comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM DataPower Gateway 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.
To learn more, read our detailed IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Kong Enterprise Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"What I like most is the stability.""The solution is scalable, our customers are mostly South African banks and they handle mostly transactions with this solution.""The API Connect gateway service and the SQL injection feature is good.""The scalability of the solution is good.""Its initial setup was straightforward.""It is a scalable solution.""The most valuable features for our business include the ability to monitor and log data transactions and handle multiple request at an enterprise level.""Support for PCA and non-PCA services is valuable."

More IBM DataPower Gateway Pros →

"The most valuable features of Kong Enterprise are the out-of-the-box open source easy functionality.""I like everything about it. It provides the security we need.""We use the solution for load-balancing, caching, and rate-limiting APIs.""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.""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.""Protocol transformation is the most valuable feature of Kong Enterprise."

More Kong Enterprise Pros →

Cons
"The user interface or the application development perspective and customization of the tool could be a little better.""They should add features to manage API integrations.""An area for improvement in IBM DataPower Gateway is its price point because it's a relatively expensive product. Sometimes, when the customer use case is just a very small subset of what's being offered in IBM DataPower Gateway, then the product can be expensive, making my company lose some of the opportunities because of the expensive pricing. A lower price point for IBM DataPower Gateway, even if that results in a less feature-rich version, would be appreciated. In terms of additional features that I'd like to see in the next release of IBM DataPower Gateway, nothing specific comes to mind because IBM constantly improves its standards and provides quarterly updates to the product, so it's quite fine.""We are always looking for more features wherein it could be easily integrated with cloud applications. We are looking for either a cloud solution or a cloud integration option.""Scripting needs improvement. It's hard for our customers.""Some pre-packaged connectors for integration with various applications, such as SaaS offerings, would be a useful addition.""The initial setup isn't so easy, you need who has experience working with the solution to help.""In the next release, I would like to see the product price reduced. It should be cheaper."

More IBM DataPower Gateway Cons →

"The developer portal needs to be improved.""The OS upgrades are not as frequent as they should be and they are bulky.""There should be an easier way to integrate with other solutions, even though it's the same API solution layer. Comparability will be a good improvement.""It becomes difficult if you try to scale it up to multiple clusters.""We are facing issues with the solution's features like reports and traffic analysis.""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 solution should include policy features that are available in other solutions like MuleSoft API manager but missing in Kong Enterprise.""We would like to see an automatic data API when we have a table in the database."

More Kong Enterprise Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The cost of this product varies from customer to customer and the relationship with IBM, including how many offerings from IBM are already being used."
  • "It's expensive when you compare it with others."
  • "The licensing cost is very expensive."
  • "As far as I know, they have a perpetual license for this product. They are paying perpetual fees rather than an annual subscription or annual pricing."
  • "IBM DataPower Gateway is quite expensive to get resources to work on this product. If the price could be cheaper, I think that will make it a little bit better and easily accessible to smaller clients. Then it could compete with other solutions that are available in the market. There's a whole lot of other solutions available that work well and are cheaper than IBM's products."
  • "The appliance is a bit on the expensive side for the workloads that are not too high."
  • "Most customers' use case budgets are not inlined with the price of IBM DataPower Gateway. It is too expensive."
  • "This product is a bit expensive as IBM products are costly assets. However, for enterprise customers it is a worthwhile investment."
  • More IBM DataPower Gateway Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The licensing fees are paid yearly."
  • "The price is really reasonable compared to that of alternative solutions."
  • "There are many factors that influence the price of Kong Enterprise, such as scale, licenses, and usage."
  • "I don't have any information on licensing costs currently."
  • "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 at par compared to the other technologies."
  • "Kong Enterprise is cheaper than Apigee. I rate its pricing as four out of ten."
  • More Kong Enterprise Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which API Management solutions are best for your needs.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:It is very easy to set up and configure, even for users with no prior experience.
    Top Answer:I would say the pricing is normal. It is not the cheapest, but it is not the most expensive either.
    Top Answer:One area that could be improved is the integration with Postgres and SQL databases. Currently, IBM DataPower Gateway only integrates with Oracle databases. So it doesn't integrate with Postgres.
    Top Answer: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 one… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature of Kong Enterprise is its capability to integrate with various security tools.
    Top Answer:The technical support team's response time needs to be improved. Kong Enterprise should improve its resiliency when it comes to the active DR setup.
    Ranking
    8th
    out of 64 in API Management
    Views
    7,473
    Comparisons
    5,439
    Reviews
    12
    Average Words per Review
    354
    Rating
    8.8
    6th
    out of 64 in API Management
    Views
    14,560
    Comparisons
    10,993
    Reviews
    10
    Average Words per Review
    413
    Rating
    7.8
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower
    Learn More
    Overview

    IBM DataPower Gateway is a robust, secure next-generation enterprise-grade single multichannel API gateway that supplies dynamic access, integration, control, and outstanding security. The solution is available in a broad range of workload capabilities, including application programming interface (API), service oriented architecture (SOA), B2B, cloud, web, and mobile. These dynamic capabilities ensure users are able to quickly increase the reach of an organization's critical IT resources to new channels, which will provide shareholders, team members, and clients with safe, secure access at all times.

    DataPower Gateway is very flexible and is widely available in virtual, cloud, traditional, physical, Docker, and Linux form factors.

    IBM DataPower Gateway Features

    IBM DataPower Gateway has many value-added features. Some of these features are included below:

    • Control: The solution provides decision point authorization and authentication for all standards, including Lightweight Direct Access Protocol (LDAP) and Open Authorization (OAuth), which allow for better access control across an organization’s entire network.
    • DataPower dashboard: The dashboard is specifically designed to enhance performance and determine problematic processes. The solution provides intuitive real-time performance transparency to diagnose operational and performance anomalies and offer repair and restoration recommendations.
    • Enhanced messaging: Users are able to easily mediate messaging and protocols by incorporating the best of today’s traditional and modern application standards.
    • Integration: IBM DataPower Gateway offers super fast mainframe connectivity, database connectivity, transport protocol bridging, content-based routing, and any-to-any message transformation, ensuring secure and immediate connect service.

    IBM DataPower Gateway Benefits

    IBM DataPower Gateway provides many benefits. Some of those benefits include:

    • Flexibility: The solution is easy to use and configure and provides for a pleasant, intuitive overall user experience. The solution can immediately be used out of the box, which makes overall process management simple.
    • Protection: The solution provides sturdy continuous service protection and application performance using robust powerful routing and traffic control.
    • Security: The solution’s enterprise-grade De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) ready gateway enables users to enforce the desired runtime application security across all messaging protocols.
    • Profitability: The solution’s design ensures significant reduction of development costs in addition to the streamlining of overall operations. Users are able to achieve reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and experience a near-immediate ROI.

    Reviews from Real Users

    “My company has a good impression of IBM DataPower Gateway. What I like about it is that because it's an appliance, it's a turnkey solution that's very fast and out of the box. Another valuable feature of IBM DataPower Gateway is that it's easy to integrate with other products.”- Bálint T., Solution Manager at Intalion

    “You don't have to have a separate DMC proxy because DataPower Gateway is an appliance and will take care of a lot of security features. These include data validations, encryption, as well as XML or any type of scripting or security threats that are present. From a security point of view, being an appliance in the DMC zone, IBM DataPower Gateway will take care of the entire security angle for the infrastructure.” - Sathyan K., Founder/Director at perfTech Solutions Pvt Ltd

    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.

    Sample Customers
    RBL Bank, Availity
    Cargill, Zillow, Ferrari, WeWork, Healthcare.gov, Yahoo! Japan, Giphy, SkyScanner
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm33%
    Computer Software Company20%
    Pharma/Biotech Company7%
    Security Firm7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm29%
    Insurance Company11%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm40%
    Computer Software Company27%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Insurance Company13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Insurance Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise8%
    Large Enterprise56%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise76%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business30%
    Large Enterprise70%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise70%
    Buyer's Guide
    IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Kong Enterprise
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Kong Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM DataPower Gateway is ranked 8th in API Management with 26 reviews while Kong Enterprise is ranked 6th in API Management with 16 reviews. IBM DataPower Gateway is rated 8.4, while Kong Enterprise is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of IBM DataPower Gateway writes "Easy to use, plenty of functionality, but expensive". 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 DataPower Gateway is most compared with IBM API Connect, Apigee, Microsoft Azure API Management, Mule ESB and Layer7 API Management, whereas Kong Enterprise is most compared with Microsoft Azure API Management, WSO2 API Manager, Apigee, MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager and Traefik Enterprise. See our IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Kong 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.