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IBM DataPower Gateway vs Kong Konnect comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.1
IBM DataPower Gateway offers financial benefits by consolidating features and saving costs, despite being perceived as expensive.
Sentiment score
6.3
Kong Konnect improves efficiency with reduced debugging time, enhanced API performance, faster deployments, and increased revenue with fewer resources.
I can provide some examples of return on investment by saying that we are running different APIs which we are using, and we are charging customers.
Deputy director at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Time saved is a relevant metric; it used to take us a week, but now it takes us only a day.
Lead Software Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
I have seen a return on investment with Kong Konnect, as it helps manage security very well, allows for faster API deployments saving developer time, and reduces salary costs with better uptime and minimal downtime, thus preventing potential business loss.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
I have seen the scalability of being able to manage 80 to 100-plus teams with a small team of about three or four people.
CTO at Keogh Innovation
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
IBM DataPower Gateway support is generally positive but varies in cost, response time, and client engagement quality.
Sentiment score
7.8
Kong Konnect offers efficient, responsive customer service with rapid issue resolution and 24/7 support, praised for its global accessibility.
In terms of OEM support, it is poor.
Middleware Administrator at Pronteff IT Solutions
I would rate the technical support of IBM as an eight on a scale from one to ten.
Software Engineer at EJADA
I would evaluate customer service and technical support as a little bit weak, so I give it a seven out of ten.
Deputy director at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Technical support from Proofpoint was absolutely excellent.
Senior Software Engineer at Netenrich
When I raise an incident or a support ticket, it gets answered in four hours.
API Technical Architect at Independent API Consultant
They offer twenty-four-hour support with SLA-based response times.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
IBM DataPower Gateway is scalable and ideal for large enterprises but may be costly and less flexible for smaller firms.
Sentiment score
7.8
Kong Konnect excels in scalable microservices, auto-scaling, and flexible cloud platform management, supporting seamless traffic control and automation.
Once you install the product, we can't scale the resources on the IBM DataPower Gateway.
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
The platform is fully scalable, providing various ways to manage data planes or runtimes.
IT Soulutoin Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Kong Konnect's scalability is very high, handles growth well, and since it is a stateless gateway, it scales easily in Kubernetes using horizontal scaling.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
Kong Konnect is the control plane, and there is the ability to add more teams and more control planes based on the number of teams you have onboarding.
CTO at Keogh Innovation
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
IBM DataPower Gateway is praised for high stability and reliability, especially in finance, with minimal configuration and strong performance.
Sentiment score
8.0
Kong Konnect is highly stable, effectively handling API-heavy environments with reliable performance and minimal disruptions.
IBM DataPower Gateway does not handle all the traffic on a single node.
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
It was very fast, and we did not experience any interruptions.
Senior Software Engineer at Netenrich
Kong Konnect is very stable with no issues regarding reliability in my experience.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
I've seen them run at major scale in large companies across the whole of Europe.
CTO at Keogh Innovation
 

Room For Improvement

IBM DataPower Gateway needs simplified scripting, user-friendly design, flexible pricing, enhanced integration, and improved maintenance and customization.
Kong Konnect needs enhanced debugging, clearer UI, streamlined pricing, and better CI/CD integration to improve user experience.
Whenever I am writing code, it should give recommendations automatically by incorporating AI so I can write the code in a few minutes or seconds.
Middleware Administrator at Pronteff IT Solutions
However, from the development perspective, it has limitations because it only supports the XSLT language.
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
My experience with the pricing of this product is that pricing is too high and should be reduced.
Deputy director at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The licensing model could be simplified, especially in how they charge and track usage.
IT Soulutoin Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
When comparing documentation, Kong's documentation is not on par with Google, Amazon, or other cloud providers.
API Technical Architect at Independent API Consultant
Token integration presents challenges and has implementation complexities that need addressing.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
 

Setup Cost

IBM DataPower Gateway is costly, especially for smaller firms, yet valued by enterprises; more flexible pricing would broaden accessibility.
Kong Konnect's mixed user experiences stem from straightforward setup but high pricing and unclear cost structures concern enterprises.
I think it costs around 5 Crore in Indian Rupees.
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
Pricing was the issue as it becomes very expensive due to the nature of local circumstances.
Senior Software Engineer at Netenrich
I wouldn't say that the setup cost is much more compared to using any other product.
CTO at Keogh Innovation
While the pricing model isn't very clear on how usage is tracked, the initial cost and setup for using Kong Konnect are reasonable.
IT Soulutoin Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

IBM DataPower Gateway excels in security, integration, performance, and API management, offering robust features like SSL management and load balancing.
Kong Konnect simplifies API management with seamless integration, robust security, and hybrid deployment, boosting productivity and collaboration.
No other Gateway offers this as part of the integration offering.
Middleware Administrator at Pronteff IT Solutions
As per the development perspective, there are some limitations with IBM DataPower Gateway because it only supports XML and XSLT language, but it does not support the Java language.
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
IBM DataPower Gateway's multi-protocol transformation is important for my integration needs because all the API traffic is coming from this API data gateway.
Deputy director at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The documentation is excellent, and it includes a developer portal, which helps create a common distribution channel for APIs within and outside the enterprise.
IT Soulutoin Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
When I mention scalability, it means that when we experience peak traffic, Kong made it easy for us to scale and spawn new machines.
Lead Software Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The security features of Kong Konnect have helped my team mainly by allowing us to use auth and JWT for applications needing external identity provider authentications, such as LDAP or other authentication providers that need to be connected to back-end applications.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM DataPower Gateway
Ranking in API Management
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (6th), Application Infrastructure (13th), SOA Application Gateways (1st)
Kong Konnect
Ranking in API Management
12th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
AI Observability (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 4.0%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kong Konnect is 1.2%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Kong Konnect1.2%
IBM DataPower Gateway4.0%
Other94.8%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

AkshaySawant - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
Security features excel but development limitations emerge
We are using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes. As per the development perspective, there are some limitations with IBM DataPower Gateway because it only supports XML and XSLT language, but it does not support the Java language. This is the only limitation of the IBM DataPower Gateway. For the authentication and authorization purpose, we can use the IBM DataPower Gateway. It's a very good product. We are mostly using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes and load balancing purposes. If we are handling the load for a particular server, then we can use the IBM DataPower Gateway. The IBM DataPower Gateway is mostly used for security purposes. If we have some APIs and we are using some security for those APIs, then we can use it. It can also be used as a load balancer. It's also used for certificate management, user management purposes, authentication, and authorization. For routing, the IBM DataPower Gateway has multiple URL-based routing and content-based routing capabilities. If we have multiple URLs, then we can use an XML script. Using the XSLT language, we can configure multiple URLs and implement URL-based routing. Content-based routing means if we have multiple requests, we can route the request to a particular URL. For this, we need to use the XSLT language only. We can't use XML, Java, or other scripting languages. With IBM DataPower Gateway, we are using all the APIs. All APIs have been configured on the gateway. We have configured the particular TLS profile and some TLS client profiles as well. Using that TLS profile, we have configured the APIs and authentication. We have configured some tokens also, including JWT tokens and different types of auth tokens. There is also a rate limiting feature which we use for handling API loads.
AK
CTO at Keogh Innovation
Centralizes API and AI control planes and has enabled federated self-service for many teams
The whole area of API and AI management is quite complex, with so many different ways of being able to do things. I think a positive of Kong is that it's so configurable and extendable, but that is also a con because there are so many ways of achieving the same thing that I think often people are either confused or struggle to get going as to how to solve a particular problem. In my mind, a more opinionated deployment of Kong itself or even how to solve certain use cases would be something I would like to see, so a more opinionated use of their products and configuration of their products on how to solve the most common use cases. That's probably the main thing about needed improvements for Kong Konnect. It's a pretty fully-fledged platform; there obviously are portions of it that could be improved. But I think overall as a platform, it's really good, and I think it can help the majority of organizations looking to manage their throughput of APIs or AI traffic. The majority of what I've said before probably covers the improvements needed for Kong Konnect. There probably are some API Ops and AI Ops changes that could be improved, which is not necessarily the Kong Konnect product, but some of the toolchains around it. I'm thinking around, especially if it's API Ops, about topics like better GitOps processes and the ways of being able to roll back changes when there are issues. At the moment, a lot of that is either non-existent or is hand-cranked. I would like to see the ability to roll back configurations when there are issues being added to the product.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM DataPower Gateway?
I don't know if the current licensing cost of IBM DataPower Gateway is high, but I think it's acceptable. I don't have any complaints about it.
What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?
I noticed that the Gateway Script libraries could be improved, as they are not covering everything I need.
What is your primary use case for IBM DataPower Gateway?
The primary purposes for which IBM DataPower Gateway is used include security purposes, and sometimes you need to put some configurations and mapping into the process.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kong Konnect?
Regarding my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing, I find that the pricing can be made more transparent and more helpful for enterprise integration.
What needs improvement with Kong Konnect?
I would recommend that Kong add the capability to sort the routes by name, date, or size, as the current setup does not support this. I would suggest that Kong make the routes or services appear in...
What is your primary use case for Kong Konnect?
We use Kong Konnect primarily for centralized API management, API security, Kubernetes ingress management, traffic control, observability, and governance across multiple environments. Additionally,...
 

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Kong Konnect and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.