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Kong Gateway Enterprise vs OpenLegacy comparison

Kong and OpenLegacy are both solutions in the API Management category. Kong is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.9, while OpenLegacy is ranked #36. Kong holds a 7.1% mindshare in APIM, compared to OpenLegacy’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Kong users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of OpenLegacy users who would recommend it.
Kong Gateway Enterprise
Read 25 Kong Gateway Enterprise reviews
  • 6,455 Views
  • 6,455 Comparison Views
92% willing to recommend
OpenLegacy
Read 5 OpenLegacy reviews
  • 438 Views
  • 438 Comparison Views
80% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

OpenLegacy and Kong Gateway Enterprise are prominent players in the API management and integration market. OpenLegacy has an advantage in cost-efficiency and usability for legacy systems, while Kong Gateway Enterprise is recognized for its extensive features suitable for microservices architecture.

Features: OpenLegacy excels in seamless legacy application integration, offers fast API creation, and is adaptable to various environments. Kong Gateway Enterprise is known for robust API management, scalability, and cloud-native environment support.

Room for Improvement: OpenLegacy could enhance scalability features and extend support for modern architectures. It might benefit from advanced security options and more robust monitoring tools. Kong Gateway Enterprise could focus on simplifying its deployment process, reducing initial configuration complexity, and lowering setup costs for smaller enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: OpenLegacy is praised for its simple deployment and minimal configuration requirements, providing efficient customer support. Kong Gateway Enterprise, while more complex to deploy due to extensive capabilities, is supported by comprehensive tools tailored for microservices with responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: OpenLegacy is appealing due to lower setup costs and rapid ROI from its seamless integration with existing infrastructure. Kong Gateway Enterprise, although requiring a higher initial investment, provides significant ROI with a comprehensive feature set that enhances functionality in large-scale environments.

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To learn more, read our detailed Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. OpenLegacy Report (Updated: September 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. OpenLegacy
September 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Kong Gateway Enterprise
Ranking in API Management
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
OpenLegacy
Ranking in API Management
36th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the API Management category, the mindshare of Kong Gateway Enterprise is 7.1%, up from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenLegacy is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Kong Gateway Enterprise7.1%
OpenLegacy0.5%
Other92.4%
API Management
 

Featured Reviews

ASHOK YADAV - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers OIDC, Rate Limiting, Lambda functions but lacks software upgrades
Upgrading Kong Gateway Enterprise should be more sophisticated and innovative. The main issue is with the update process. Our DevOps and admin teams need to update multiple files, which is cumbersome. For instance, in cases where Palantir countries are involved, they have to update many files, which is not ideal. However, for other tasks like configuring the message routing and services and handling all the configurations, the process is acceptable. The software version upgrade process should be improved. Additionally, the DevOps portal should be integrated more natively. There are a few other areas for improvement, such as implementing automatic load balancing. The status of the office team, whether it is up or down, should be checked at the API gateway level to facilitate load balancing.
Read full review
reviewer1042905 - PeerSpot reviewer
The biggest advantage is how simple the technology was.
I'd like to see OpenLegacy develop its low-code/no-code (LCNC) solutions. They've expanded somewhat their horizons for integration beyond mainframe CICS, which is their sweet spot. They have some tooling in that area, but it's not as good as it needs to be. OpenLegacy handles the bread-and-butter TP monitoring stuff, but I am working for one of the six banks in the United States still using the Hogan mainframe, which has a slightly proprietary mechanism. But OpenLegacy currently doesn't have a connector for Hogan. So it would help if they could build one. That would appeal to financial institutions that still use Hogan, like US Bank, Wells Fargo, KeyBank, and Vanguard.
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

"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."
"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 solution's technical support is good and fast in terms of responsiveness and problem-solving skills."
"It boasts remarkable speed and stability, and these qualities, particularly the gateway's resilience, are standout features for me."
"We use the solution for load-balancing, caching, and rate-limiting APIs."
"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 most valuable features of Kong Enterprise are the out-of-the-box open source easy functionality."
More Kong Gateway Enterprise pros
"Using OpenLegacy, the exposure of services is far easier and quicker. In many cases, exposure of services requires just a few clicks and takes only minutes. In very complex cases, it still only takes half a day. Without OpenLegacy, it would take us several months to create the same services."
"It is possible to connect a service to a mainframe program or back transaction in a matter of minutes or hours at the most."
"Opens the door to connect modern web products to an old legacy system."
"It is possible to solve larger legacy API issues on an enterprise level with this product."
"Using mainframe programs (not screens), the OpenLegacy services do not require any changes by the mainframe programmers, thus reducing development cycles."
"OpenLegacy produces a war file which includes everything you need to deploy a Tomcat server."
"The biggest advantage of OpenLegacy was how simple the technology was. We were able to build out the OpenLegacy parts very quickly. We put together a couple hundred APIs in six months."
"OpenLegacy provides a way to go from the outside world to the legacy mainframe, to move the old standard application to a REST API application. New digital services can be created in a few clicks and this can be done easily by COBOL programmers."
 

Cons

"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 open-source version of Kong does not support a dashboard, which would be very helpful."
"Because it is open-source, it should be less expensive than others."
"Kong Enterprise fails to provide live tracing of the APIs, which is possible nowadays."
"We would like to see an automatic data API when we have a table in the database."
"They could focus more on pricing."
"It becomes difficult if you try to scale it up to multiple clusters."
"The ease of billing is lost when Kong is not available directly on the Azure marketplace. This is one area where they can improve."
More Kong Gateway Enterprise cons
"Customer support for the product is slow and not very good. It makes using the product difficult if you need help quickly."
"We would also be more than happy if the product had the option to work in the opposite direction – the ability to consume REST/SOW services in the outer world from the mainframe."
"Debugging and logging for programmers could be better."
"I would like to see SSL out-of-the-box. OpenLegacy certainly does SSL, but it was not the default for our use case. We are currently working with OpenLegacy to cross the SSL bridge and suspect that most users will want to do the same."
"The pricing of the solution could be more flexible and allow for once-off payment versus annual licensing. This would be more appealing to companies in Latin America."
"I'd like to see OpenLegacy develop its low-code/no-code (LCNC) solutions. They've expanded somewhat their horizons for integration beyond mainframe CICS, which is their sweet spot. They have some tooling in that area, but it's not as good as it needs to be."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is really reasonable compared to that of alternative solutions."
"The licensing fees are paid yearly."
"Kong Enterprise's pricing is reasonable for our company size."
"I don't have any information on licensing costs currently."
"Kong Enterprise is cheaper than Apigee. I rate its pricing as four out of ten."
"The licensing is expensive."
"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."
More Kong Gateway Enterprise pricing and cost advice
"The pricing of the solution could be more flexible and allow for once-off payment versus annual licensing. This would be more appealing to companies in Latin America."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Large Enterprise19
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Comparisons

WSO2 API Manager vs Kong Gateway Enterprise Logo
WSO2 API Manager vs Kong Gateway Enterprise
Compared 12% of the time
Apache APISIX vs Kong Gateway Enterprise Logo
Apache APISIX vs Kong Gateway Enterprise
Compared 11% of the time
Apigee vs Kong Gateway Enterprise Logo
Apigee vs Kong Gateway Enterprise
Compared 11% of the time
Kong Konnect vs Kong Gateway Enterprise Logo
Kong Konnect vs Kong Gateway Enterprise
Compared 10% of the time
Microsoft Azure API Management vs Kong Gateway Enterprise Logo
Microsoft Azure API Management vs Kong Gateway Enterprise
Compared 10% of the time
More Kong Gateway Enterprise Competitors
MuleSoft API Manager vs OpenLegacy Logo
MuleSoft API Manager vs OpenLegacy
Compared 22% of the time
Amazon API Gateway vs OpenLegacy Logo
Amazon API Gateway vs OpenLegacy
Compared 22% of the time
IBM API Connect vs OpenLegacy Logo
IBM API Connect vs OpenLegacy
Compared 16% of the time
SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite vs OpenLegacy Logo
SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite vs OpenLegacy
Compared 14% of the time
More OpenLegacy Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Kong Gateway Enterprise
October 2025
Kong Gateway Enterprise reportDownload Kong Gateway Enterprise product report
Buyer's Guide
OpenLegacy
October 2025
OpenLegacy reportDownload OpenLegacy product report
 

Overview

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

OpenLegacy helps organizations quickly launch innovative digital services by extending their core back-end systems to the web, mobile and cloud in days or weeks versus months. Our microservice-enabled API integration and management software quickly reduces project backlog by automating and accelerating microservices and API creation, deployment, testing and management from core applications, mainframes and databases. Together, business and IT teams can quickly, easily and securely meet consumer, partner or employee demands for digital services without modernizing or replacing core systems, and without special programming skills or invasive changes to existing systems and architectures. OpenLegacy is designed for ongoing management of microservices APIs and is based on open standards, so our software plays nice with your current technology stack and supports agile, DevOps and continuous development. Learn why leading companies choose OpenLegacy at www.openlegacy.com.

OpenLegacy
 

Sample Customers

Cargill, Zillow, Ferrari, WeWork, Healthcare.gov, Yahoo! Japan, Giphy, SkyScanner
Many of openLegacy's global customers are among the Global 100 companies. Review case studies in these industries: Agriculture, Airport Authority, Automotive, Auto, Finance, Insurance, Government, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Retailwww.openlegacy.com/case-studie...
Buyer's Guide
Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. OpenLegacy
September 2025
Free Report: Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. OpenLegacy
Find out what your peers are saying about Kong Gateway Enterprise vs. OpenLegacy and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
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