Name: Kong Konnect
Brand: Kong
Rating: 4.4 (9 reviews)

IT Soulutoin Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

May 4, 2025

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Deploy and manage API solutions efficiently with centralized hybrid systems

Pros and Cons

"The documentation is excellent, and it includes a developer portal, which helps create a common distribution channel for APIs within and outside the enterprise."

"Kong Konnect's RBAC needs to evolve more, as they currently offer only one or two levels of RBAC in terms of organization and teams."

What is our primary use case?

I use Kong Konnect as an API Gateway or API management solution. I have several use cases, including securing internal APIs within Siemens network by deploying Kong Gateway on Amazon EKS. This acts as an API management layer to expose other internal services such as logging and Jira APIs. Additionally, I utilize it for external use cases by deploying an API Gateway for consumers accessing services from the internet. My aim is to create a federated API management platform where various business units can still use their preferred choice of gateways while maintaining a central federation layer to control security and logging policies.

What is most valuable?

Kong Konnect is a SaaS version of Kong Gateway, and it offers a hybrid deployment. The configuration can be controlled centrally via the SaaS offering, and each team can manage their own gateway or runtime part. It is lightweight, suitable for smaller use cases without heavy initial costs, and comes in various flavors such as open source and enterprise. The documentation is excellent, and it includes a developer portal, which helps create a common distribution channel for APIs within and outside the enterprise.

What needs improvement?

Kong Konnect's RBAC needs to evolve more, as they currently offer only one or two levels of RBAC in terms of organization and teams. Additionally, the licensing model could be simplified, especially in how they charge and track usage. There are also some technical restrictions around exposing GRPC APIs, but I have not explored this yet.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Kong Konnect for the last six or seven months.

Buyer's Guide

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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

The deployment is straightforward because it's a hybrid model. The control plane is a SaaS offering, so there's not much difficulty there.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The platform is fully scalable, providing various ways to manage data planes or runtimes. They offer managed runtimes, but it's preferred that consumers manage their own runtime, which can be deployed in a containerized manner.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support from Kong is satisfactory.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I was previously using Azure Logic Apps but moved to Kong API Gateway. This decision was influenced by the need to create a service around Kong API Gateway with a federated API management platform.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward due to its hybrid deployment model, with the configuration and control plane managed as a SaaS offering.

What was our ROI?

I have not yet seen a return on investment because the project is still in its early stages.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

While the pricing model isn't very clear on how usage is tracked, the initial cost and setup for using Kong Konnect are reasonable.

What other advice do I have?

The knowledge base provided by Kong is excellent, offering various learning paths not just for the technical aspects of Kong Konnect, but also for innovation within the application. It's a highly customizable platform. I would rate Kong Konnect an eight overall.