Kong Gateway

Plans and prices

Every plan, in full

On the record

Company history

Kong's company page says its story began in Milan in 2009 and that the API gateway was open-sourced and named Kong later in the company's history.konghq.com · read 29 Sep 2026

Configuration

The gateway can be configured through an API, web UI, or declarative configuration, including updates managed through CI/CD pipelines.konghq.com · read 29 Sep 2026

Deployment

Kong says the gateway can run on premises, in cloud, Kubernetes, or serverless environments, with or without a database and in hybrid or cloud-hosted modes.konghq.com · read 29 Sep 2026

Kubernetes

Kong Ingress Controller configures Kong Gateway using Kubernetes-native resources and supports traffic management, transformations, and observability across clusters.konghq.com · read 29 Sep 2026

Linux installation

Kong's installation documentation provides Linux packages and binaries, Docker images, and Kubernetes deployment instructions.developer.konghq.com · read 29 Sep 2026

Performance

Kong describes its NGINX engine as ultra-lightweight and states it handles 50K+ transactions per second per node.konghq.com · read 29 Sep 2026

Plugins

Built-in plugins cover security, authentication, transformation, and analytics, and custom plugins can be developed with Kong's Plugin Development Kit.konghq.com · read 29 Sep 2026

Protocol support

Konnect Plus lists support for REST, HTTP, LLMs, Kafka, WebSockets, gRPC, and GraphQL.konghq.com · read 29 Sep 2026

Purpose

Kong Gateway is an open-source API gateway built for hybrid and multi-cloud environments and optimized for microservices and distributed architectures.konghq.com · read 29 Sep 2026

Security controls

Kong's product page lists security and authentication plugins, while its pricing page lists RBAC and identifies SSO and audit logs as Enterprise features.konghq.com · read 29 Sep 2026

Support

Konnect Plus includes email support with a two-business-day SLA; Enterprise lists dedicated customer success and technical account managers and higher SLAs.konghq.com · read 29 Sep 2026

Windows limitation

Kong's documentation says Windows installation uses Docker and that Kong does not provide a native Windows installation method.developer.konghq.com · read 29 Sep 2026

Alternatives to Kong Gateway

M ManifestWebLinux+2 LG LLM GatewayWebLinux+3 B BifrostWebWindows+4 T TensorZeroWebLinux+2 L LangSmithWebWindows+4 H HeliconeWebAPI+1 EA Envoy AI GatewayMacLinux+2 O OpenRouterWebAPI

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