Kong
by Kong Inc. · API Management
Cloud-native API gateway and AI connectivity platform, from open-source Kong Gateway to Kong Konnect SaaS.
Updated August 2026 · By the ERP Research Editorial Team · Independent and vendor-neutral.
- Deployment
- Cloud, On-premise, Hybrid
- Company size
- SMB, Enterprise
- Pricing
- Per-user subscription plus per-request overage
- Founded
- 2009
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California, United States
Overview
Kong is an API gateway and connectivity company that provides Kong Gateway, an open-source and enterprise API gateway built on NGINX and OpenResty, alongside Kong Konnect, a SaaS control plane for managing API and AI traffic across gateways. The company originated as Mashape, founded in 2009 in Milan, Italy, and rebranded to Kong in 2017; it is headquartered in San Francisco, California and remains privately held, having raised a Series E round that valued the company at 2 billion dollars, with investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, CRV, Goldman Sachs and Tiger Global.
Kong Gateway handles routing, authentication, rate limiting, traffic control and observability for API requests, extensible through a plugin architecture. The open-source Community tier includes Basic Auth, HMAC, JWT and a limited OAuth2 implementation; the Enterprise tier adds OpenID Connect, SAML 2.0, HashiCorp Vault integration, Open Policy Agent authorization and FIPS 140-2 compliant data planes. It supports REST, gRPC, GraphQL, WebSocket, UDP, SOAP and Kafka protocols, and deploys on-premises, in Kubernetes via a native Ingress Controller, in hybrid mode, or fully managed through Kong Konnect.
Kong Konnect adds a hosted control plane, developer portal, API service catalog and usage-based billing on top of Kong Gateway, and has more recently added an AI Gateway product line for managing LLM and AI-agent traffic, including token budgeting, semantic caching and multi-provider routing. Kong markets itself broadly as an API and AI connectivity platform rather than an ERP-specific tool; it commonly sits in front of SAP, Oracle or other ERP backends as a general-purpose gateway, but Kong does not publish a certified, ERP-specific connector the way some data-integration vendors do.
Screenshots & demo
Demo video from the vendor's YouTube channel. Screenshots sourced from Kong Inc..
Modules & capabilities
Kong covers 22 of 47 capabilities we track in this category (+3 partial)
47%- Multi-protocol supportREST, gRPC, GraphQL, WebSocket, UDP, SOAP and Kafka trafficCore strength
- Rate limiting & quota enforcementRate limiting plus rate limiting advanced with sliding-window controlsCore strength
- Request/response transformationNot evidenced
- Response cachingNot evidenced
- Load balancingRouting, load balancing and reverse proxyingCore strength
- Circuit breaking & resilienceNot evidenced
- Custom domains & API versioningNot evidenced
“Not evidenced” means our research found no public documentation of this capability — the vendor may still offer it. Confirm on a demo.
Common use cases
- Deploying a self-hosted, open-source API gateway in front of internal microservices or legacy backends
- Centralizing authentication (OAuth2, OpenID Connect, mTLS) across many APIs behind a single gateway layer
- Managing multi-cloud or hybrid API traffic through the Kong Konnect hosted control plane
- Governing LLM and AI-agent API traffic with token budgets and multi-provider routing via Kong AI Gateway
- Publishing an external developer portal and API catalog for partner or public API programs
- Enforcing rate limiting and traffic control in front of SAP, Oracle or other backend systems as a general-purpose gateway
Strengths & considerations
Strengths
- Open-source core (Kong Gateway) with the same routing and plugin engine available self-hosted at no license cost
- Plugin architecture spanning Community and Enterprise tiers, covering authentication, traffic control, transformation and AI-specific plugins
- Kong AI Gateway extends the same platform to LLM and AI-agent traffic with token budgeting and multi-provider routing
- Deployment flexibility across on-premises, Kubernetes, hybrid and fully managed Konnect SaaS
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Full Kong pricing breakdown — cost at 25/100/500 seats, competitor rates & FAQs
Kong spans a free open-source gateway through paid tiers to about $500 per user per month, with Kong Konnect charging $200 per million requests in overage. That overage rate dominates at volume: a programme handling 10 million requests a month on Plus pays roughly $200 in base fees and $1,800 in overages — $2,000 before portal or analytics charges. Model your request volume first, because the base subscription is a poor predictor of the bill. Note the brand name collides with 'Hong Kong' in keyword data. Get an independent shortlist with pricing guidance below.
What does Kong cost?
Kong publishes a list price. Enter your seat count for an annual figure at that rate.
4 of the 12 vendors we track in this category publish no list price at all.
Technical & security
- Hosting
- Self-hosted (open source or Enterprise) or fully managed SaaS control plane via Kong Konnect
- Compliance
- FIPS 140-2
About the vendor
- Founded
- 2009
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Employees
- 500+
- Ownership
- Private (venture-backed; Series E round at a 2 billion dollar valuation; investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, CRV, Goldman Sachs and Tiger Global)
- Notable customers
- United Airlines, HSBC, BMW, PayPal, Bank of America
Alternatives to Kong in API Management
Kong — frequently asked questions
Does Kong have a dedicated SAP or NetSuite connector?
No. Kong Gateway and Kong Konnect are general-purpose API and AI connectivity platforms; they can front any REST, gRPC, GraphQL, SOAP or Kafka backend, including SAP or NetSuite APIs, but Kong does not publish a certified, ERP-specific connector.
Is Kong Gateway open source?
Yes. Kong Gateway has a free, open-source core built on NGINX and OpenResty. The Enterprise tier adds features such as OpenID Connect, SAML 2.0, Open Policy Agent authorization, FIPS 140-2 compliant data planes and 24/7 support.
What is Kong Konnect?
Kong Konnect is the hosted SaaS control plane Kong Inc. provides for managing Kong Gateway deployments, including a developer portal, API service catalog, analytics and usage-based billing.
How is Kong priced?
Kong Gateway open source is free. Kong Konnect offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required; the Plus tier bills per gateway with the first 1 million requests included, and Enterprise is custom-quoted. Kong Insomnia, the API design and testing tool, is priced separately, from 12 to 45 dollars per user per month for paid tiers.
Does Kong support managing AI and LLM traffic?
Yes. Kong AI Gateway manages LLM and AI-agent traffic with token budgeting, semantic caching and multi-provider routing across models such as OpenAI, Azure, Bedrock, Gemini and Cohere, governed through the same Konnect control plane as regular API traffic.
Compare Kong head-to-head
The API Management Buyer's Guide
Before you commit to Kong, see how it sits against the 12 API management systems we track — on capability, ERP integration depth and what each one actually charges for.
API Management Buyer's Guide
12 systems compared · 2026
ERP Research
- Kong compared side-by-side with 11 alternatives
- ERP integration checklist — what to verify before you shortlist
- The pricing questions that change the quote
- A Kong evaluation brief, included with the guide
API Management Buyer's Guide
Get a quote for Kong
Kong publishes a list price, but the number you pay depends on volume, modules and integration scope. Tell us your setup and we'll come back with a realistic figure and the alternatives worth quoting against it.