Kong vs Postman
API management head-to-head for ERP teams: evidenced capabilities, published pricing, and which ERPs each actually integrates with.
| Starting price | From $500/user/mo (published) | From $9/user/mo (published) |
| Deployment | Cloud, On-premise, Hybrid | Cloud |
| Company size | SMB, Enterprise | SMB, Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Stated ERP integrations | None listed | None listed |
| Vendor | Kong Inc. | Postman, Inc. |
Our take
Where Kong leads
- Stronger evidenced coverage on 20 of the 32 capabilities where they differ (led by multi-protocol support and rate limiting & quota enforcement).
Where Postman leads
- Stronger evidenced coverage on 12 of the 32 capabilities where they differ (led by mock servers / sandboxes and automated api testing).
- A lower published starting rate ($9 vs $500 per user/mo).
Where they differ
The 32 capabilities (of 47 in the API management taxonomy) where the evidence separates them, biggest gaps first. “Not evidenced” means our research found no public documentation of this capability — the vendor may still offer it. Confirm on a demo.
| Capability | ||
|---|---|---|
| Multi-protocol supportAPI Gateway & Traffic Management | Core strength REST, gRPC, GraphQL, WebSocket, UDP, SOAP and Kafka traffic | Not evidenced |
| Rate limiting & quota enforcementAPI Gateway & Traffic Management | Core strength Rate limiting plus rate limiting advanced with sliding-window controls | Not evidenced |
| Load balancingAPI Gateway & Traffic Management | Core strength Routing, load balancing and reverse proxying | Not evidenced |
| OAuth2 / OpenID Connect supportSecurity & Access Control | Core strength OAuth2 (Community); OpenID Connect and SAML 2.0 (Enterprise) | Not evidenced |
| Mutual TLS authenticationSecurity & Access Control | Core strength Mutual TLS authentication for routes and services | Not evidenced |
| Secrets manager / vault integrationSecurity & Access Control | Core strength Vault and cloud secrets-manager integration for credential storage | Not evidenced |
| Mock servers / sandboxesDeveloper Portal & Publishing | Not evidenced | Core strength Mock Servers to simulate API behavior before the backend exists |
| Automated API testingAPI Lifecycle & Design | Not evidenced | Core strength Collection Runner for automating API test workflows; API Client for requests |
| Lifecycle governance checksAPI Lifecycle & Design | Not evidenced | Core strength Governance and security checks executable across the API lifecycle |
| Uptime / synthetic monitoringObservability & Analytics | Not evidenced | Core strength Monitors for scheduled performance and uptime validation |
| Multi-provider LLM traffic routingAI & MCP Gateway | Core strength Multi-provider LLM routing across OpenAI, Azure, Bedrock, Gemini, Cohere and Anthropic | Not evidenced |
| AI token quotas & cost attributionAI & MCP Gateway | Core strength Token budgeting for AI/LLM requests | Not evidenced |
| Semantic caching for AI requestsAI & MCP Gateway | Core strength Semantic caching for AI/LLM requests | Not evidenced |
| MCP server generation / gatewayAI & MCP Gateway | Not evidenced | Core strength MCP Server integration for connecting APIs to AI agents |
| Hybrid / multi-cloud deploymentDeployment & Architecture | Core strength Hybrid deployment mode with unified management across multiple runtime and gateway groups | Not evidenced |
| Kubernetes-native deploymentDeployment & Architecture | Core strength Kubernetes-native Ingress Controller | Not evidenced |
| Usage-based billing / monetizationGovernance & Monetization | Core strength API analytics and usage-based billing (Konnect) | Not evidenced |
| Audit loggingGovernance & Monetization | Not evidenced | Core strength Audit logging (Enterprise) |
| Custom / serverless authorizersSecurity & Access Control | Supported Custom plugins via Kong Plugin Development Kit | Not evidenced |
| Self-service developer portalDeveloper Portal & Publishing | Supported Developer portal and API service catalog (Konnect) | Not evidenced |
| Custom-branded portal & docsDeveloper Portal & Publishing | Not evidenced | Supported Custom-branded API documentation |
| Spec-first design (OpenAPI)API Lifecycle & Design | Partial Kong Insomnia (sold separately) covers API design; not part of core Gateway/Konnect feature set | Core strength Spec Hub for managing API specifications |
| Self-hosted / on-premises deploymentDeployment & Architecture | Core strength On-premises, hybrid and fully managed Konnect deployment modes | Partial Private test runners (Enterprise) allow self-hosted test execution, not a full self-hosted platform |
| Federated gateway managementDeployment & Architecture | Supported Unified management across multiple runtime and gateway groups | Not evidenced |
| Legacy protocol support (SOAP/EDI)ERP & Enterprise Connectivity | Supported SOAP traffic support | Not evidenced |
| Role-based access controlSecurity & Access Control | Core strength Role-based access control (RBAC) | Supported Advanced role-based access control (Enterprise) |
| WAF / OWASP API Top 10 protectionSecurity & Access Control | Not evidenced | Partial Governance and security checks across the API lifecycle; OWASP-specific coverage not itemized |
| API catalog & discoveryDeveloper Portal & Publishing | Supported API service catalog (Konnect) | Core strength API Catalog providing visibility into all published APIs |
| CI/CD pipeline integrationAPI Lifecycle & Design | Partial Declarative (kong.yaml) config supports GitOps-style deploys; explicit CI/CD tooling not detailed | Supported Postman CLI enables CI/CD pipeline execution of collections |
| Custom / ad-hoc reportingObservability & Analytics | Not evidenced | Partial Insights covers endpoint usage metrics; ad-hoc custom reporting not detailed |
| Fully managed SaaS deploymentDeployment & Architecture | Core strength Fully managed Konnect deployment | Supported Cloud-hosted SaaS workspaces; deployment model not itemized beyond that |
| Chargeback / cost attributionGovernance & Monetization | Partial Token budgeting scoped to AI/LLM traffic; general API chargeback not detailed | Not evidenced |
Both grade identically on the other 15 capabilities — see each product's full profile: Kong, Postman.
Kong vs Postman — FAQs
Is Kong or Postman better for ERP integration?
They state different ERP coverage: Kong lists no ERP integrations publicly; Postman lists no ERP integrations publicly.
Which is cheaper, Kong or Postman?
Postman has the lower published starting rate ($9 vs $500 per user/month, list price). Implementation, ERP integration and volume discounts change the real total — treat list rates as a starting point.
Get pricing for both
Tell us your ERP, seat count and must-haves and we'll come back with an independent view of what Kong and Postman should each cost you — and whether a third option belongs on your shortlist.
Amazon API Gateway