Is Kong Gateway or Speakeasy better?

Neither clearly leads. Kong Gateway starts at Free and Speakeasy at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Kong Gateway or Speakeasy?

Kong Gateway has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Kong Gateway and On request for Speakeasy.

Does Kong Gateway or Speakeasy run on more platforms?

Kong Gateway runs on web, linux, api. Speakeasy runs on web, api.

Can I use Kong Gateway for free?

Yes. Kong Gateway has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Speakeasy starts at On request.

What is Kong Gateway best used for?

Kong Gateway is most often used for routing and securing traffic across microservices, publishing internal or external developer portals, managing rate limits and authentication at the api edge, gateway-level routing to multiple llm providers. Of those, routing and securing traffic across microservices and publishing internal or external developer portals are not what Speakeasy is typically brought in for.

What can Kong Gateway do that Speakeasy cannot?

Kong Gateway covers API request routing, Plugin ecosystem, Developer portals, AI Gateway. Speakeasy covers AI tool catalog, Per-agent identity, Role-based access control, Real-time policy enforcement.

API Management · head to head

Kong Gateway vs Speakeasy

Kong Gateway

API Management

Open-source and cloud API gateway for managing microservices traffic

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Speakeasy

Identity & Access Management

AI control plane for governing enterprise agents, MCP servers, and skills

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Kong Gateway has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Kong Gateway the free open-source gateway lacks the analytics, portals, and support of the paid Konnect tiers.; Speakeasy no self-serve pricing is published; every plan requires a sales conversation.
They diverge on capability: Kong Gateway covers API request routing, Speakeasy covers AI tool catalog.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Kong Gateway and Speakeasy actually diverge.

Attributes where Kong Gateway and Speakeasy differ
Attribute	Kong Gateway	Speakeasy
Starting price	Free	On request
Pricing model	freemium	quote
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	web, linux, api	web, api
Category	API Management	Identity & Access Management
Founded	2017	Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Kong Gateway

API request routing
Plugin ecosystem
Developer portals
AI Gateway
Analytics and observability
SSO and audit logs

Only in Speakeasy

AI tool catalog
Per-agent identity
Role-based access control
Real-time policy enforcement
Audit logging
MDM and SSO integration

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Kong Gateway

Routing and securing traffic across microservicesnot Speakeasy
Publishing internal or external developer portalsnot Speakeasy
Managing rate limits and authentication at the API edgenot Speakeasy
Gateway-level routing to multiple LLM providersnot Speakeasy

Speakeasy

Governing AI agents at enterprise scalenot Kong Gateway
Preventing shadow AI tool sprawlnot Kong Gateway
Enforcing least-privilege access for agentsnot Kong Gateway
Auditing AI tool call activity for compliancenot Kong Gateway

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Kong Gateway

The free open-source gateway lacks the analytics, portals, and support of the paid Konnect tiers.
Plus tier caps API requests at 1M/month before incurring per-million overage charges.
Enterprise pricing is custom and not published, making budgeting harder without sales contact.
Configuration and plugin management can require significant operational expertise to run at scale.

Speakeasy

No self-serve pricing is published; every plan requires a sales conversation.
The product pivoted away from its original SDK-generation offering, so past documentation and customers built on that use case are no longer the focus.
Requires integration with an existing identity provider such as Okta or Entra ID to be useful, so it is not a standalone solution.
No published free tier or trial pricing was found.

Pricing, plan by plan

Kong Gateway

Free

Free TrialFree
- 30-day enterprise functionality trial
- Unlimited gateways
- 30-day analytics retention
Plus$undefined/month
- Up to 5 serverless, 2 hybrid, 2 dedicated cloud gateways
- 1M API requests/month included
- Up to 2 developer portals
Enterprise$undefined/month
- Unlimited hybrid and dedicated cloud gateways
- Unlimited developer portals
- SSO and audit logs

Speakeasy

On request

Enterprise$undefined/mo
- Custom pricing
- AI tool catalog and visibility
- Per-agent identity and access control

Which should you pick?

Choose Kong Gateway if

You need api request routing.
You want to start without paying.
You work on web, linux, api.
You also want plugin ecosystem.

Kong Gateway review

Choose Speakeasy if

You need ai tool catalog.
You work on web, api.
You also want per-agent identity.

Speakeasy review

Questions people ask

Is Kong Gateway or Speakeasy better?: Neither clearly leads. Kong Gateway starts at Free and Speakeasy at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Kong Gateway or Speakeasy?: Kong Gateway has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Kong Gateway and On request for Speakeasy.
Does Kong Gateway or Speakeasy run on more platforms?: Kong Gateway runs on web, linux, api. Speakeasy runs on web, api.
Can I use Kong Gateway for free?: Yes. Kong Gateway has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Speakeasy starts at On request.
What is Kong Gateway best used for?: Kong Gateway is most often used for routing and securing traffic across microservices, publishing internal or external developer portals, managing rate limits and authentication at the api edge, gateway-level routing to multiple llm providers. Of those, routing and securing traffic across microservices and publishing internal or external developer portals are not what Speakeasy is typically brought in for.
What can Kong Gateway do that Speakeasy cannot?: Kong Gateway covers API request routing, Plugin ecosystem, Developer portals, AI Gateway. Speakeasy covers AI tool catalog, Per-agent identity, Role-based access control, Real-time policy enforcement.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Kong Gateway: Is Kong Gateway free?

Kong's core gateway is open source and free to self-host. Kong Konnect, the managed cloud platform, offers a 30-day free trial before moving to paid Plus or custom Enterprise pricing.

Source

Kong Gateway: How is usage metered on the Plus plan?

The Plus plan includes 1M API requests per month, with additional usage billed at $200 per extra 1 million requests up to a 10M/month cap, plus per-gateway and per-LLM-model charges.

Source

Kong Gateway: What support is included?

Plus includes email support with a 2-business-day SLA, while Enterprise adds dedicated success managers and professional services.

Source

Kong Gateway vs Speakeasy

Kong Gateway

Speakeasy

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Kong Gateway

Only in Speakeasy

What people use each for

Kong Gateway

Speakeasy

Where each one falls short

Kong Gateway

Speakeasy

Pricing, plan by plan

Kong Gateway

Speakeasy

Which should you pick?

Choose Kong Gateway if

Choose Speakeasy if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Kong Gateway

More on Speakeasy

Keep looking

Other head to heads