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APIs · head to head

Kong Gateway vs Treasury Prime

Kong Gateway logo

Kong Gateway

APIs

Open-source and cloud API gateway for managing microservices traffic

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Treasury Prime logo

Treasury Prime

APIs

Banking as a service platform sold to sponsor banks rather than to fintechs

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

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.; Treasury Prime a fintech cannot buy Treasury Prime directly since the 2024 pivot, so the sales process starts with finding a sponsor bank willing to take your programme, which adds months and removes most of your negotiating leverage on fees.
  • They diverge on capability: Kong Gateway covers API request routing, Treasury Prime covers BankOS.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Kong Gateway and Treasury Prime actually diverge.

Attributes where Kong Gateway and Treasury Prime differ
AttributeKong GatewayTreasury Prime
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelfreemiumquote
Free tierYesNo
Platformsweb, linux, apiAPI, Web
Founded2017Unknown

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

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 Treasury Prime

  • BankOS
  • OneKey Banking
  • Deposit accounts
  • Payments
  • Card issuing
  • Bank oversight tooling
  • Ledger and reconciliation
  • Programme onboarding

What people use each for

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

Kong Gateway

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

Treasury Prime

  • A community or regional bank that wants to run an embedded finance line with examiner-acceptable oversight of its fintech programmesnot Kong Gateway
  • A fintech that has already chosen its sponsor bank and needs API access to that bank rather than to a middleware layernot Kong Gateway
  • A company that wants deposits spread across several banks for FDIC coverage beyond a single institution limitnot Kong Gateway
  • A bank replacing a fragile middleware arrangement with a structure where it holds the customer contract and the oversight obligationnot 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.

Treasury Prime

  • A fintech cannot buy Treasury Prime directly since the 2024 pivot, so the sales process starts with finding a sponsor bank willing to take your programme, which adds months and removes most of your negotiating leverage on fees.
  • Commercial terms including minimum deposit balances, reserve requirements and per transaction pricing are set by the bank rather than the platform, so two fintechs on the same software can face materially different economics with no public benchmark.
  • The company cut roughly half its staff in the 2024 pivot, which reduced the teams that supported fintech customers directly and left fintechs relying on their bank for support rather than on the vendor who wrote the software.
  • Bank risk appetite is now the binding constraint, and after the Synapse failure sponsor banks decline programmes in higher risk categories that a middleware provider would once have onboarded, so some business models simply cannot get placed.
  • If your sponsor bank exits the programme or is told by its regulator to reduce fintech exposure, you are migrating your entire deposit base to another institution, and the software being the same at both ends does not make that a small project.

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

Treasury Prime

On request
  • BankOS$undefined/year
    • Sold to sponsor banks, not directly to fintechs
    • Fintech commercial terms are set by the sponsor bank
    • Minimum deposits, reserves and per transaction fees vary by bank

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 Treasury Prime if

  • You need bankos.
  • You work on API, Web.
  • You also want onekey banking.
Treasury Prime review

Questions people ask

Is Kong Gateway or Treasury Prime better?
Neither clearly leads. Kong Gateway starts at Free and Treasury Prime at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Kong Gateway or Treasury Prime?
Kong Gateway has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Kong Gateway and On request for Treasury Prime.
Does Kong Gateway or Treasury Prime run on more platforms?
Kong Gateway runs on web, linux, api. Treasury Prime runs on API, Web.
Can I use Kong Gateway for free?
Yes. Kong Gateway has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Treasury Prime 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 Treasury Prime is typically brought in for.
What can Kong Gateway do that Treasury Prime cannot?
Kong Gateway covers API request routing, Plugin ecosystem, Developer portals, AI Gateway. Treasury Prime covers BankOS, OneKey Banking, Deposit accounts, Payments.

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
Treasury Prime: Can a fintech buy Treasury Prime directly?

No. Since the 2024 pivot it sells to banks. A fintech contracts with a sponsor bank running BankOS, and the bank sets the terms.

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
Treasury Prime: Why did it change model?

Regulatory pressure on the tri-party middleware structure, sharpened by the Synapse failure. Examiners want the bank holding the customer contract and the oversight obligation, which is what bank-direct means.

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
Treasury Prime: What is OneKey Banking?

A way of spreading deposits across several banks in the network, used for FDIC coverage above a single institution limit and for resilience if one bank exits.

Treasury Prime: Is pricing published?

No, at neither the bank nor the fintech level. Fintech economics are set by the sponsor bank, so expect wide variation.

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