Is Kong or Prisma better?

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

Which is cheaper, Kong or Prisma?

Kong starts at Free and Prisma at Free.

Does Kong or Prisma run on more platforms?

Kong runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes. Prisma runs on Node.js, TypeScript.

Can I use Kong for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Kong best used for?

Kong is most often used for api gateway management and routing, api development and testing, enterprise api security and governance. Of those, api gateway management and routing and api development and testing are not what Prisma is typically brought in for.

What can Kong do that Prisma cannot?

Kong covers API Gateway, Authentication & Authorization, Rate Limiting, Kubernetes. Prisma covers ORM, Query builder, Auto-migrations, Node.js.

APIs · head to head

Kong vs Prisma

Kong

APIs

Cloud-native API gateway and service connectivity platform

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Prisma

APIs

Modern ORM and API client for Node.js and TypeScript

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Kong the Plus plan includes 1M API requests a month and charges $200 a month for each additional million; Prisma prisma Postgres is billed per operation, with the free tier at 100,000 operations and 500 MB of storage
They diverge on capability: Kong covers API Gateway, Prisma covers ORM.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Kong and Prisma actually diverge.

Attributes where Kong and Prisma differ
Attribute	Kong	Prisma
Pricing model	subscription	usage-based
Platforms	Linux, Docker, Kubernetes	Node.js, TypeScript
Founded	2010	2016

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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

API Gateway
Authentication & Authorization
Rate Limiting
Kubernetes
Consul
Eureka
PostgreSQL
Linux support

Only in Prisma

ORM
Query builder
Auto-migrations
Node.js
TypeScript
GraphQL
REST APIs
Node.js support

What people use each for

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

Kong

API gateway management and routingnot Prisma
API development and testingnot Prisma
Enterprise API security and governancenot Prisma

Prisma

Using a type safe ORM and query layer against a Postgres databasenot Kong
Adding a managed connection pool and edge cache in front of an existing databasenot Kong

Where each one falls short

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

Kong

The Plus plan includes 1M API requests a month and charges $200 a month for each additional million
Plus is capped at 10M requests a month, so growth past that forces an Enterprise contract
Plus limits published APIs to 20 and includes one Developer Portal, with a second at $200 a month
SSO and audit logging are Enterprise only
Enterprise pricing is custom and billed annually

Prisma

Prisma Postgres is billed per operation, with the free tier at 100,000 operations and 500 MB of storage
Starter at $10 a month includes 1M operations then charges $0.0080 per 1,000
Storage overage runs from $2.00 per GB on Starter down to $1.00 per GB on Business, so the unit cost depends on the plan
Accelerate charges separately per operation and per GiB of query egress beyond the first 1 KiB
Cache tag invalidations are not included below the Pro plan and are billed per thousand above it

Pricing, plan by plan

Kong

Free

Kong Konnect Free TrialFree
- 30-day free trial
- Full enterprise functionality
- Unlimited gateways
Kong Konnect Plus$null/month
- Per gateway pricing billed monthly
- Up to 5 Serverless Gateways, 2 Hybrid, 2 Dedicated Cloud Gateways
- 1M API requests included per month
Kong Insomnia EssentialsFree
- Unlimited projects and CLI access
- Up to 3 Git Sync users
- 1,000 mock server requests per month
Kong Insomnia Pro$12/month
- Unlimited users with Git Sync access
- Unlimited organizations
- RBAC

Prisma

Free

FreeFree
- 1M requests/month
- 360 GB-hours memory
- 4 vCPU-hours
Starter$10/month
- 5M requests/month
- 1M database operations ($8 per million overage)
- 10 GB storage ($2/GB overage)
Pro$49/month
- 20M requests/month
- 10M operations ($2 per million overage)
- 50 GB storage ($1.50/GB overage)
Business$129/month
- 100M requests/month
- 50M operations ($1 per million overage)
- 100 GB storage

Which should you pick?

Choose Kong if

You need api gateway.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes.
You also want authentication & authorization.

Kong review

Choose Prisma if

You need orm.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Node.js, TypeScript.
You also want query builder.

Prisma review

Questions people ask

Is Kong or Prisma better?: Neither clearly leads. Kong starts at Free and Prisma at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Kong or Prisma?: Kong starts at Free and Prisma at Free.
Does Kong or Prisma run on more platforms?: Kong runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes. Prisma runs on Node.js, TypeScript.
Can I use Kong for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Kong best used for?: Kong is most often used for api gateway management and routing, api development and testing, enterprise api security and governance. Of those, api gateway management and routing and api development and testing are not what Prisma is typically brought in for.
What can Kong do that Prisma cannot?: Kong covers API Gateway, Authentication & Authorization, Rate Limiting, Kubernetes. Prisma covers ORM, Query builder, Auto-migrations, Node.js.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Kong: Does Kong offer a free trial?

Yes, Kong Konnect offers a 30-day free trial with full enterprise functionality, unlimited gateways, and no credit card required.

Source

Prisma: How much does Prisma cost?

Prisma is free to start with 1M requests/month. The Starter plan costs $10/month with 5M requests, the Pro plan $49/month with 20M requests, and the Business plan $129/month with 100M requests. All plans have usage-based overages.

Source

Kong: How much does Kong Insomnia Pro cost?

Kong Insomnia Pro is $12 per user per month with 15% savings available for annual billing.

Source

Prisma: What is Prisma's overage pricing?

Prisma charges $1 per million requests over the included amount (Starter), $2 per million database operations overage (Pro and Starter), and $1.50-$2 per GB for storage overages depending on the plan. All plans include a hard spend limit on by default.

Source

Kong: What are Kong Konnect Plus API request limits?

Kong Konnect Plus includes 1M API requests per month; additional requests cost $200 per 1M (maximum 10M per month).

Source

Prisma: Does Prisma include data transfer costs?

No, Prisma includes unlimited data transfer with no egress fees on all plans. Prisma ORM remains free across all tiers.

Source

Kong: What is included in Kong Insomnia Enterprise?

Kong Insomnia Enterprise is $45 per user per month with SSO, SCIM, vault integrations, unlimited mock server requests, and Konnect integration.

Source

Kong vs Prisma

Kong

Prisma

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Kong

Only in Prisma

What people use each for

Kong

Prisma

Where each one falls short

Kong

Prisma

Pricing, plan by plan

Kong

Prisma

Which should you pick?

Choose Kong if

Choose Prisma if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Kong

More on Prisma

Keep looking

Other head to heads