Is Kong or Pusher better?

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

Which is cheaper, Kong or Pusher?

Kong starts at Free and Pusher at Free.

Does Kong or Pusher run on more platforms?

Kong runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes. Pusher runs on web, ios, android, api.

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 Pusher is typically brought in for.

What can Kong do that Pusher cannot?

Kong covers API Gateway, Authentication & Authorization, Rate Limiting, Kubernetes. Pusher covers Pub/sub channels, Presence channels, Client libraries, Webhooks.

APIs · head to head

Kong vs Pusher

Kong

APIs

Cloud-native API gateway and service connectivity platform

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Pusher

APIs

Realtime messaging API for building live features into apps

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; Pusher the free Sandbox plan is capped at 100 concurrent connections, which is quickly outgrown by production apps.
They diverge on capability: Kong covers API Gateway, Pusher covers Pub/sub channels.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Kong and Pusher actually diverge.

Attributes where Kong and Pusher differ
Attribute	Kong	Pusher
Pricing model	subscription	freemium
Platforms	Linux, Docker, Kubernetes	web, ios, android, api
Founded	2010	Unknown

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 Pusher

Pub/sub channels
Presence channels
Client libraries
Webhooks
24/7 monitoring
Priority support

What people use each for

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

Kong

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

Pusher

Adding live chat to a web or mobile appnot Kong
Showing realtime presence of online usersnot Kong
Pushing live notifications or dashboard updatesnot Kong
Building collaborative features without managing WebSocket serversnot 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

Pusher

The free Sandbox plan is capped at 100 concurrent connections, which is quickly outgrown by production apps.
Pricing jumps sharply between tiers (e.g. $49 to $99 to $299), leaving few options for teams with moderate but growing usage.
Priority support with faster response times costs an additional $3,000/month on top of plan pricing.

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

Pusher

Free

SandboxFree
- 200k messages/day
- 100 concurrent connections
- Standard support
Startup$49/month
- 1M messages/day
- 500 concurrent connections
Pro$99/month
- 4M messages/day
- 2,000 concurrent connections
Business$299/month
- 10M messages/day
- 5,000 concurrent connections
- Premium support

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 Pusher if

You need pub/sub channels.
You want to start without paying.
You work on web, ios, android, api.
You also want presence channels.

Pusher review

Questions people ask

Is Kong or Pusher better?: Neither clearly leads. Kong starts at Free and Pusher at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Kong or Pusher?: Kong starts at Free and Pusher at Free.
Does Kong or Pusher run on more platforms?: Kong runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes. Pusher runs on web, ios, android, api.
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 Pusher is typically brought in for.
What can Kong do that Pusher cannot?: Kong covers API Gateway, Authentication & Authorization, Rate Limiting, Kubernetes. Pusher covers Pub/sub channels, Presence channels, Client libraries, Webhooks.

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

Pusher: What does Pusher cost?

Pusher Channels offers a free Sandbox plan (200k messages/day, 100 connections) and paid plans starting at $49/month for Startup, scaling up through Pro, Business, and several higher tiers up to $1,199/month, plus custom Enterprise pricing.

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

Pusher: Can I change or cancel my plan?

Yes, customers can log into the dashboard and adjust their plan at any time, including upgrading, downgrading, or cancelling.

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

Pusher: How is usage metered?

Usage is measured by concurrent connections and messages per day; a message counts both the publish and each delivery, so publishing one message to 50 subscribers counts as 51 messages.

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 Pusher

Kong

Pusher

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Kong

Only in Pusher

What people use each for

Kong

Pusher

Where each one falls short

Kong

Pusher

Pricing, plan by plan

Kong

Pusher

Which should you pick?

Choose Kong if

Choose Pusher if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Kong

More on Pusher

Keep looking

Other head to heads