Is Kong or Saleor better?

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

Which is cheaper, Kong or Saleor?

Kong starts at Free and Saleor at Free.

Does Kong or Saleor run on more platforms?

Kong runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes. Saleor runs on web, 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 Saleor is typically brought in for.

What can Kong do that Saleor cannot?

Kong covers API Gateway, Authentication & Authorization, Rate Limiting, Kubernetes. Saleor covers GraphQL API, Admin dashboard, Webhooks and apps, Omnichannel order processing.

APIs · head to head

Kong vs Saleor

Kong

APIs

Cloud-native API gateway and service connectivity platform

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Saleor

E-Commerce

Open-source, headless e-commerce platform with a GraphQL API

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; Saleor saleor requires development resources to build a storefront, since it ships as an API-only backend without a front-end store out of the box.
They diverge on capability: Kong covers API Gateway, Saleor covers GraphQL API.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Kong and Saleor actually diverge.

Attributes where Kong and Saleor differ
Attribute	Kong	Saleor
Pricing model	subscription	open-source
Platforms	Linux, Docker, Kubernetes	web, api
Category	APIs	E-Commerce
Founded	2010	2019

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

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

Only in Saleor

GraphQL API
Admin dashboard
Webhooks and apps
Omnichannel order processing
Configurator CLI
OpenTelemetry tracing
OpenID Connect support

What people use each for

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

Kong

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

Saleor

Custom headless storefrontsnot Kong
Composable commerce architecturesnot Kong
Omnichannel retail and B2B commercenot Kong
Developer-built e-commerce requiring deep API accessnot 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

Saleor

Saleor requires development resources to build a storefront, since it ships as an API-only backend without a front-end store out of the box.
Self-hosting requires managing infrastructure, scaling, and updates, which adds operational overhead compared to fully managed platforms.
Saleor Cloud's paid tiers start at $1,599/month, making the managed offering costly for small merchants compared to typical SaaS store builders.
The GraphQL-first, code-driven approach has a steeper learning curve for non-technical users than drag-and-drop e-commerce builders.

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

Saleor

Free

Sandboxes (Cloud)Free
- Free forever tier for prototyping and development
Select (Cloud)$1599/month
- Up to $200,000 GMV monthly
- 0.8% fee on orders exceeding GMV limit
- Dedicated Slack channel
Volume (Cloud)$3999/month
- Up to $1,000,000 GMV monthly
- 0.4% fee on orders exceeding GMV limit
- Dedicated Slack channel
Enterprise (Cloud)$undefined/mo
- Custom GMV limits
- Fees negotiable as low as 0.2%
- Project delivery lead

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 Saleor if

You need graphql api.
You want to start without paying.
You work on web, api.
You also want admin dashboard.

Saleor review

Questions people ask

Is Kong or Saleor better?: Neither clearly leads. Kong starts at Free and Saleor at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Kong or Saleor?: Kong starts at Free and Saleor at Free.
Does Kong or Saleor run on more platforms?: Kong runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes. Saleor runs on web, 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 Saleor is typically brought in for.
What can Kong do that Saleor cannot?: Kong covers API Gateway, Authentication & Authorization, Rate Limiting, Kubernetes. Saleor covers GraphQL API, Admin dashboard, Webhooks and apps, Omnichannel order processing.

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

Saleor: Is Saleor free to use?

Yes. Saleor is open source under the BSD-3-Clause license and can be self-hosted for free. Saleor Cloud also offers a free Sandboxes tier for prototyping and development.

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

Saleor: How much does Saleor Cloud cost?

Saleor Cloud paid plans start at $1,599/month for the Select plan (up to $200,000 monthly GMV), with Volume at $3,999/month and custom Enterprise pricing for larger merchants.

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

Saleor: Does Saleor provide a storefront out of the box?

No. Saleor is an API-only, headless commerce backend built on GraphQL; storefronts must be built separately using the API and are not bundled with the platform.

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 Saleor

Kong

Saleor

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Kong

Only in Saleor

What people use each for

Kong

Saleor

Where each one falls short

Kong

Saleor

Pricing, plan by plan

Kong

Saleor

Which should you pick?

Choose Kong if

Choose Saleor if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Kong

More on Saleor

Keep looking

Other head to heads