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APIs · head to head

Kong vs Timeplus

Kong logo

Kong

APIs

Cloud-native API gateway and service connectivity platform

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Timeplus logo

Timeplus

Databases

Streaming SQL engine built on ClickHouse internals, shipping as one small binary

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

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; Timeplus proton, the free version, is single-node by design, so any requirement for high availability or horizontal scale forces the commercial licence; the open source edition is a trial in practical terms.
  • They diverge on capability: Kong covers API Gateway, Timeplus covers Streaming SQL.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Kong and Timeplus actually diverge.

Attributes where Kong and Timeplus differ
AttributeKongTimeplus
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer month for cloud, quoted for self-hosted
PlatformsLinux, Docker, KubernetesLinux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web
CategoryAPIsDatabases
Founded2010Unknown

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 Timeplus

  • Streaming SQL
  • Unified streaming and historical
  • ClickHouse-based engine
  • Single binary deployment
  • External streams
  • Materialised views

What people use each for

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

Kong

  • API gateway management and routingnot Timeplus
  • API development and testingnot Timeplus
  • Enterprise API security and governancenot Timeplus

Timeplus

  • Real-time alerting on Kafka topics where standing up a Flink cluster is more work than the use case justifiesnot Kong
  • Fraud or anomaly detection that must join a live event stream against recent history in one querynot Kong
  • Streaming ETL from Kafka or MySQL change data capture into ClickHouse without writing Javanot Kong
  • A small data team that needs continuous aggregation but has no platform engineers to operate JVM infrastructurenot 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

Timeplus

  • Proton, the free version, is single-node by design, so any requirement for high availability or horizontal scale forces the commercial licence; the open source edition is a trial in practical terms.
  • It is a young project against Apache Flink’s decade of production history, so the hiring pool, the connector library and the body of known failure modes are all much smaller.
  • Inheriting ClickHouse internals also inherits ClickHouse constraints: memory-hungry queries, awkward updates and a SQL dialect that is not portable to other engines.
  • Exactly-once semantics and state recovery guarantees are less battle-tested than Flink checkpointing, which matters if the pipeline moves money.
  • Cloud pricing is by provisioned instance size rather than usage, so a bursty workload pays for peak capacity around the clock or has to be resized by hand.

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

Timeplus

Free
  • Timeplus ProtonFree
    • Apache 2.0 licence
    • Single node only
    • Full streaming SQL engine
  • Timeplus Cloud$199/month
    • One to thirty-two CPUs
    • 4 GB to 128 GB memory
    • From 250 GB SSD storage
  • Self-hosted or BYOC$undefined/year
    • Multi-node clustering
    • Kubernetes or bare metal
    • Customisable compute and 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 Timeplus if

  • You need streaming sql.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web.
  • You also want unified streaming and historical.
Timeplus review

Questions people ask

Is Kong or Timeplus better?
Neither clearly leads. Kong starts at Free and Timeplus at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Kong or Timeplus?
Kong starts at Free and Timeplus at Free.
Does Kong or Timeplus run on more platforms?
Kong runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes. Timeplus runs on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web.
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 Timeplus is typically brought in for.
What can Kong do that Timeplus cannot?
Kong covers API Gateway, Authentication & Authorization, Rate Limiting, Kubernetes. Timeplus covers Streaming SQL, Unified streaming and historical, ClickHouse-based engine, Single binary deployment.

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
Timeplus: Is Timeplus open source?

The core engine, Timeplus Proton, is Apache 2.0. Timeplus Enterprise and Cloud are commercial.

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
Timeplus: What is the difference from Flink?

Timeplus is one binary with SQL as the only interface; Flink is a JVM cluster with a Java and SQL API and far more operational surface.

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
Timeplus: Can Proton run in production?

It can, but it is single-node only, so there is no high availability without the commercial edition.

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
Timeplus: How much is the cloud?

From 199 US dollars a month, sized by CPU and memory, with a fourteen day trial.

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