Is Kong or Treblle better?

Neither clearly leads. Kong starts at Free and Treblle at $233/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Kong or Treblle?

Kong has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Kong and $233/month for Treblle.

Does Kong or Treblle run on more platforms?

Kong runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes. Treblle runs on web, api.

Can I use Kong for free?

Yes. Kong has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Treblle starts at $233/month.

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 Treblle is typically brought in for.

What can Kong do that Treblle cannot?

Kong covers API Gateway, Authentication & Authorization, Rate Limiting, Kubernetes. Treblle covers API discovery, Runtime security, API governance, Compliance monitoring.

APIs · head to head

Kong vs Treblle

Kong

APIs

Cloud-native API gateway and service connectivity platform

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Treblle

APIs

API observability, security, and governance platform

From: $233/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Kong has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Kong the Plus plan includes 1M API requests a month and charges $200 a month for each additional million; Treblle no free tier is offered; the entry-level Core plan starts at $233/month billed yearly.
They diverge on capability: Kong covers API Gateway, Treblle covers API discovery.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Kong and Treblle actually diverge.

Attributes where Kong and Treblle differ
Attribute	Kong	Treblle
Starting price	Free	$233/month
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	Linux, Docker, Kubernetes	web, api
Founded	2010	Unknown

Identical on both: pricing model (subscription), 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 Treblle

API discovery
Runtime security
API governance
Compliance monitoring
API documentation and analytics
Agentic AI support

What people use each for

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

Kong

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

Treblle

Gaining full visibility into API traffic across multi-cloud environmentsnot Kong
Detecting shadow APIs and runtime security risksnot Kong
Meeting compliance audit requirements such as HIPAA or GDPRnot Kong
Governing API design standards through CI/CDnot 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

Treblle

No free tier is offered; the entry-level Core plan starts at $233/month billed yearly.
Growth and Enterprise pricing is custom and not published, requiring a sales conversation to budget.
Core plan is limited to 1 workspace and only 30 days of data retention.
SSO and on-prem/BYO cloud deployment are reserved for the top Enterprise tier.

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

Treblle

$233/month

Core$233/month
- Billed yearly
- 5 APIs
- 500 requests/min
Growth$undefined/month
- Custom APIs and request limits
- 50M requests/month baseline
- API security
Enterprise$undefined/month
- Unlimited workspaces, APIs, and requests/min
- API governance and compliance
- SSO

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 Treblle if

You need api discovery.
You work on web, api.
You also want runtime security.

Treblle review

Questions people ask

Is Kong or Treblle better?: Neither clearly leads. Kong starts at Free and Treblle at $233/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Kong or Treblle?: Kong has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Kong and $233/month for Treblle.
Does Kong or Treblle run on more platforms?: Kong runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes. Treblle runs on web, api.
Can I use Kong for free?: Yes. Kong has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Treblle starts at $233/month.
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 Treblle is typically brought in for.
What can Kong do that Treblle cannot?: Kong covers API Gateway, Authentication & Authorization, Rate Limiting, Kubernetes. Treblle covers API discovery, Runtime security, API governance, Compliance monitoring.

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

Treblle: What does Treblle cost?

Treblle's Core plan costs $233/month billed yearly and covers 5 APIs and 5M requests/month; Growth and Enterprise plans use custom pricing for larger request volumes and advanced features.

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

Treblle: Is there a free plan?

Treblle does not offer a free tier; it instead offers a no-credit-card demo rather than free ongoing access.

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

Treblle: How is usage metered?

Plans are metered by number of APIs monitored and requests per minute/month, with the Core plan capped at 500 requests/min and 5M requests/month.

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 Treblle

Kong

Treblle

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Kong

Only in Treblle

What people use each for

Kong

Treblle

Where each one falls short

Kong

Treblle

Pricing, plan by plan

Kong

Treblle

Which should you pick?

Choose Kong if

Choose Treblle if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Kong

More on Treblle

Keep looking

Other head to heads