Software · head to head
Swagger vs Kong
S
Swagger
Software
API design and documentation platform for building, testing, and managing APIs
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Kong
Software
Cloud-native API gateway and service connectivity platform
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Swagger swaggerHub, the commercial layer over the free open source Swagger tools, is sold in Free, Team and Enterprise tiers with the Enterprise tier requiring a sales contact and no public price, per the vendor pricing page; Kong the Plus plan includes 1M API requests a month and charges $200 a month for each additional million
- They diverge on capability: Swagger covers API Specification, Kong covers API Gateway.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Swagger and Kong actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown).
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 Swagger
- API Specification
- Interactive Documentation
- Code Generation
- GitHub
- GitLab
- Azure DevOps
- Jira
- Web support
Only in Kong
- API Gateway
- Authentication & Authorization
- Rate Limiting
- Kubernetes
- Consul
- Eureka
- PostgreSQL
- Linux support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Swagger
- API Developmentnot Kong
- API Gatewaynot Kong
- API Testingnot Kong
- API Documentationnot Kong
- Microservicesnot Kong
Kong
- Running an API gateway in front of internal and public servicesnot Swagger
- Publishing and governing APIs through a developer portalnot Swagger
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Swagger
- SwaggerHub, the commercial layer over the free open source Swagger tools, is sold in Free, Team and Enterprise tiers with the Enterprise tier requiring a sales contact and no public price, per the vendor pricing page
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
Pricing, plan by plan
Swagger
Free- FreeFree
- OpenAPI specification
- Swagger UI
- API documentation
- Professional$20/monthly
- Advanced features
- Team collaboration
- API testing
- Enterprise$undefined/monthly
- Custom deployment
- Advanced security
- Dedicated support
Kong
Free- CommunityFree
- Core API gateway
- Community support
- Enterprise$undefined/monthly
- Advanced features
- Priority support
- SLA
Which should you pick?
Choose Swagger if
- You need api specification.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, CLI, Desktop.
- You also want interactive documentation.
Choose Kong if
- You need api gateway.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes.
- You also want authentication & authorization.
Questions people ask
- Is Swagger or Kong better?
- Neither clearly leads. Swagger starts at Free and Kong at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Swagger or Kong?
- Swagger starts at Free and Kong at Free.
- Does Swagger or Kong run on more platforms?
- Swagger runs on Web, CLI, Desktop. Kong runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes.
- Can I use Swagger for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Swagger best used for?
- Swagger is most often used for api development, api gateway, api testing, api documentation. Of those, api development and api gateway are not what Kong is typically brought in for.
- What can Swagger do that Kong cannot?
- Swagger covers API Specification, Interactive Documentation, Code Generation, GitHub. Kong covers API Gateway, Authentication & Authorization, Rate Limiting, Kubernetes.