Kongvs
Appwrite
Appwrite: Open-source Backend as a Service with REST API and SDKs
Kong
Cloud-native API gateway and service connectivity platform
As of 30 August 2026, Kong is free to use. Kong is a lightweight, fast, and flexible open-source API gateway built on top of Nginx. Softwr lists it under APIs. Kong is made by Kong Inc., launched in 2010, available on Linux, Self-hosted.
Overview
What Kong does
Kong is a lightweight, fast, and flexible open-source API gateway built on top of Nginx. It enables organizations to manage, secure, and monitor APIs and microservices with advanced features like authentication, rate limiting, and load balancing.
What people use it for
- API gateway management and routing
- API development and testing
- Enterprise API security and governance
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about 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
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Kong
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- KongvsHasura
Hasura: GraphQL engine that instantly creates production-ready GraphQL API from databases
- KongvsPocketBase
PocketBase: Open-source backend with REST API, real-time subscriptions and Admin UI
- KongvsSanity
Sanity: Headless CMS with real-time collaborative editing and structured content APIs
Pricing
What Kong costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Kong Konnect Free Trial
Free
- 30-day free trial
- Full enterprise functionality
- Unlimited gateways
- 30-day analytics retention
- No credit card required
Kong Konnect Plus
On request
- Per gateway pricing billed monthly
- Up to 5 Serverless Gateways, 2 Hybrid, 2 Dedicated Cloud Gateways
- 1M API requests included per month
- $200 per 1M additional requests (max 10M)
- Developer portal included
- Email support only
Kong Insomnia Essentials
Free
- Unlimited projects and CLI access
- Up to 3 Git Sync users
- 1,000 mock server requests per month
- End-to-end encryption
Kong Insomnia Pro
$12 /mo
- Unlimited users with Git Sync access
- Unlimited organizations
- RBAC
- 10,000 mock server requests per month
- 15% savings with annual billing
Kong Insomnia Enterprise
$45 /mo
- Native Konnect integration
- SSO (SAML/OIDC) and SCIM
- Vault integrations
- Unlimited mock server requests
Capabilities
Features
API Gateway
Authentication & Authorization
Rate Limiting
Kubernetes
Integration with Kubernetes
Consul
Integration with Consul
Eureka
Integration with Eureka
PostgreSQL
Integration with PostgreSQL
Linux support
Available on Linux
Docker support
Available on Docker
Kubernetes support
Available on Kubernetes
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
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.
SourceHow much does Kong Insomnia Pro cost?
Kong Insomnia Pro is $12 per user per month with 15% savings available for annual billing.
SourceWhat 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).
SourceWhat 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.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Kong
- Company
- Kong Inc.
- Based in
- San Francisco, California, USA
Keep looking
Where to go from Kong
- Kong alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Kong pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Kong badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All APIs softwareThe full category
- Best APIs softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best APIs software for
Compare Kong with
- Convoy
- PocketBase
- Appwrite
- Hasura
- Sanity
- Tyk
- WSO2 API Manager
- Gravitee
- Janus Gateway
- Spring Cloud Gateway
- 3scale
- Akana
- Enable Banking
- Flybits
- i2c
- KeystoneJS
- Liveblocks
- Moesif
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Kong, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Kong
Kong alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Kong pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Kong
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Kong badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best APIs software alternatives
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