Best API Gateway Software in 2026
Updated
In short: Kong Gateway is ranked #1 of 27 as of 4 October 2026, ahead of Tyk Gateway and Gravitee API Gateway. The best-ranked option with a free plan is Tyk Gateway. The lowest first paid tier on this page is Google Cloud API Gateway at $1.50/mo.
An API gateway can shape how requests reach services and how access is managed. Compare authentication methods and supported protocols with rate limiting and request transformation to assess the capabilities each option specifies. Deployment model and free-plan availability help distinguish setup choices; monthly request limits and paid-from pricing add cost and capacity context. Kong Gateway, Tyk Gateway, and Gravitee API Gateway are among the options, alongside KrakenD API Gateway and Tyk API Management. Use the comparison points that match your traffic, access, and deployment requirements to evaluate the gateway software.
27 API gateway software ranked on what their makers publish — plans and prices, free tiers, platforms and the facts on their own pages.
27ranked
8free plans on this page
$1.50/molowest paid tier
4 Oct 2026last checked
Input list API Gateway Software 25 channels on this page · 135 of 200 spec lines stated by the makers
Ch Tool Free planPaid fromDeployment modelSupported protocolsAuthentication methodsRate limitingRequest transformationMonthly request limit Spec sheet Score
01 Kong Gateway Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsREST, HTTP, Kafka, WebSockets, gRPC, GraphQL, UDP, TCP, TLSAuthentication methodsBasic Auth, HMAC, JWT, Key Auth, LDAP, mutual TLS, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML, VaultRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limit1,000,000 requests/mo 7/8spec lines stated 7.6
02 Tyk Gateway Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsREST, SOAP, GraphQL, gRPC, TCP, HTTP/HTTPS, WebSockets, Server-Sent Events (SSE)Authentication methodsAPI keys, bearer tokens, JWT, OIDC, Basic Auth, client certificates, mTLS, custom pluginsRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 7.5
03 Gravitee API Gateway Free planYesPaid from$2,500/moDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsREST, GraphQL, gRPC, SOAP, WebSocket, Server-sent Events, WebhookAuthentication methodsKeyless, API Key, Basic Authentication, OAuth2, JWT, Push, mutual TLS (mTLS), OIDC, SAMLRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 7/8spec lines stated 7.4
04 KrakenD API Gateway Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsREST, HTTP, WebSockets, SOAP, gRPC, GraphQL, AMQP, Kafka, NATSAuthentication methodsJWT, client credentials, OAuth2, OpenID Connect, API keys, Basic Authentication, mTLSRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 7.3
05 Tyk API Management Free planNoPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsnot statedAuthentication methodsnot statedRate limitingnot statedRequest transformationnot statedMonthly request limitnot stated 2/8spec lines stated 7.0
06 Emissary-ingress Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself-hostedSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTPS, HTTPPROXY, HTTPSPROXY, TCP, TLS, gRPC, HTTP/3Authentication methodsBasic authentication, external HTTP or gRPC authentication service, client certificate validation, mutual TLSRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 6.9
07 Spring Integration Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself-hostedSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTPS, WebSocket, gRPCAuthentication methodsSpring Security, OAuth 2.0, JWT, opaque tokensRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 6.8
08 Apache APISIX Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself-hostedSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTPS, TCP, UDP, WebSocket, gRPC, MQTT, HTTP/3, DubboAuthentication methodsAPI key, JWT, Basic Authentication, OAuth 2.0/OpenID Connect, HMAC, LDAP, CAS, Keycloak, Casdoor, forward authentication, multi-authRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 6.7
09 API7 Enterprise Free planNoPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsnot statedAuthentication methodsnot statedRate limitingnot statedRequest transformationnot statedMonthly request limitnot stated 2/8spec lines stated 6.7
10 Envoy Gateway Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself-hostedSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTPS, gRPC, TLS, TCP, UDPAuthentication methodsmTLS, JWT, API key, Basic Auth, OIDC, external authorizationRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 6.7
11 Google Cloud API Gateway Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelcloudSupported protocolsHTTP/REST, HTTP/JSON, gRPCAuthentication methodsAPI keys, service accounts/JWT, Google authentication, Google ID tokensRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limit1,000,000,000 requests/mo 7/8spec lines stated 6.6
12 Google Cloud Endpoints Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsnot statedAuthentication methodsnot statedRate limitingnot statedRequest transformationnot statedMonthly request limitnot stated 2/8spec lines stated 6.6
13 MuleSoft Composer Free planNoPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsHTTP, WebSocket, SOAP, gRPC, GraphQL, OAS3 REST, MCP, A2AAuthentication methodsClient ID enforcement, HTTP Basic Authentication, JWT validation, OAuth 2.0, OpenID ConnectRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 6.3
14 Alibaba Cloud API Gateway Free planNoPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelcloudSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTPS, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, WebSocket, gRPCAuthentication methodsAppCode, digest authentication, JWT, mutual TLS, custom authenticationRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 6.1
15 MuleSoft Omni Gateway Free planNoPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsHTTP, WebSocket, SOAP, gRPC, GraphQL, OAS3 REST, MCP, A2AAuthentication methodsClient ID enforcement, HTTP Basic Authentication, JWT validation, OAuth 2.0, OpenID ConnectRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 6.0
16 Traefik Hub API Gateway Free planNoPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTP/2, TCP, UDP, WebSockets, gRPCAuthentication methodsOIDC, LDAP, JWT, API key, HMAC, OAuth2, Open Policy AgentRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 6.0
17 Axway SecureTransport Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTPS, REST, SOAP, XML, WebSockets, JMS, AMQP, MQTT, gRPC, FTPAuthentication methodsOAuth, JWT tokens, API key, HTTP Basic/Digest, SAML, credentials in headers or payloadsRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 5/8spec lines stated 5.9
18 Higress Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTP2, HTTPS, GRPC, GRPCS, TCP, DubboAuthentication methodsKey Auth, HMAC Auth, JWT Auth, Basic Auth, OAuth2, OIDC, External Auth, OPARate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 5.9
19 Oracle Cloud Infrastructure API Gateway Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelcloudSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTPSAuthentication methodsOCI IAM, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, Remote JWKS, static keys, authorizer functions, mTLSRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 5/8spec lines stated 5.9
20 Tencent Cloud API Gateway Free planNoPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelcloudSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTPSAuthentication methodsHMAC key-pair authenticationRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limit10,000,000 requests/mo 7/8spec lines stated 5.9
21 Amazon API Gateway Free planNoPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelcloudSupported protocolsHTTP, REST, WebSocketAuthentication methodsIAM/SigV4, Amazon Cognito user pools, JWT/OIDC/OAuth 2.0, Lambda authorizers, API keys, mutual TLSRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 5.8
22 Zuul Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself-hostedSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTP/2, WebSocket, Server-Sent Events (SSE)Authentication methodsFilter-based authentication, mutual TLS, custom authentication handlersRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 5/8spec lines stated 5.8
23 NGINX Gateway Fabric Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself-hostedSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTPS, HTTP/2, gRPC, TCP, TLS, UDPAuthentication methodsBasic authentication, JWT, OpenID Connect, external authenticationRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 6/8spec lines stated 5.7
24 WSO2 Choreo Connect Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridSupported protocolsHTTP/1.1; WebSocketAuthentication methodsOAuth 2.0; Publisher Internal Key; API Key; Enforcer Test KeyRate limitingYesRequest transformationYesMonthly request limitnot stated 5/8spec lines stated 5.7
25 Ambassador Edge Stack Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself-hostedSupported protocolsHTTP, HTTPS, gRPC, gRPC-Web, HTTP/3Authentication methodsnot statedRate limitingYesRequest transformationnot statedMonthly request limitnot stated 3/8spec lines stated 5.6
Is your tool on this list?
Numbered spots on this list can be sponsored. They are labelled, and the editorial order and scores never change for payment.
Questions about this list
Which API gateway software is ranked first on Specifiction?
Kong Gateway is ranked #1 of 27 with a score of 7.6. Tyk Gateway is second and Gravitee API Gateway third.
How many of these have a free plan?
8 of the 25 on this page publish a free plan on their own pricing pages.
Which is the cheapest paid option?
On this page, Google Cloud API Gateway has the lowest first paid tier we found: $1.50/mo.
How is this list ranked?
Ranked on what each maker publishes, the fullest spec sheet first: how deeply the product is documented, the platforms it runs on, a free tier or trial to test it, and its standing. Paid placements never change a rank.
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