Amazon API Gateway vs Kong Gateway
Amazon API Gateway
aws.amazon.com
Kong Gateway
konghq.comSide by side
| Figure | Amazon API Gateway | Kong Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $1/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 7 |
| Spec score · API Gateway Software | 9.4 (#1) | 7.8 (#12) |
| Spec score · Rest Apis | 9.4 (#1) | 7.8 (#10) |
| Spec score · Apis | 9.4 (#1) | 7.8 (#13) |
| Spec score · API Security & Management Platforms | 9.4 (#1) | 7.7 (#4) |
| Founded | 2006 | 2017 |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington, United States | San Francisco, California, USA |
| Purpose | Amazon API Gateway is a fully managed service for creating, publishing, maintaining, monitoring, and securing APIs that connect applications to backend services. | Kong Gateway is an open-source API gateway built for hybrid and multi-cloud environments and optimized for microservices and distributed architectures. |
| Security controls | Authorization options include IAM, Amazon Cognito, OAuth2/OIDC, Lambda authorizers and AWS WAF integration. | Kong's product page lists security and authentication plugins, while its pricing page lists RBAC and identifies SSO and audit logs as Enterprise features. |
Plans
Amazon API Gateway
- Free tierFree
- Free TierFree
- HTTP APIs$1 a month
- WebSocket APIs$1 a month
- REST APIs$3.50 a month
- API Gateway Portals$125 a month
- Pay-as-you-goPrice not published
Kong Gateway
- Free trialFree
- PlusPriced on request
- EnterprisePriced on request
- Kong Gateway Open SourceFree
- Konnect Free trialFree
- Konnect EnterprisePriced on request
- Konnect PlusPrice not published
In their own words
Amazon API Gateway
Amazon API Gateway is a cloud service for creating, publishing, maintaining, monitoring, and securing APIs that connect applications to backend services. It supports REST, HTTP, and WebSocket APIs, including real-time two-way communication. Integrations include AWS Lambda, Step Functions, Elastic Beanstalk, EC2, and public HTTP endpoints; HTTP APIs can also route requests to certain private services. API Gateway Portals provide managed spaces to discover, document, and govern REST APIs. Traffic controls include request throttling and configurable caching for REST APIs. The console integrates with Amazon CloudWatch for call, latency, and error metrics, alarms, and execution logs. Authorization options include IAM, Lambda authorizers, OIDC, OAuth 2.0, and other listed methods; REST API keys are optional. A free tier is available to new AWS customers for up to 12 months within monthly allowances, with excess usage charged at standard rates. Pay-as-you-go has no minimum fees or upfront commitments; the listed pricing note is From $1. WebSocket messages can be up to 128 KB and are metered in 32 KB increments.
Kong Gateway
Kong Gateway has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.