Google Cloud Service Mesh vs Kong Gateway
| Google Cloud Service Mesh | Kong Gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | |
| Free trial | Yes | |
| Paid from | Free | |
| Platforms | Web | api, Linux, self-hosted, Web |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Paid from | 0.5 /mo | 25 /mo |
| Deployment model | hybrid | hybrid |
| Proxy architecture | both | sidecar |
| mTLS support | Yes | Yes |
| Traffic policies | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-cluster support | Yes | Yes |
| Supported platforms | GKE on Google Cloud; Google Distributed Cloud software-only for VMware; Google Distributed Cloud software-only for bare metal; GKE on AWS; GKE on Azure; Amazon EKS; Microsoft AKS | Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift |
| API catalog | Yes | |
| Supported protocols | REST, HTTP, Kafka, WebSockets, gRPC, GraphQL, UDP, TCP, TLS | |
| Authentication methods | Basic Auth, HMAC, JWT, Key Auth, LDAP, mutual TLS, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML, Vault | |
| Rate limiting | Yes | |
| Request transformation | Yes | |
| Monthly request limit | 1,000,000 requests/mo | |
| Developer portal | Yes | |
| Lifecycle management | Yes | |
| Access policies | Yes | |
| API analytics | Yes | |
| API product management | Yes | |
| Fallback routing | Yes | |
| Usage analytics | Yes | |
| Self-hosted deployment | Yes | |
| Budget controls | Yes | |
| Virtual API keys | Yes |
Listed together in Best Service Mesh Platforms