We performed a comparison between IBM API Connect and Kong Gateway Enterprise based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two API Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."It's quite flexible and easy to deploy, especially for beginners. It has almost all the features that an API gateway should have."
"The technical support is good. Whenever we need anything, we have our IT team work with IBM to change whatever requirement is needed."
"The centralized management: this provides a management module that can deploy and apply security policies to all APIs, including all the gateways that are deployed on-premises and on any cloud because the gateway component can run at a VMware or in a Kubernetes cluster."
"This is a very easy to use solution."
"The capabilities are very good."
"The developer portal has been the most useful feature."
"The ability for all of our web applications to share standard functions and documents easily is valuable."
"The most valuable feature of IBM API Connect is the security of the protocol."
"In our buying companies' perspective, it was easier to use compared to other platforms. The markets were pretty familiar with the solutions."
"The tool's feature that I find most beneficial is rate limiting. In our usage, especially in the financial sector, we prioritize limiting API usage. This is crucial because we provide APIs to other companies and must ensure they adhere to their allocated usage limits. Without rate limiting, there's a risk of excessive usage, which could result in significant costs."
"Protocol transformation is the most valuable feature of Kong Enterprise."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it seamlessly supports a vast number of tools."
"Kong enterprise has significantly enhanced our ability to manage and secure our Microservices. Its most valuable feature is monitoring."
"I like everything about it. It provides the security we need."
"The tool's scalability is good...The solution's technical support is good."
"Kong Enterprise comes with some ready plug-ins, which is very good for the customers."
"The integration of an API gateway that implements the sidecar pattern, which can be deployed in cloud applications, and expose the microservices directly in each pod, this can be more decentralized components."
"The solution would be better if it had cloud functionalities."
"The monetization of the API could be improved. The pricing for the consumer is also very important to improve this solution."
"I would like to see automation of the installation. If there could be a single-click function where you could automate everything, that would be helpful."
"The new version is very unstable."
"It would be helpful to have access monitoring."
"Firstly, the pricing model, when compared to other open sources, is high. Secondly, the availability of resources in the market, specifically the developers available in the market, is not so much."
"Possible improvement is mainly around having more of the cloud oriented architecture bringing stability in adding new capabilities around security."
"We would like to see an automatic data API when we have a table in the database."
"From an improvement perspective, the product should offer more readily available connectors and also allow for more seamless AI integrations."
"Kong Enterprise fails to provide live tracing of the APIs, which is possible nowadays."
"Kong is meant for north-south communications, so it will be interesting to see what solutions they can come up with in the realms of east-west communications, service-to-service communications, and Zero Trust architecture. I believe that if they can provide for these areas, then they will be able to solve the overall integration and security concerns for microservices architecture in general."
"Kong Enterprise can improve the customization to be able to do the integration properly."
"Kong Enterprise has decided not to support the web portal feature anymore, but I think that feature should stay in the on-premises solution."
"The tool needs improvement in UX."
"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required."
IBM API Connect is ranked 5th in API Management with 73 reviews while Kong Gateway Enterprise is ranked 6th in API Management with 20 reviews. IBM API Connect is rated 8.0, while Kong Gateway Enterprise is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of IBM API Connect writes "Good speed and performance, but it's based on a bit dated architecture". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Kong Gateway Enterprise writes "Provides role-based access control and can be easily customized with Lua script". IBM API Connect is most compared with IBM DataPower Gateway, Apigee, Microsoft Azure API Management, MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager and Layer7 API Management, whereas Kong Gateway Enterprise is most compared with Microsoft Azure API Management, WSO2 API Manager, Apache APISIX, Apigee and IBM DataPower Gateway. See our IBM API Connect vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise report.
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