Apigee vs. Kong Comparison

Which is the best API Management provider for you?

November 20, 2022

Written by

Louis-Victor Jadavji, Cofounder of Taloflow

Who should you choose and why?

✋ Most important consideration

Apigee API Management is a more feature-rich platform compared to Kong Gateway if API lifecycle management is your objective. Although often compared to Apigee, Kong is really just an API gateway, and a great and inexpensive option if that’s all you need.

🤔 Strongly consider Apigee over Kong if

You’re looking for API lifecycle management (i.e., more than an API gateway).
You’d like a rich and customizable developer portal.
You’re monetizing your API.
You’d like prebuilt APIs for different industry verticals like Finance, Healthcare, etc.

🤔 Strongly consider Kong over Apigee if

You are building a microservices and service mesh architecture.
You want lots of deployment flexibility. Kong supports many deployment models.
You’d like to integrate with third-party tools via plugins.

📝 Other Notes

Kong Gateway has limited support for gRPC use cases. On the other hand, Apigee API Management has very good support for gRPC.

Apigee API Management

Apigee, integrated within the Google Cloud ecosystem, enables organizations to design, secure, and scale APIs effectively. It offers a comprehensive API Management solution that includes two types of gateways - one that is based on NGINX and the other reliant on Envoy. Its industry-specific accelerators are valuable for organizations seeking targeted solutions. Apigee also prides itself on its transparent and straightforward pricing model, aiding businesses in their budgeting process and making it a popular choice for organizations of varying sizes.

Kong Gateway

Kong’s API Gateway delivers high performance while providing a level of deployment flexibility that is much appreciated by software engineers. The service is built on NGINX Open Source and maintains a relatively small footprint. However, it is essential to note that this solution requires the use of Lua scripts and external databases to handle gateway configurations and API policies. Despite these requirements, Kong’s API Gateway's high performance and flexibility make it an attractive solution in the realm of API management.

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Feature Comparison

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About the Author

Louis-Victor Jadavji

Louis-Victor Jadavji (or "LV") is a recognized leader in the cloud services industry. He's helped 50+ digital native companies like ModusBox, Later, and NS1 choose the right cloud stack for their applications. His work has been featured in Forbes (30 Under 30 All-Star), HuffPost, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and Inc. Magazine.

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