# Kong Gateway vs WSO2 API Manager

| Attribute | Kong Gateway | WSO2 API Manager |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 53.8 (74% (medium)) | 71 (23% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 10 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 1 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 44,260 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Kong provides a unified platform for building, testing, and governing APIs and AI agents. It handles both traditional API gateway functions—routing, rate limiting, authentication—and modern AI-specific concerns like token budgeting, context management, and LLM traffic control. It is indexed under API Gateways.","source":"https://konghq.com","question":"What is Kong Gateway?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Kong Gateway offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://konghq.com","question":"Is Kong Gateway free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Kong Gateway supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://konghq.com","question":"What platforms does Kong Gateway support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Kong Gateway can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://konghq.com","question":"Can Kong Gateway be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 11 integrations for Kong Gateway, including AWS Bedrock, Azure Content Safety, Google Cloud Model Armor, OpenAI, Anthropic, Llama 3, Kubernetes and Helm, plus 3 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://konghq.com","question":"What does Kong Gateway integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and GDPR for Kong Gateway. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Kong Gateway not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://konghq.com/compliance","question":"What security certifications does Kong Gateway have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Yes. Kong Gateway is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/Kong/kong","question":"Is Kong Gateway open source?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"Kong Gateway is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States.","source":"https://konghq.com","question":"Where is Kong Gateway available?","confidence":0.5}]` | `[{"answer":"A self-hosted API management solution providing gateway functionality, authentication, rate limiting, and protocol support for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and other APIs. Includes AI/LLM traffic management with semantic caching and policy enforcement. It is indexed under API Gateways.","source":"https://wso2.com/api-manager/","question":"What is WSO2 API Manager?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"WSO2 API Manager is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"http://wso2.com/asgardeo/pricing-old/","question":"Is WSO2 API Manager free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"WSO2 API Manager supports the web, Windows, macOS and Linux. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://wso2.com/api-manager/","question":"What platforms does WSO2 API Manager support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. WSO2 API Manager can be deployed hybrid, on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://wso2.com/api-manager/","question":"Can WSO2 API Manager be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 8 integrations for WSO2 API Manager, including OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, Google Gemini, Mistral, Azure Content Safety, Moesif and Azure AI. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://wso2.com/api-manager/","question":"What does WSO2 API Manager integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR for WSO2 API Manager. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as WSO2 API Manager not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://wso2.com/security","question":"What security certifications does WSO2 API Manager have?","confidence":0.7}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Kong Gateway is a scalable API and LLM gateway platform designed for cloud-native deployments. It provides traffic management, authentication, rate limiting, request transformation, and advanced AI capabilities. | WSO2 API Manager enables organizations to build and manage APIs with features including API versioning, policy enforcement, developer portals, Kubernetes integration, and advanced traffic management. The platform supports OpenAPI standards and provides tools for API testing, monitoring, and access control. |
| features.capabilities | `{"mtls":true,"hosting":"both","k8s_native":true,"oauth_oidc":true,"monetization":true,"observability":true,"rate_limiting":true,"developer_portal":true,"plugin_ecosystem":"extensive","request_transformation":true}` | `{"hosting":"both","k8s_native":true,"oauth_oidc":true,"grpc_support":true,"monetization":true,"observability":true,"pricing_model":"free_open_source","rate_limiting":true,"graphql_gateway":true,"developer_portal":true,"plugin_ecosystem":"extensive","architecture_model":"open_source_proxy","request_transformation":true,"pii_redaction_and_data_masking_in_flight":true,"custom_rate_limiting_by_user_or_tenant_id":true,"universal_api_key_for_100_plus_llm_providers":true,"auto_fallback_routing_on_rate_limit_or_downtime":true,"organization_wide_cost_tracking_and_chargebacks":true,"semantic_caching_for_repeat_queries_and_cost_savings":true}` |
| integrations.count | 12 | 600 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"AWS Bedrock"},{"name":"Azure Content Safety"},{"name":"Google Cloud Model Armor"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Anthropic"},{"name":"Llama 3"},{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"Helm"},{"name":"Git"},{"name":"Stripe"},{"name":"Twilio"},{"name":"Llama","native":true,"category":"llm","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"DocuSign","native":true,"category":"business_process","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Insomnia","native":true,"category":"api_development","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Apache Kafka","native":true,"category":"event_streaming","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Redis","native":true,"category":"cache","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Prometheus","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"cert-manager","native":true,"category":"pki","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"AWS Lambda","native":true}]` | `[{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Anthropic"},{"name":"Azure OpenAI"},{"name":"AWS Bedrock"},{"name":"Google Gemini"},{"name":"Mistral"},{"name":"AWS Bedrock Guardrails"},{"name":"Azure Content Safety"},{"name":"Moesif"},{"name":"Azure AI"},{"name":"Mistral AI"}]` |
| language.primary | Lua | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Open source core; Kong Konnect cloud platform offers free trial and commercial subscriptions","sourceUrl":"https://konghq.com","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T15:14:34.129Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Self-Hosted","summary":"Apache 2.0 licensed open source. No per-gateway fees or usage caps.","features":["Full lifecycle API management","Design and publish REST, GraphQL, WebSocket, Webhook APIs","Developer portal with try-it console","Multi-gateway support","Kubernetes and Docker deployment","Air-gapped environments","Distributed rate limiting and caching","API analytics","LLM gateway with multi-model routing","MCP gateway and tools discovery"],"contactSales":false}],"summary":"Free and open source. No per-gateway fees or usage caps.","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"http://wso2.com/asgardeo/pricing-old/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T16:53:43.456Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | no | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 42 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.9.4","date":"2026-10-12T07:27:48Z","type":"stable","version":"3.9.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.9.3","date":"2026-06-17T06:02:19Z","type":"stable","version":"3.9.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.9.2","date":"2026-06-04T07:12:53Z","type":"stable","version":"3.9.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.9.1","date":"2025-06-04T09:20:05Z","type":"stable","version":"3.9.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.9.0","date":"2024-12-13T04:17:54Z","type":"stable","version":"3.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.8.1","date":"2024-11-18T20:52:27Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.8.0","date":"2024-09-11T09:19:15Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/2.8.5","date":"2024-06-24T14:54:52Z","type":"stable","version":"2.8.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.7.1","date":"2024-06-21T09:38:32Z","type":"stable","version":"3.7.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.7.0","date":"2024-05-28T16:00:45Z","type":"stable","version":"3.7.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.6.1","date":"2024-03-04T14:19:57Z","type":"stable","version":"3.6.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.6.0","date":"2024-02-09T22:08:50Z","type":"stable","version":"3.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.5.0","date":"2023-11-08T09:50:40Z","type":"stable","version":"3.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.4.2","date":"2023-10-12T10:50:05Z","type":"stable","version":"3.4.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.4.1","date":"2023-10-03T10:33:19Z","type":"stable","version":"3.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/2.8.4","date":"2023-09-20T23:03:15Z","type":"stable","version":"2.8.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.4.0","date":"2023-08-09T15:57:37Z","type":"stable","version":"3.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.3.1","date":"2023-07-11T08:58:57Z","type":"stable","version":"3.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.3.0","date":"2023-05-18T17:19:41Z","type":"stable","version":"3.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Kong/kong/releases/tag/3.2.2","date":"2023-03-16T12:24:30Z","type":"stable","version":"3.2.2"}]` | - |
| reliability.sla_pct | 99.99 | - |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.pci | yes | yes |
| security.scorecard | 7.5 | - |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://konghq.com/blog/product-releases/trust-what-youre-shipping-with-insomnia-v12 | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2FKong%2Fkong&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | - |

## Capabilities (API Gateways)

| Capability | Kong Gateway | WSO2 API Manager |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | Cloud + self-hosted |
| Kubernetes-native | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Traffic** |  |  |
| Rate limiting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Request/response transformation | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Security** |  |  |
| OAuth2 / OIDC / JWT | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mutual TLS | ✓ | - |
| **Protocols** |  |  |
| GraphQL gateway | - | ✓ |
| gRPC support | - | ✓ |
| **Delivery** |  |  |
| Developer portal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Monetization | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Ecosystem** |  |  |
| Plugin ecosystem | Extensive | Extensive |
| **Insight** |  |  |
| Observability | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:15:09.816Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*
