# Kong Gateway vs Zuplo

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Zuplo

| Attribute | Kong Gateway | Zuplo |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 53.8 (74% (medium)) | 67.9 (70% (medium)) |
| 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":"An API gateway and management platform providing developer authentication, API key management, and consumer access control capabilities through a developer-facing API and portal. It is indexed under API Gateways.","source":"https://zuplo.com","question":"What is Zuplo?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Zuplo offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $25 per month. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://zuplo.com","question":"Is Zuplo free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Zuplo supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://zuplo.com","question":"What platforms does Zuplo support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Zuplo, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://zuplo.com","question":"Can Zuplo be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 7 integrations for Zuplo, including Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Codex, Windsurf, ChatGPT and Stripe. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://zuplo.com","question":"What does Zuplo integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 for Zuplo. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Zuplo not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://zuplo.com/docs/articles/security","question":"What security certifications does Zuplo have?","confidence":0.7}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":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. | An API gateway and management platform providing developer authentication, API key management, and consumer access control capabilities through a developer-facing API and portal. |
| 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}` | `{"mtls":true,"hosting":"cloud","oauth_oidc":true,"monetization":true,"observability":true,"rate_limiting":true,"graphql_gateway":true,"developer_portal":true,"plugin_ecosystem":"limited","request_transformation":true}` |
| integrations.count | 12 | 7 |
| 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":"Claude Code"},{"name":"Cursor"},{"name":"GitHub Copilot"},{"name":"Codex"},{"name":"Windsurf"},{"name":"ChatGPT"},{"name":"Stripe"},{"name":"Amberflo","native":false,"category":"billing","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Moesif","native":false,"category":"analytics","direction":"bidirectional"}]` |
| language.primary | Lua | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":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":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Starter","summary":"Free forever for ≤100K requests/month, no credit card required","features":["100K requests/month","1 day of analytics, live logs & traces","Up to 2 developer seats","GitOps with GitHub","MCP Gateway","AI Gateway","Developer Portal"],"minSeats":1,"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Individuals evaluating Zuplo or shipping a side project","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"requests":"100K/month","analytics_retention":"1 day"}},{"free":false,"name":"Builder","summary":"$25/month + $100 per 100K requests over included amount","features":["Custom domains","10 custom environments","1000 API consumers & keys","7 days analytics retention","1 day log & trace history","2 developer seats included","MCP Gateway","AI Gateway","Developer Portal","GitHub integration"],"minSeats":1,"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":25,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":100000,"unit":"requests"},"kind":"metered","amount":100,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Solo entrepreneurs & hobbyists going live","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"environments":"10","custom_domains":"2","consumers_and_api_keys":"1000"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"From $1,000/month annual contract with SLA guarantee and full enterprise features","features":["Custom volume discounts available","SSO + RBAC","Audit logs","99.5% SLA baseline (up to 99.999%)","Unlimited custom domains","Unlimited developer seats","GitOps with GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab, Azure DevOps","30 day analytics retention (custom available)","Unlimited log & trace history","MCP Gateway (unlimited MCP users/servers)","AI Gateway (custom teams)","Developer Portal"],"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":1000,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Teams, scaling APIs & mission-critical workloads","contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"environments":"None","custom_domains":"None"}}],"summary":"Free tier for ≤100K requests/month. Builder at $25/month with metered usage. Enterprise from $1,000/month with custom pricing available.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://zuplo.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-03T12:06:13.330Z","startingPrice":{"amount":25,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | no | no |
| 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 | 99.99 |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.certifications | - | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","status":"active"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.pci | 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 | https://zuplo.com/docs/articles/security |
| 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 | Zuplo |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | Cloud only |
| 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 | Limited |
| **Insight** |  |  |
| Observability | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T09:03:17.715Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*
