Tyk vs Kong – evaluating API management alternatives

In the rapidly evolving world of API management, choosing the right platform can be the difference between leading the market or lagging behind. Tyk doesn’t just offer an alternative to Kong; it redefines what you should expect from your API management platform.
See why Tyk is the best choice for ultra-performant, low overhead, cloud-native, top class UX/DX and streamlined API management.

See the difference Contact us

Let’s start with the fundamentals

Tyk has more to offer. Much more.

Feature	Benefit	Tyk	Kong
Native support for Kubernetes	Secure, powerful API management for Kubernetes environments.
Lightweight, ultra-performant, low overhead, cloud native gateway	Enables you to manage your APIs efficiently, without extra layers of complication over the top of your existing stack.
Fits seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines	Delivers a slick experience that flows from development to operations without a hitch.
Tyk owns the entire stack, all the way down	Purposefully designed, built and optimised for solving the challenges of API management. Not dependent on Nginx or third party technologies.
Fully open source, not open core	No functionality hidden behind a paywall.
Mature, fully centralised, multi-data centre, multi-cloud, offering	Industry-leading deployment flexibility. Can be implemented across large, complex infrastructures, distributed clouds and geographies with ease, speed and resilience.
All Gateway features available out-of-the box	Faster and easier implementation, no hidden costs or limited functionality – simply a better experience overall.
Supports GraphQL federation natively	Allows the easy translation of existing services and data sources into GraphQL subgraphs and supergraphs.
Next generation service orchestration engine	Take all your services – REST, GraphQL, Kafka, MQTT – and publish them to a service catalogue. Stitch them together and consume through a single powerful GraphQL query language.
World’s first GraphQL developer portal	Delivers developer-driven solutions through modern, lightweight, cloud native thinking.
Programmatic enterprise-grade RBAC and ABAC	Out of the box integration enables large teams to manage access and governance securely and at scale.
Extensibility in any language, not just Lua or JS	Delivers ultimate flexibility – implement without changing your architecture or ways of working.
Licence cost not tied to usage	Self-managed licences are available on a fixed fee, not “per API call.” Lower costs for your business – no huge increase in cost as you scale up.
Self-serve trial for enterprise	Install and use the product at your leisure, be sure Tyk meets your needs.

1. One gateway. Free. Forever.

Tyk
One fully open source API gateway

Kong
Two API gateways: a community version and an enterprise version

At Tyk we believe that everyone should be able to benefit from a powerful, enterprise-level API management solution. That’s why we don’t deliver a limited version of our gateway or one where functionality is hidden behind a paywall.

Our gateway is also fully open source, now and forever.

With Kong, the free gateway lacks features in comparison to the Enterprise gateway, but the Enterprise gateway isn’t open source.

With Tyk, you can benefit from a fully featured gateway that’s open source as well.

2. Fully Featured

Tyk
“Batteries Included”

Kong
Add features via plugins

Tyk has all the features you need for full lifecycle enterprise API management, ready to go, out of the box and with superb support. We’ve baked features like OpenID Connect and advanced JWT authentication capabilities into our open source solution, to provide you with everything you need, right from the outset.

You only need plugins for bespoke requirements, perhaps to integrate with that old legacy system you keep under a desk and don’t want to adjust.

Kong features are added and extended by plugins from Kong and the community.

3. No third-party tech

Tyk
Owns the entire stack

Kong
Built on third-party technology (Nginx)

We’re Tyk all the way down: we’re not built on anything else. All of the Tyk components have been built by our team and our community from scratch, without reliance on other vendors or products. We own our own stack.

This means that our performance and features aren’t restricted by other products.

The result? Greater flexibility, as we don’t need to adapt Tyk to work within the limitations of third party dependencies.

It also means no vendor lock-in and none of the associated risks that come with being tied down to specific vendors.

Finally, there’s the cost benefit. Tyk isn’t at the mercy of third party providers if they choose to increase their prices – so neither are you.

4. Policies

Tyk
Apply at API or global level

Kong
No policies

Tyk allows you to apply policies governing auth, rate limits, quotas, etc, at either API level or globally. This makes changing the rules simple and instant with Tyk.

Kong, on the other hand, doesn’t use policies. That means that, if you’ve issued one million tokens and you want to revoke access to all of them or change a rate limit, you need to do this for every token, one-by-one. Ouch.

5. Product trials

Tyk
Self-service, instant access enterprise trials for all

Kong
No self-service trials

We’re confident in offering free, instant, self-service access to our software to self-manage or use in the cloud, to companies of all shapes and sizes. And anyone can speak to our friendly, super-knowledgeable sales teams in London, Singapore and Atlanta USA, at any time.

6. Customer satisfaction

Tyk
#1 in Gartner, Forrester, G2, etc

Kong
Following Tyk

Tyk has been delivering customer satisfaction for years. It’s one of the reasons that global businesses continue to rely on us. We have a rating of 4.9 on Gartner Peer Insights, where users have praised our helpful team and excellent customer service:

“Our account manager has been extremely helpful, and the support we’ve been provided with has been second to none.”

“We have always received excellent service from Tyk and our feature requests have been turned around very quickly too.”

“During the whole time we always got perfect support. All our questions have been answered in short time and in a very personal way.”
“Customer service is also great and amazingly fast.”

What is Kong?

Kong provides a range of API management tools, including a software as a service (SaaS) API management platform, enterprise-grade API management solution, API gateway, service mesh and ingress controller for Kubernetes. There’s also a development platform for building and testing APIs, along with various plugins for extending Kong’s functionality.

Users can manage their APIs centrally using Kong, across different clouds, gateways, protocols, teams and architectures, while enjoying real-time visibility through a single control plane.

Features and capabilities

Kong’s features are designed to make API management easier and more efficient. Some notable features and capabilities include:

Single control plane for unified API management
Automated security to aid compliance and reduce risk
Federated API management
Efficient management of rate limiting, requests and responses
Protocol transformation
Gateway resilience

Benefits

Kong delivers a range of benefits. Companies using it to manage their APIs can achieve:

Faster time to market
Greater developer productivity
Automated security
Streamlined API management

Performance

Kong is known for its speed and reliability, with organisations relying on its solid performance across a wide range of verticals.

What should you consider most when choosing an API gateway?

Choosing the right API gateway is crucial. We’ve looked at this in depth in relation to choosing an API management layer, examining critical factors and why they are so important. In headline terms, four considerations are key to choosing an API gateway. These are:

Security – your gateway should deliver robust security that keeps your APIs and data safe against the latest threats.
Reliability – whether you’re using APIs internally, externally or both, reliable performance is a must.
Scalability – business growth often comes in sudden spurts, meaning you need an API gateway that can handle rapid scaling with ease.
Integrations – your API gateway needs to play nicely with existing systems and microservices, as well as those you’ll be implementing in future, all without creating headaches for your hard-working IT people.

These factors mean you can manage your APIs seamlessly while keeping everyone from regulators to customers using your API products happy. Of course, outstanding customer support is important too – there’s plenty of peace of mind in knowing a dedicated team of experts has your back.

By choosing an API gateway that is secure, reliable, scalable and easy to integrate, you’re laying the foundations for successful API management. And by doing that, you’re positioning your business for future growth.

Tyk vs Kong – Gartner reviews

Based on verified reviews from real users in the API management market, Kong has a rating on Gartner of 4.5 stars with 164 reviews. Tyk has a rating of 4.8 stars with 77 reviews. Have a look at the Gartner Peer Insights comparison page for more about Kong vs Tyk.