Tyk vs Kong vs Apigee vs Azure
Evaluating API management platforms? Here’s what they aren’t telling you
Kong doesn’t own its whole product stack. It doesn’t support all API types, and deployment options are limited.
Kong customers complain about hidden costs, lack of customer support, and reduced features.
The world’s biggest companies trust Tyk to deliver exceptional API experiences.
Which API management platform is best?
Tyk adds a whole heap of value that other providers don’t – features, support, reliability and general all-round greatness. Here, we weigh the pros and cons of Kong, Apigee and Azure; there’s plenty to think about.
Free vs paid, in short. Free and open source (MPL 2.0): Tyk Gateway and Tyk Pump; no license needed. The open-source Gateway already includes OIDC (via JWT validation), JWT, Basic Auth and client-certificate (mTLS) authentication, plus rate limiting and quotas. Paid (license key): Tyk Dashboard, Tyk Developer Portal, Tyk Operator and MDCB.
Tyk Operator is designed for Tyk Dashboard and needs a license; it is included in Tyk’s paid plans. Kubernetes Gateway API support is coming in Tyk Operator 1.6; today Operator uses Tyk’s own custom resources. If a Tyk license lapses, nothing stops working and your existing APIs keep serving traffic; you just can’t create or update APIs until it is renewed. There is no grace period, but Tyk reminds you in advance.
Plans: Core, Professional and Enterprise. Pricing is quote-based with no public list prices: Core is priced by the number of APIs managed; Professional by the number of environments and data centres: each environment you run counts, and so does each data centre it runs in (pricing, contact Tyk). Paid plans include Tyk’s Enhanced success plan. Tyk support is rated 4.8/5 for Service & Support on Gartner Peer Insights.
Getting a license key is self-serve. Register on the Tyk Self-Managed trial page for a free 14-day trial license, with no upfront cost and no demo call; Tyk emails the key within 5 minutes. Prefer SaaS? Tyk Cloud has a free 48-hour trial with no credit card.
Support in production. When a gateway fails, every API behind it fails too, so compare support contracts (response times, coverage hours and who answers), not only features. Service & Support is Tyk’s highest-rated category on Gartner Peer Insights, at 4.8 out of 5 (checked 26 Oct 2026). Your order form sets your exact support entitlements.
Features
Tyk
Kong
Azure
Apigee
Why users choose Tyk
Tyk versus Kong
Customers who have switched from Kong to Tyk tell us of four key ways that Tyk makes your life easier, including some fundamental features that we believe can make all the difference to how efficiently and effectively your business can operate
With Tyk, you get:
- Supports every API type: REST, GraphQL, gRPC and Async APIs
- Fully featured, straight out of the box
- No third-party tech
- Ability to apply policies at API or global level
Tyk versus Azure
When it comes to comparing Tyk versus Azure, our customers tell us that Tyk provides more of what they need. Much more.
With Tyk, you get:
- Full on-premises solution, even at basic tier
- Multiple deployment options that can be managed by a team with a flexible skillset
- Fully functioning gateway, even if control plane is disconnected or licence expires
Tyk versus Apigee
A simple comparison of Tyk and Apigee quickly higlights which is the best multi-cloud, multi-region SaaS solution, and which API gateway delivers the flexibility of self-managed, cloud or hybrid options
With Tyk, you get:
- Platform agnostic cloud deployment
- Multi-data centre, multi-region, multi-cloud and hybrid deployments available
- REST APIs available for all product features
- Supports native plug-ins in Javascript, Python, Lua and Go
