IBM API Connect vs. Kong Gateway Community (Open Source)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM API Connect
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
IBM API Connect is a scalable API solution that helps organizations implement a robust API strategy by creating, exposing, managing and monetizing an entire API ecosystem across multiple clouds. As businesses embrace their digital transformation journey, APIs become critical to unlock the value of business data and assets. With increasing adoption of APIs, consistency and governance are needed across the enterprise. API Connect aims to help businesses…
$83
per month
Kong Gateway Community (Open Source)
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
Kong Gateway Community (Open Source) is the open source community Gateway supported by Kong, Inc, in San Francisco. Presented as the world's most popular API gateway, it is built for hybrid and multi-cloud, optimized for microservices and distributed architectures. Kong Gateway is also part of the Konnect platform, Kong's enterprise service offering.N/A
Pricing
IBM API ConnectKong Gateway Community (Open Source)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM API ConnectKong Gateway Community (Open Source)
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM API ConnectKong Gateway Community (Open Source)
Considered Both Products
IBM API Connect
Chose IBM API Connect
API Connect was far more mature, far quicker than Kong. It was clear a few years ago that API Connect features such as Applications and Product groupings were the way forward as Kong was at the time lacking these but planning to replicate them in their roadmaps
Chose IBM API Connect
API Connect provides the most complete feature set out of all the above mentioned
Kong Gateway Community (Open Source)

No answer on this topic

Features
IBM API ConnectKong Gateway Community (Open Source)
API Management
Comparison of API Management features of Product A and Product B
IBM API Connect
8.4
57 Ratings
0% below category average
Kong Gateway Community (Open Source)
-
Ratings
API access control8.957 Ratings00 Ratings
Rate limits and usage policies8.852 Ratings00 Ratings
API usage data8.755 Ratings00 Ratings
API user onboarding8.656 Ratings00 Ratings
API versioning8.356 Ratings00 Ratings
Usage billing and payments7.645 Ratings00 Ratings
API monitoring and logging8.356 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IBM API ConnectKong Gateway Community (Open Source)
Small Businesses
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.7 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.7 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.7 out of 10
Oracle SOA Suite
Oracle SOA Suite
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM API ConnectKong Gateway Community (Open Source)
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(40 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.3
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(32 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM API ConnectKong Gateway Community (Open Source)
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM
Based on our experience, IBM API Connect clearly excels in large enterprises navigating complex B2B ecosystems, especially within the Fintech and Banking sectors. Its capabilities are particularly valuable for achieving Open Banking compliance, facilitating the monetization of data and services, and seamlessly operating in hybrid cloud environments. However, it's crucial to understand that IBM API Connect primarily functions as an API management and orchestration tool. This means that backend integrations with providers like databases are best handled by dedicated integration middleware, such as IBM App Connect, allowing API Connect to then securely and efficiently expose those functionalities to external entities.
Read full review
Kong, Inc
You can use Kong for simple to complex micro service back-ends. You can leverage the various categories of plugins to quickly set-up things.
Read full review
Pros
IBM
  • API discovery feature is very helpful to allow us to scope the work required before diving into things.
  • The ability to set permissions and rulesets at a user level is essential to restrict access to specific datasets.
  • Ability for external users (those from outside our organisation) to leverage the API in more restrictive manner.
Read full review
Kong, Inc
  • Mapping requests to back-end services
  • Plugins for almost everything
  • It's super fast
Read full review
Cons
IBM
  • Improvement can come in the interface of the tool, which is sometimes complex and requires a deep understanding of the tool.
  • Improving the different levels of access to the playroom could be helpful because product owners and developers need to see other information.
  • Publishing API and integration of API can be more straightforward.
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Kong, Inc
No answers on this topic
Usability
IBM
I can honestly say that the availability of the platform has been incredible, with almost no disruptions during the two years of the implementation. Availability is provided through the distributed architecture that may be deployed in multiple zones. We have had almost no cases of unplanned outages, and most maintenance operations were done during planned downtimes.
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Kong, Inc
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
IBM
IBM API Connect and Apigee are both robust API management platforms. IBM API Connect was selected for its strong integration capabilities, hybrid cloud deployment options, and comprehensive analytics. It aligns well with organizations seeking flexibility and control over their API ecosystems, especially when dealing with complex integration scenarios across diverse environments.
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Kong, Inc
We haven't used anything else.
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Return on Investment
IBM
  • Our company benefited from IBM API Connect's assistance in establishing cooperation with our outside providers and efficiently managing the API. As a result, we were able to expand our vendor ecosystem.
  • Additionally, creating APIs and implementing them on the goods was not too difficult. Additionally, we were able to ensure that only appropriate people could publish the APIs following evaluation by using role-based access control.
  • Our teams were able to reuse and share departmental APIs and services with each other thanks to the simple, self-service developer site.
Read full review
Kong, Inc
No answers on this topic
ScreenShots

IBM API Connect Screenshots

Screenshot of API tests and insightsScreenshot of API Manager customization interfaceScreenshot of the API designer