External reviews
295 reviews
from
and
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Flexible Deployment, Smooth Setup
What do you like best about the product?
I really like Kong Gateway's deployment flexibility. It can be deployed in various environments, whether on-premise, off-premise, or in the cloud. It's also appreciated how easy it is to configure services, routes, plugins, and consumers, making the whole setup process smooth and easy. Additionally, the gateway support team is very helpful, providing great assistance.
What do you dislike about the product?
I think Kong Gateway could use some improvements in compliance with regulations like GDPR or HIPAA depending on the environment. It needs to be more compliant in those aspects.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use Kong Gateway for API management, microservices, and securing and routing requests.
Phenomenal Speed and GitOps-Friendly Routing with Kong Ingress Controller
What do you like best about the product?
The speed is phenomenal, but the real game-changer is how the Kong Ingress Controller allows us to automate our entire routing configuration through kubernetes native resources and GitOps best practices. Using the OIDC and Rate Limiting plugins saved us weeks of custom development, instantly securing our services with zero performance hit.
What do you dislike about the product?
The shift away from a fully supported Open Source (OSS) model is disappointing, as it forces teams to move toward the Enterprise/Konnect licensing much earlier than expected to maintain security and stability. This transition adds significant overhead for smaller projects and complicates our long-term roadmap when balancing cost against the need for basic production-grade features.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Before Kong, we were bogged down manually coding cross-cutting concerns like OAuth2 and rate limiting for every new service, but now we offload all that complexity to the gateway. This "kickstart" approach has slashed our initial development time by weeks and ensures our entire API ecosystem has a consistent, high-quality security posture from day one.
Great Performance and Extensibility, but Missing AI Features and Plugin Support
What do you like best about the product?
Performance and extensibility, platform independence & cloud capability.
What do you dislike about the product?
Lack of AI features and plugins capability
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
API Gateway is need by all organisations with multiple systems and data pipelines
Easy Onboarding, Tricky Setup with Powerful UI
What do you like best about the product?
I use Kong Gateway for load balancing and find that it handles preflight checks and acts as an auth wrapper using simple modules really well. I appreciate its best UI for routing, which makes things straightforward. What I like the most about Kong Gateway is how easy it is to onboard and use the UI, making the overall experience smooth and enjoyable.
What do you dislike about the product?
The system setup part could be improved. It can be tricky, and having a feature like Helm to set it up instantly would be beneficial.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use Kong Gateway for load balancing, handling preflight checks, using auth wrappers with simple modules, and routing efficiently with the best UI.
Kong: A Powerful Open-Source API Gateway for Managing APIs Across Any Environment
What do you like best about the product?
One of the Popular opensource API Gateways which help us to manage APIs deployed anywhere from a simple infra to complex multi cloud environment.
As per my obeservation Kong is capable to handle different protocols like REST, GRPC, Graphql which enables us to manage almost all of our APIs needs.
As per my obeservation Kong is capable to handle different protocols like REST, GRPC, Graphql which enables us to manage almost all of our APIs needs.
What do you dislike about the product?
Need improvement on AI features and plugins in Kong Gateway is limited, impacting overall functionality and performance.
There is lack of analytics and monitoring in Kong Gateway, hindering effective performance tracking.
There is lack of analytics and monitoring in Kong Gateway, hindering effective performance tracking.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
While using other backend APIs, we ended up in applying many of the below architecture characteristics to every individual APIs to support the general requirements. That will be a lot of work.
Authentication/Authorization, Monitoring, Logging, Traffic control, Caching, API Administration etc..
While using Kong Gateway it will take away all these cross-cutting concerns in managing these APIs and put them all across in a single plane. This will provide us with a lot of architecture advantages.
Authentication/Authorization, Monitoring, Logging, Traffic control, Caching, API Administration etc..
While using Kong Gateway it will take away all these cross-cutting concerns in managing these APIs and put them all across in a single plane. This will provide us with a lot of architecture advantages.
Kong Gateway’s Flexible, High-Performance Plugin Architecture
What do you like best about the product?
I love Kong Gateway's flexibility and performance thanks to its modular plugin architecture. This makes it easy to add features like authentication, rate limiting, and logging without changing the core service, while also centralizing API management, keeping the backend focused on business logic.
What do you dislike about the product?
While powerful, Kong Gateway has a steep learning curve and configuration can become complex as needs evolve.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Kong Gateway helps address the complexity of API management in microservices architectures, especially in Kubernetes environments. By centralizing functions like authentication, rate limiting, and routing, I don't need to implement them in every service. This is especially beneficial in fintech because it improves consistency, security, and simplifies scaling and compliance, freeing the backend to focus on business logic.
Centralized API Control with Operational Challenges
What do you like best about the product?
I like that Kong Gateway is on premise, so we can control it ourselves without data flowing to different cloud providers. It gives us centralized control over our API routing, which is essential for managing all the APIs in one place.
What do you dislike about the product?
I think it has a lot of operation overhead, like patching and other things. That's why we're migrating to the Chrome connect, where the control plan is hosted in the SaaS space. And the data plans leave our network, which have private access to all the backend.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Kong Gateway provides essential control for all our APIs, offering a centralized platform for managing API routing.
Reliable API Gateway with Strong Flexibility
What do you like best about the product?
What stands out most is the flexibility and control it gives us over our API traffic. The plugin-based architecture has been especially useful: we can apply authentication, rate limiting, and logging in a consistent way without having to build everything ourselves. It also integrates smoothly into our existing stack and supports both cloud and on-prem setups, which matters for us given our regulatory and data constraints. Performance has been solid under load as well, and that reliability is critical for our use cases.
What do you dislike about the product?
The biggest challenge for me is the initial setup and the ongoing maintenance. It isn’t always straightforward, especially for teams that aren’t deeply familiar with API gateway concepts. When configuration issues come up, debugging can take a while, and although the documentation is extensive, it can feel a bit fragmented when you’re working through more advanced scenarios. I also get the sense that some enterprise features are more necessary than optional, which can affect cost considerations.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Kong has helped us centralise API management and apply consistent security policies across our services. Before we started using it, many of these controls were implemented separately within each service, which led to duplication and inconsistent behaviour. Now we rely on a single layer for authentication, routing, and monitoring, which lowers risk and makes governance much simpler.
Empowers API Management with Ease, Despite Initial Setup Hurdles
What do you like best about the product?
I like that Kong Gateway is a very useful tool for building secure and scalable applications. It helps me organize, secure, and manage all my APIs easily in one place. What I liked is that many features, like security and rate limiting, can be added easily without much coding. I like how it makes managing and securing APIs simple and organized. I enjoy its speed and how smoothly it integrates with my work.
What do you dislike about the product?
Initial setup can be tricky and debugging could be simpler. Debugging is sometimes hard because errors aren't clear. Clearer error messages or a visual dashboard could make it easier.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Kong Gateway helps securely manage and organize all my APIs efficiently, handling traffic smoothly. It simplifies adding features like security and rate limiting without much coding and integrates well with my workflow.
Robust API Governance and Identity Controls with Kong Gateway
What do you like best about the product?
Kong Gateway provides a robust set of API rules, policies, governance, and identity controls for proper shielding and protection of assets.
What do you dislike about the product?
The Kong Gateway does so many things, and the options are numerous that being focused on particular use cases with specific configuration can be daunting.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Main problem Kong Gateway is solving is a shielding aspect for core software programs and keeping misbehaving systems from interfering with functional activities.
showing 1 - 10