Azure API Management vs Kong

Updated November 2026 · AppBreakup editorial

Azure API Management

Microsoft's managed API gateway, developer portal and policy engine on Azure.

Paid

Visit Azure API Management Azure API Management profile

Kong

Open-source API and AI gateway with a plugin ecosystem and the Konnect cloud management platform.

Open sourceSelf-hostable

Visit Kong Kong profile

The short answer

Azure API Management suits organisations already on Azure that want a managed gateway with a ready-made developer portal and ties to Entra ID and Azure Monitor. Kong suits platform teams that want an open-source gateway they can run anywhere, extended through plugins. The biggest difference is that Kong's core is free and self-hostable, while Azure's self-hosted gateway needs the Premium tier for production.

Azure API Management or Kong: our take

Azure API Management bundles three parts: a gateway that applies policies such as rate limits, quotas, caching and transforms; a management plane for importing and grouping APIs into products; and a developer portal, which is open source and customizable, where developers read docs, try calls and get keys. It imports OpenAPI, WSDL, OData, WebSocket, GraphQL and gRPC APIs. Kong Gateway is an open-source gateway under Apache-2.0 that runs on Linux, in Docker or on Kubernetes, with most features coming from a large plugin library you can extend with your own code.

Pricing models differ. Azure API Management is billed per tier: a serverless Consumption tier billed per execution, a Developer tier with no SLA for evaluation and testing, and Basic, Standard and Premium tiers billed by the hour. Kong's core is free to self-host, and the hosted Konnect control plane starts from $25/month plus usage after a 30-day trial, with enterprise pricing by quote. On both sides, the portal and governance features cost money: in Kong, many advanced plugins and the portal need a paid licence.

For hybrid setups, Azure offers a self-hosted gateway container for on-premises and multi-cloud backends, but production use requires the costly Premium tier. Kong was built for this: self-hosted, hybrid or fully managed are all options. Azure's policies are written in XML, which takes some learning; Kong is configured through plugins and has more to operate when self-hosted.

Pick Azure API Management if your stack is on Azure and you want a managed gateway and developer portal tied into Entra ID, Azure Monitor and virtual networks. Pick Kong if you want an open-source gateway that isn't tied to one cloud, plan to run on Kubernetes or on premises, or want to start free and add a managed control plane later.

Choose Azure API Management if…

Azure-based organisations that want a managed API gateway with a ready-made developer portal
Built-in developer portal with docs, test console and self-service API keys
Imports OpenAPI, WSDL, GraphQL and gRPC definitions

Choose Kong if…

Platform teams wanting a battle-tested open-source gateway with an optional managed control plane
You want open-source software
You need to host it on your own servers
You want a free option (Azure API Management is paid only)
You need Linux and Self-hosted, which Azure API Management doesn't list

What is Azure API Management?

Azure API Management is Microsoft's hosted service for publishing, securing and monitoring APIs. It combines three parts: a gateway that sits in front of your backends and applies policies such as rate limits, quotas, caching and payload transforms; a management plane where you import API definitions and group them into products; and a developer portal where outside or internal developers read docs, try calls and get keys. You can import OpenAPI, WSDL, OData, GraphQL, WebSocket and gRPC APIs, and the backends can live on Azure, on premises or in another cloud. A self-hosted gateway container lets you run the data plane closer to those backends, though in production it needs the Premium tier. It suits teams already on Azure who want API governance tied to Entra ID, Azure Monitor and virtual networks. Pricing is per tier and per unit: a serverless Consumption tier billed by request, a Developer tier for testing without an SLA, and Basic, Standard and Premium tiers (classic and v2) billed by the hour. It is managed through the Azure portal, CLI, ARM/Bicep templates or Terraform.

What is Kong?

Kong Gateway is one of the most widely deployed API gateways. It runs in front of your services to route traffic and handle authentication, rate limiting, transformations, logging and monitoring, mostly through a large library of plugins that can be extended with your own code. The core gateway is open source under Apache 2.0 and can run on Linux, in Docker or on Kubernetes through its ingress controller. Kong Inc. builds commercial layers on top: Konnect, a hosted control plane with a developer portal, analytics and service catalog, plus enterprise plugins and an AI gateway for governing LLM and MCP traffic. Teams can self-host everything, run hybrid with Kong-hosted control planes, or use fully managed gateways. Konnect has a free trial and usage-based paid plans; enterprise pricing is by quote. It suits platform teams that want a proven gateway with room to grow into full API management.

Side by side

Attribute	Azure API Management	Kong
Pricing	Paid	Open source
Open source	No	Yes
Self-hostable	No	Yes
Platforms	Web	Web, Linux, Self-hosted
Best for	Azure-based organisations that want a managed API gateway with a ready-made developer portal	Platform teams wanting a battle-tested open-source gateway with an optional managed control plane
Status	Active	Active