vsAmazon API Gateway vs Kong
API management head-to-head for ERP teams: evidenced capabilities, published pricing, and which ERPs each actually integrates with.
 Amazon API Gateway | ||
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Pay-as-you-go, per API call plus data transfer | From $500/user/mo (published) |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud, On-premise, Hybrid |
| Company size | — | SMB, Enterprise |
| Stated ERP integrations | SAP | None listed |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services, Inc. | Kong Inc. |
Our take
Where Amazon API Gateway leads
- Stronger evidenced coverage on 10 of the 32 capabilities where they differ (led by custom domains & api versioning and api key issuance & validation).
- Stated SAP integration the alternative doesn't list.
Where Kong leads
- Stronger evidenced coverage on 22 of the 32 capabilities where they differ (led by load balancing and mutual tls authentication).
- Published pricing where the alternative quotes.
Where they differ
The 32 capabilities (of 47 in the API management taxonomy) where the evidence separates them, biggest gaps first. “Not evidenced” means our research found no public documentation of this capability — the vendor may still offer it. Confirm on a demo.
| Capability | Amazon API Gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| Load balancingAPI Gateway & Traffic Management | Not evidenced | Core strength Routing, load balancing and reverse proxying |
| Mutual TLS authenticationSecurity & Access Control | Not evidenced | Core strength Mutual TLS authentication for routes and services |
| Secrets manager / vault integrationSecurity & Access Control | Not evidenced | Core strength Vault and cloud secrets-manager integration for credential storage |
| Multi-provider LLM traffic routingAI & MCP Gateway | Not evidenced | Core strength Multi-provider LLM routing across OpenAI, Azure, Bedrock, Gemini, Cohere and Anthropic |
| AI token quotas & cost attributionAI & MCP Gateway | Not evidenced | Core strength Token budgeting for AI/LLM requests |
| Semantic caching for AI requestsAI & MCP Gateway | Not evidenced | Core strength Semantic caching for AI/LLM requests |
| Self-hosted / on-premises deploymentDeployment & Architecture | Not evidenced | Core strength On-premises, hybrid and fully managed Konnect deployment modes |
| Hybrid / multi-cloud deploymentDeployment & Architecture | Not evidenced | Core strength Hybrid deployment mode with unified management across multiple runtime and gateway groups |
| Kubernetes-native deploymentDeployment & Architecture | Not evidenced | Core strength Kubernetes-native Ingress Controller |
| Usage-based billing / monetizationGovernance & Monetization | Not evidenced | Core strength API analytics and usage-based billing (Konnect) |
| Custom domains & API versioningAPI Gateway & Traffic Management | Supported Custom domain names/base path mapping plus versioning and stage management | Not evidenced |
| OAuth2 / OpenID Connect supportSecurity & Access Control | Partial OAuth2-style auth via Cognito user pool authorizers; no generic OIDC provider support listed | Core strength OAuth2 (Community); OpenID Connect and SAML 2.0 (Enterprise) |
| API key issuance & validationSecurity & Access Control | Supported API keys tied to usage plans | Not evidenced |
| WAF / OWASP API Top 10 protectionSecurity & Access Control | Supported AWS WAF integration for request filtering | Not evidenced |
| Self-service developer portalDeveloper Portal & Publishing | Not evidenced | Supported Developer portal and API service catalog (Konnect) |
| API catalog & discoveryDeveloper Portal & Publishing | Not evidenced | Supported API service catalog (Konnect) |
| Version & retirement managementAPI Lifecycle & Design | Supported API versioning and stage management | Not evidenced |
| Distributed tracing integrationObservability & Analytics | Supported AWS X-Ray tracing integration | Not evidenced |
| Centralized logging & metrics exportObservability & Analytics | Supported CloudWatch logging | Not evidenced |
| Federated gateway managementDeployment & Architecture | Not evidenced | Supported Unified management across multiple runtime and gateway groups |
| Centralized API governanceGovernance & Monetization | Not evidenced | Supported Unified management across multiple runtime and gateway groups |
| Legacy protocol support (SOAP/EDI)ERP & Enterprise Connectivity | Not evidenced | Supported SOAP traffic support |
| Multi-protocol supportAPI Gateway & Traffic Management | Supported REST, HTTP and WebSocket APIs; no native GraphQL/SOAP/gRPC listed | Core strength REST, gRPC, GraphQL, WebSocket, UDP, SOAP and Kafka traffic |
| Rate limiting & quota enforcementAPI Gateway & Traffic Management | Supported Request throttling and usage plans | Core strength Rate limiting plus rate limiting advanced with sliding-window controls |
| Custom / serverless authorizersSecurity & Access Control | Core strength Custom AWS Lambda authorizers, token- or request-based | Supported Custom plugins via Kong Plugin Development Kit |
| Role-based access controlSecurity & Access Control | Supported AWS IAM-based authorization/policies | Core strength Role-based access control (RBAC) |
| App registration & subscriptionsDeveloper Portal & Publishing | Partial Usage plans/API keys support subscriber tiers; no built-in self-service dev portal | Not evidenced |
| Spec-first design (OpenAPI)API Lifecycle & Design | Not evidenced | Partial Kong Insomnia (sold separately) covers API design; not part of core Gateway/Konnect feature set |
| CI/CD pipeline integrationAPI Lifecycle & Design | Not evidenced | Partial Declarative (kong.yaml) config supports GitOps-style deploys; explicit CI/CD tooling not detailed |
| Uptime / synthetic monitoringObservability & Analytics | Partial Via CloudWatch alarms/metrics; no dedicated synthetic monitoring feature listed | Not evidenced |
| Chargeback / cost attributionGovernance & Monetization | Not evidenced | Partial Token budgeting scoped to AI/LLM traffic; general API chargeback not detailed |
| Enterprise SSO / identity federationERP & Enterprise Connectivity | Partial Amazon Cognito user pools; no native SAML/Entra ID enterprise federation listed | Not evidenced |
Both grade identically on the other 15 capabilities — see each product's full profile: Amazon API Gateway, Kong.
Amazon API Gateway vs Kong — FAQs
Is Amazon API Gateway or Kong better for ERP integration?
They state different ERP coverage: Amazon API Gateway lists SAP; Kong lists no ERP integrations publicly.
Which is cheaper, Amazon API Gateway or Kong?
Kong publishes a starting rate ($500/user/mo); Amazon API Gateway prices by quote, so a like-for-like number requires asking both.
Get pricing for both
Tell us your ERP, seat count and must-haves and we'll come back with an independent view of what Amazon API Gateway and Kong should each cost you — and whether a third option belongs on your shortlist.