Azure API Management vs Kong
API management head-to-head for ERP teams: evidenced capabilities, published pricing, and which ERPs each actually integrates with.
| Starting price | Tiered subscription, plus a pay-per-call Consumption tier | From $500/user/mo (published) |
| Deployment | Cloud, Hybrid | Cloud, On-premise, Hybrid |
| Company size | — | SMB, Enterprise |
| Stated ERP integrations | SAP | None listed |
| Vendor | Microsoft | Kong Inc. |
Our take
Where Azure API Management leads
- Stronger evidenced coverage on 13 of the 25 capabilities where they differ (led by waf / owasp api top 10 protection and lifecycle governance checks).
- Stated SAP integration the alternative doesn't list.
Where Kong leads
- Stronger evidenced coverage on 12 of the 25 capabilities where they differ (led by mutual tls authentication and role-based access control).
- Published pricing where the alternative quotes.
Where they differ
The 25 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 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Mutual TLS authenticationSecurity & Access Control | Not evidenced | Core strength Mutual TLS authentication for routes and services |
| Role-based access controlSecurity & Access Control | Not evidenced | Core strength Role-based access control (RBAC) |
| WAF / OWASP API Top 10 protectionSecurity & Access Control | Core strength Built-in defenses against the OWASP API Security Top 10 | Not evidenced |
| Secrets manager / vault integrationSecurity & Access Control | Not evidenced | Core strength Vault and cloud secrets-manager integration for credential storage |
| Lifecycle governance checksAPI Lifecycle & Design | Core strength Centralized API governance via API Center | Not evidenced |
| MCP server generation / gatewayAI & MCP Gateway | Core strength One-click transformation of existing REST APIs into MCP servers | Not evidenced |
| AI content-safety guardrailsAI & MCP Gateway | Core strength Content safety enforcement with prompt and completion logging | Not evidenced |
| Usage-based billing / monetizationGovernance & Monetization | Not evidenced | Core strength API analytics and usage-based billing (Konnect) |
| SAP OData/BAPI/RFC connectivityERP & Enterprise Connectivity | Core strength SAP OData metadata import; SAP Gateway Foundation, S/4HANA and SuccessFactors OData v2/v4 | Not evidenced |
| Enterprise SSO / identity federationERP & Enterprise Connectivity | Core strength Microsoft Entra ID to SAML token conversion for SAP Principal Propagation SSO | Not evidenced |
| Request/response transformationAPI Gateway & Traffic Management | Supported XML policy engine supports request/response transformation | Not evidenced |
| Response cachingAPI Gateway & Traffic Management | Supported Response caching and dynamic routing | Not evidenced |
| Load balancingAPI Gateway & Traffic Management | Partial Dynamic routing referenced; explicit backend load balancing not detailed | Core strength Routing, load balancing and reverse proxying |
| Circuit breaking & resilienceAPI Gateway & Traffic Management | Supported Circuit breaking for backend resilience | Not evidenced |
| OAuth2 / OpenID Connect supportSecurity & Access Control | Partial Authentication/authorization policy engine; OAuth2/OIDC not itemized by name in sourced material | Core strength OAuth2 (Community); OpenID Connect and SAML 2.0 (Enterprise) |
| Custom / serverless authorizersSecurity & Access Control | Not evidenced | Supported Custom plugins via Kong Plugin Development Kit |
| Self-service developer portalDeveloper Portal & Publishing | Not evidenced | Supported Developer portal and API service catalog (Konnect) |
| Usage & performance dashboardsObservability & Analytics | Not evidenced | Supported API analytics and usage-based billing (Konnect) |
| Multi-provider LLM traffic routingAI & MCP Gateway | Partial AI API governance (quotas, caching, MCP) evidenced; explicit multi-provider LLM routing not itemized | Core strength Multi-provider LLM routing across OpenAI, Azure, Bedrock, Gemini, Cohere and Anthropic |
| Rate limiting & quota enforcementAPI Gateway & Traffic Management | Supported Authentication, authorization and rate limiting policies | Core strength Rate limiting plus rate limiting advanced with sliding-window controls |
| API catalog & discoveryDeveloper Portal & Publishing | Core strength Centralized API governance via API Center; discovery across traditional and AI APIs | Supported API service catalog (Konnect) |
| Spec-first design (OpenAPI)API Lifecycle & Design | Supported GitHub Copilot spec generation; SAP OData metadata import/convert to OpenAPI | 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 |
| Centralized API governanceGovernance & Monetization | Core strength Centralized API governance via API Center | Supported Unified management across multiple runtime and gateway groups |
| Prebuilt ERP connector libraryERP & Enterprise Connectivity | Partial OData import pattern for SAP, not a packaged/productized ERP connector | Not evidenced |
Both grade identically on the other 22 capabilities — see each product's full profile: Azure API Management, Kong.
Azure API Management vs Kong — FAQs
Is Azure API Management or Kong better for ERP integration?
They state different ERP coverage: Azure API Management lists SAP; Kong lists no ERP integrations publicly.
Which is cheaper, Azure API Management or Kong?
Kong publishes a starting rate ($500/user/mo); Azure API Management 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 Azure API Management and Kong should each cost you — and whether a third option belongs on your shortlist.
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