IT AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Developer platform › September 2026 Edition

API gateways

Asked as “API gateway”, and as “API gateway and traffic management tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Kong Gateway
Clear leader
61% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 67 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessZuplo43%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-marketKong Gateway61%Clear leaderThis pageEnterpriseKong Gateway45%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Kong Gateway61%13%71endorsed leader
02Zuplo16%0%27accepted challenger
03Tyk10%4%50accepted challenger
04Amazon API Gateway6%16%58accepted challenger
05Apache APISIX4%9%22accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Apigee0%42%48criticized challenger
09MuleSoft Anypoint Platform0%42%12criticized challenger
08NGINX0%27%15criticized challenger
06Azure API Management0%18%33accepted challenger
07Traefik0%0%21accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Kong Gateway vs ZuploKong Gateway vs TykZuplo vs Tyk

One product takes 61% of first choices here, so the chart would put nine markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. Three products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category. Jump to the standing

02What they warned about

Seven of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Apigee
42%
20 of 48 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Apigee: It is not suitable for modernizing infrastructure to adopt technologies like microservices, containers, and Kubernetes, as it was built with older technology.” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
Amazon API Gateway
16%
9 of 58 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Avoid** using deprecated or retired features/platforms (... AWS API Gateway for high‑scale).” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Kong Gateway
13%
9 of 71 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Free trials, then usage-based (~$25+/mo)—avoid if truly limited budget.” Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt
Azure API Management
18%
6 of 33 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Avoid** using deprecated or retired features/platforms (Azure APIM v0/v1, legacy portal, stv1” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

63 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 778 links across 201 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

zuplo.com
vendor site · Zuplo36 answers · 63 citations · 10 models
geekflare.com
33 answers · 33 citations · 9 models
toolradar.com
29 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
api7.ai
28 answers · 37 citations · 10 models
digitalapi.ai
vendor site · DigitalAPI22 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
dupple.com
22 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
sourceforge.net
vendor site · SourceForge22 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
reddit.com
18 answers · 32 citations · 9 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow16 answers · 16 citations · 6 models
moesif.com
15 answers · 18 citations · 7 models
tyk.io
vendor site · Tyk14 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
konghq.com
12 answers · 15 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

geekflare.com/guides/best-api-gateways
33 answers · 9 models
toolradar.com/guides/best-api-gateways
29 answers · 9 models
dupple.com/learn/best-api-gateways
22 answers · 9 models
api7.ai/top-11-api-gateways-platforms-compared
17 answers · 10 models
digitalapi.ai/blogs/best-api-gateway
16 answers · 6 models
zuplo.com/learning-center/api-gateway-pricing-comparison-2026
16 answers · 8 models
sourceforge.net/software/api-gateways/for-mid-size-business
14 answers · 8 models
guideflow.com/blog/api-gateway-software
13 answers · 5 models
zuplo.com/learning-center/best-api-gateways-2026
13 answers · 7 models
guptadeepak.com/tools/top-5-api-management-platforms-2026
11 answers · 5 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best API gateway for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which API gateway and traffic management tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top API gateways and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best API gateway for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a API gateway. What should we look at?”Negative“Which API gateways should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Zuplo
Four alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apache APISIX, Azure API Management, Kong Gateway
Kong GatewayChanged
One alternativeAmazon API Gateway
no first choiceAmazon API Gateway
Two alternativesKong Gateway, Tyk
against: NGINXno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniKong Gateway
Four alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management, Tyk
Kong GatewayHeld
Two alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Azure API Management
no first choiceKong Gateway, Tyk
Four alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management, Google Cloud API Gateway
against: NGINXno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashZuplo
Three alternativesGravitee, Kong Gateway, Tyk
TykChanged
Three alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Azure API Management, Kong Gateway
against: Apigee, Istio, MuleSoft Anypoint PlatformApache APISIX, Kong Gateway
Seven alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management, Bifrost, Gloo Gateway, Traefik, Tyk
against: MuleSoft Anypoint PlatformAmazon API Gateway, Zuplo
Three alternativesApache APISIX, Cloudflare Workers, KrakenD
against: Kong GatewayKong Gateway
Four alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Azure API Management, Gloo Gateway, Tyk
against: Apigeeagainst: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Express Gateway, Kong Gateway, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, Netflix Zuul, Ocelot, Tyk
Perplexity SonarKong Gateway
Five alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management, Tyk, Zuplo
against: MuleSoft Anypoint PlatformKong GatewayHeld
Two alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Tyk
Kong Gateway
Eight alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apache APISIX, Apigee, Azure API Management, KrakenD, Traefik, Tyk, Zuplo
Kong Gateway, Zuplo
One alternativeAmazon API Gateway
against: Apigeeno first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastKong Gateway
Four alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apache APISIX, Azure API Management, Tyk
against: ApigeeKong GatewayHeld
One alternativeTyk
against: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API ManagementApache APISIX, Kong Gateway
Two alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apigee
Kong Gateway
Four alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apache APISIX, Tyk, Zuplo
against: Kong Gateway, TykKong Gateway
Two alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Tyk
against: Apigeeagainst: Apache APISIX, Apigee, Azure API Management, Broadcom Layer7 API Gateway, Kong Gateway, LiteLLM
Mistral SmallKong Gateway
One alternativeTyk
against: Amazon API Gateway, ApigeeKong GatewayHeld
Two alternativesArelio API Gateway by DigitalAPI, PTV Optima
no first choiceKong Gateway, KrakenD
Two alternativesTraefik, Zuplo
no first choiceagainst: Apigee
DeepSeek V4 FlashKong Gateway, Tyk
One alternativeAmazon API Gateway
against: Apigee, Azure API ManagementKong GatewayChanged
One alternativeAmazon API Gateway
against: ApigeeKong Gateway
Five alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apache APISIX, Apigee, NGINX, Tyk
Kong Gateway, Tyk
Three alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Cloudflare API Gateway, KrakenD
no first choiceagainst: Amazon API Gateway, Apache APISIX, Apigee, Kong Gateway, MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager, WSO2 API Manager
Llama 4 MaverickKong GatewayKong GatewayHeld
Five alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apigee, Apinizer, IBM API Connect, Tyk
no first choiceZuplo
Two alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Tyk
no first choiceagainst: Apigee
Qwen 3.7 FlashKong Gateway, Tyk
One alternativeAmazon API Gateway
against: ApigeeAmazon API Gateway, Kong GatewayChanged
One alternativeTyk
against: Apigee, MuleSoft Anypoint PlatformKong Gateway
Four alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apache APISIX / API7, Apigee, Tyk
Zuplo
Two alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Tyk
against: Kong Gatewayno first choiceagainst: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management, HAProxy, IBM API Connect, Kong Gateway, NGINX, Netflix Zuul
Kimi K2Kong Gateway
Three alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Azure API Management, Tyk
against: ApigeeKong GatewayHeld
One alternativeTyk
against: Amazon API Gateway, Azure API ManagementKong Gateway
Seven alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apache APISIX, Apigee, Azure API Management, NGINX, Traefik, Tyk
Apache APISIX, Kong Gateway
Three alternativesNGINX, Traefik, Tyk
against: Amazon API GatewayZuplo
Four alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Azure API Management, Kong Gateway, Traefik
against: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Kong Gateway, Netflix Zuul
GLM 4.7 FlashXKong Gateway
Four alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management, Tyk
Kong GatewayHeld
One alternativeAmazon API Gateway
Apache APISIX
Seven alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management, Gloo Gateway, Kong Gateway, Traefik, Tyk
Apache APISIX
Five alternativesKong Gateway, KrakenD, NGINX, Tyk, Zuplo
no first choice
Three alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Azure API Management, Kong Gateway
against: Amazon API Gateway, Azure API Management, Broadcom Layer7 API Gateway, ITRS Analytics API Gateway, Kong Gateway, LiteLLM
MiniMax M2.5Kong Gateway, Zuplo
One alternativeAmazon API Gateway
Kong GatewayChanged
Three alternativesAzure API Management, Tyk, Zuplo
no first choiceagainst: NGINXCloudflare Workers
Three alternativesAmazon API Gateway, Kong Gateway, Zuplo
no first choiceagainst: Apigee
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:49yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:08no04 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:31yes1627 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:07yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:19yes3518 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:45yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:08yes1821 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:50yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:32yes952 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:17yes1044 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:56yes14127 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 14:14yes726 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:53yes1413 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:34yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:07yes924 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:04yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:27yes199 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:55yes106 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:46yes1013 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:07yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:00yes1067 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:16yes1938 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:53yes2080 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:59yes1460 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:50yes910 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:44yes67 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:37yes1526 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:43yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 14:04yes1916 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:44yes511 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:28yes1321 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:34yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:00yes522 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:28yes841 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:39yes19104 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:05yes1027 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:40no06 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:02no03 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:34yes1622 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:06yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:03yes3216 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:50yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:18yes1012 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:25yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:17yes526 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:56yes924 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:41yes29226 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:31yes1350 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:43no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:03no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:06yes827 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:30yes1912 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:23yes1311 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:13no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:14yes915 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:56yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:19yes533 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:02yes1933 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:15yes1040 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:30no023 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:19no03 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:06no03 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:31yes1424 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:26yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:20yes4519 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:31yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 14:04yes2958 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:37yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:11yes1049 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:32yes2345 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:47yes19105 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:27yes1933 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Amazon read as Amazon API Gateway
Gloo read as Gloo Gateway
Kong read as Kong Gateway
Kong (Enterprise) read as Kong Gateway
Kong (Konnect) read as Kong Gateway
Kong (OSS) read as Kong Gateway
Kong (Open Source) read as Kong Gateway
Kong (Self-Hosted/OSS) read as Kong Gateway
Kong (specifically Kong Konnect) read as Kong Gateway
Layer7 read as Broadcom Layer7 API Gateway
MuleSoft read as MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
Unresolved, counted raw
Arelio API Gateway by DigitalAPI
Emissary
Envoy/Istio Gateway
Fastly Compute@Edge
GA4
ITRS Analytics API Gateway
NGINX Plus / OpenResty
NGINX+/NGINX Gateway Fabric
NGINX-based gateways / ingress controllers
PTV Optima
YARP (Yet Another Reverse Proxy)
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in developer platform

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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