Kong Gateway vs Apache APISIX
Ten of fourteen models named Kong Gateway first on the direct prompt; zero named Apache APISIX. Kong Gateway was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and Apache APISIX by twelve and Kong Gateway carries 70 labels and Apache APISIX 26, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in three categories this edition.
Named in three categories this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the API gateways page.
By framing
Kong GatewayFirst choices, of fourteen modelsApache APISIX
Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Kong Gateway and Apache APISIX were named in the same answer seventy-one times, of the 427 answers naming Kong Gateway and the 81 naming Apache APISIX. In those answers Apache APISIX took the first choice eight times and Kong Gateway twenty-three.
Every model, every framing
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | | | ||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | |||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | |||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | ||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | ||
| Llama 4 Maverick | | |||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | | ||
| Kimi K2 | | | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | |||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | |||
| GPT-6 Luna | | | | | | |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | | |
Kong Gateway Apache APISIX first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Kong Gateway on the left and Apache APISIX on the right.The direct prompt
Kong Gateway first, Apache APISIX not the choice
10 of 14 modelsApache APISIX was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Neither was the first choice, one was named
2 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
2 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
Kong Gateway34%#1 of 10Apache APISIX2%#7 of 10Kong Gateway53%#1 of 11Apache APISIX11%#2 of 11Kong Gateway34%#2 of 9Apache APISIX0%#9 of 9What the models said about Kong Gateway
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of four in this category shown.
“Don’t start a new deployment on this version. Kong says it entered end-of-life in July 2026” GPT-6 Luna · negative prompt · hard negative
“Its flexibility is useful, but self-managed deployments mean more operational responsibility; hybrid setups also require attention to plugin and version compatibility.” GPT-6 Luna · comparative prompt · soft negative
“Kong Gateway is usually the best default choice if you need a general-purpose API gateway with strong extensibility and flexibility.” Perplexity Sonar · direct prompt · first choice
“Shortlist: Kong (extensible, scalable), AWS API Gateway (if AWS-heavy), Zuplo (fast DX, edge-native), Tyk (open-source friendly).” Grok 4.1 Fast · scale prompt · first choice
What the models said about Apache APISIX
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Five of six in this category shown.
“Emerging, smaller community than Kong” Grok 4.1 Fast · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
“Similar misconfig exposure as Kong” Grok 4.1 Fast · negative prompt · soft negative
“Use Kong (for its vast ecosystem) or Apache APISIX (if you want pure open-source with no relational DB requirements)” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“Apache APISIX and Traefik are currently the strongest recommendations for budget-conscious teams” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
“Go with Kong OSS or Apache APISIX - you get enterprise-grade features at zero license cost” Kimi K2 · budget prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.