AI Indexes
IT AI Index
Index › Developer platform › API gateways › Kong Gateway vs Apigee
API gateways · October 2026 Edition

Kong Gateway vs Apigee

Ten of fourteen models named Kong Gateway first on the direct prompt; one named Apigee. Both were named by all fourteen models and Kong Gateway carries 70 labels and Apigee 43, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Kong Gateway

endorsed leader

Named in three categories this edition.

Apigee

criticized challenger

Named in five categories this edition.

First-choice share53%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate14%28%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#8A position in a field of 11; printed, not drawn.
Labels7043A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Kong Gateway reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Amazon API Gateway was named alongside these two in nine of the fourteen direct answers. Kong Gateway vs Apache APISIX · Kong Gateway vs Amazon API Gateway · Kong Gateway vs Tyk

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

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Kong GatewayFirst choices, of fourteen modelsApigee
Direct1013 against Apigee
Paraphrase1001 against Kong Gateway · 3 against Apigee
Comparative501 against Kong Gateway · 1 against Apigee
Budget-constrained602 against Kong Gateway · 1 against Apigee
Scale-constrained20
Negative006 against Kong Gateway · 4 against Apigee
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Kong Gateway and Apigee were named in the same answer 295 times, of the 427 answers naming Kong Gateway and the 349 naming Apigee. In those answers Apigee took the first choice forty-five times and Kong Gateway eighty-seven.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Kong Gateway and Apigee stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
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 Apigee first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Kong Gateway on the left and Apigee on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Kong Gateway and Apigee stood in it.

Kong Gateway first, Apigee an alternative

10 of 14 modelsApigee was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Claude Haiku 4.5Amazon API Gateway, Kong Gateway
GPT-5.4 miniKong Gateway alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management
Perplexity SonarKong Gateway alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Cleo Integration Cloud
Grok 4.1 FastKong Gateway alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Azure API Management, Tyk, Zuplo
DeepSeek V4 FlashKong Gateway alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Tyk, Zuplo
Kimi K2Kong Gateway alternatives: Azure API Management
GLM 4.7 FlashXKong Gateway alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Tyk, Zuplo
MiniMax M2.5Kong Gateway alternatives: Azure API Management, NGINX, Red Hat 3scale
GPT-6 LunaKong Gateway alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management
Muse Glimmer 30BKong Gateway, Tyk alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Azure API Management

Apigee first, Kong Gateway an alternative

1 of 14 modelsKong Gateway was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Qwen 3.7 FlashAmazon API Gateway, Apigee alternatives: Kong Gateway, Tyk

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.
Gemini 3.5 FlashTyk alternatives: Gravitee, Kong Gateway, Zuplo
Mistral SmallZuplo alternatives: Apigee, Axway API Gateway

Neither was named

1 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice

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

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Kong Gateway leads by thirty-four points.
Kong Gateway34%#1 of 10
Apigee0%#10 of 10
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Kong Gateway leads by fifty-one points.
Kong Gateway53%#1 of 11
Apigee2%#8 of 11
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
The order flips: Apigee leads at enterprise.
Apigee38%#1 of 9
Kong Gateway34%#2 of 9
The full enterprise standing →

What 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 Apigee

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. One of one in this category shown.

“What to Avoid for Mid-Size Budgets - Apigee (Google) — powerful but expensive; pay-as-you-go can reach $400K+/year” DeepSeek V4 Flash · paraphrase prompt · hard negative
Also compared

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.