API gateways · September 2026 Edition
Kong Gateway vs Tyk
Ten of twelve models named Kong Gateway first on the direct prompt; two named Tyk. Both were named by all twelve models and Kong Gateway carries 71 labels and Tyk 50, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in two categories this edition.
Named in two categories this edition.
First-choice share61%10%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate13%4%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#3A position in a field of 10; printed, not drawn.
Labels7150A 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 twelve direct answers. Kong Gateway vs Zuplo · Zuplo vs Tyk
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; 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 twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Kong GatewayFirst choices, of twelve modelsTyk
Direct102
Paraphrase111
Comparative60
Budget-constrained623 against Kong Gateway · 1 against Tyk
Scale-constrained20
Negative006 against Kong Gateway · 1 against Tyk
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.
The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Kong Gateway and Tyk stood in it.
Both were the first choice
2 of 12 modelsThe answer named them together, and the judge labeled each a first choice.DeepSeek V4 FlashKong Gateway, Tyk alternatives: Amazon API Gateway
Qwen 3.7 FlashKong Gateway, Tyk alternatives: Amazon API Gateway
Kong Gateway first, Tyk an alternative
8 of 12 modelsTyk was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.GPT-5.4 miniKong Gateway alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management, Tyk
Perplexity SonarKong Gateway alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management, Tyk, Zuplo
Grok 4.1 FastKong Gateway alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Apache APISIX, Azure API Management, Tyk
Mistral SmallKong Gateway alternatives: Tyk
Llama 4 MaverickKong Gateway
Kimi K2Kong Gateway alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Azure API Management, Tyk
GLM 4.7 FlashXKong Gateway alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Apigee, Azure API Management, Tyk
MiniMax M2.5Kong Gateway, Zuplo alternatives: Amazon API Gateway
Neither was the first choice, one was named
2 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Claude Haiku 4.5Zuplo alternatives: Amazon API Gateway, Apache APISIX, Azure API Management, Kong Gateway
Gemini 3.5 FlashZuplo alternatives: Gravitee, Kong Gateway, Tyk
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 eighteen points.
Kong Gateway25%#2 of 10Tyk7%#4 of 10Mid-marketThe figures above
Kong Gateway leads by fifty-one points.
Kong Gateway61%#1 of 10Tyk10%#3 of 10Enterprise
Kong Gateway leads by thirty-six points.
Kong Gateway45%#1 of 11Tyk9%#3 of 11What the models said about Kong Gateway
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Five of six in this category shown.
“Free trials, then usage-based (~$25+/mo)—avoid if truly limited budget.” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“*Warning:* While the Core is free, the documentation for open-source installation can be heavy, and the ecosystem pushes users heavily toward their paid Enterprise tier.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · soft negative
“Kong Enterprise: (Hybrid/SaaS/Self-hosted). Built on Envoy/Nginx. Extremely performant, vast plugin ecosystem, and very strong GitOps/Kubernetes support.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
“Choose Kong or APISIX if you have a high-traffic microservices infrastructure and need low latency, flexible hosting, and a robust plugin ecosystem.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“the best default choice is usually Kong Gateway because it offers the strongest balance of flexibility, features, and operational control” Perplexity Sonar · direct prompt · first choice
What the models said about Tyk
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of four in this category shown.
“Free trials, then usage-based (~$25+/mo)—avoid if truly limited budget.” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“self-hosting these gateways will lead to high operational overhead” Gemini 3.5 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“If you need a customer-facing developer portal + API management (the most common B2B scenario) and want flexibility: Tyk (great value)” DeepSeek V4 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“Kong (specifically Kong Konnect) and Tyk are widely considered the top contenders” Qwen 3.7 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.