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API gateways · October 2026 Edition

Kong Gateway vs Zuplo

Ten of fourteen models named Kong Gateway first on the direct prompt; one named Zuplo. Kong Gateway was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and Zuplo by eleven and Kong Gateway carries 70 labels and Zuplo 24, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Kong Gateway

endorsed leader

Named in three categories this edition.

Zuplo

accepted challenger

Named in four categories this edition.

First-choice share53%8%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate14%0%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#5A position in a field of 11; printed, not drawn.
Labels7024A 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 modelsZuplo
Direct101
Paraphrase1011 against Kong Gateway
Comparative501 against Kong Gateway
Budget-constrained622 against Kong Gateway
Scale-constrained20
Negative006 against Kong Gateway
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 Zuplo were named in the same answer 121 times, of the 427 answers naming Kong Gateway and the 156 naming Zuplo. In those answers Zuplo took the first choice forty-eight times and Kong Gateway thirty-six.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Kong Gateway and Zuplo stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.20
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 Zuplo first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Kong Gateway on the left and Zuplo on the right.

The direct prompt

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

Kong Gateway first, Zuplo an alternative

10 of 14 modelsZuplo 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 4.20Kong 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

Zuplo first, Kong Gateway not the choice

1 of 14 modelsKong Gateway was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Mistral SmallZuplo alternatives: Apigee, Axway API Gateway

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
Qwen 3.7 FlashAmazon API Gateway, Apigee alternatives: Kong Gateway, Tyk

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 eight points.
Kong Gateway34%#1 of 10
Zuplo27%#2 of 10
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Kong Gateway leads by forty-five points.
Kong Gateway53%#1 of 11
Zuplo8%#5 of 11
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Kong Gateway leads by thirty points.
Kong Gateway34%#2 of 9
Zuplo4%#5 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 4.20 · scale prompt · first choice

What the models said about Zuplo

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

“If you are running a modern SaaS stack and want to spend your engineering hours on building your B2B product rather than managing gateway servers, start with Zuplo.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · paraphrase prompt · first choice
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.