We performed a comparison between IBM API Connect and Kong Gateway Enterprise based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two API Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."Since it runs on top of Datapower, all Datapower based custom policies can be utilized and exported to API connect but its not straightforward/simple process."
"One of the most valuable features of this solution is that it protects our backend system. We are exposing services to external parties and using this solution to protect the backend system, and to have a navigation in between."
"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is very easy to use and is something that is easily configurable."
"API Connect is a very good platform for the development of APIs."
"The most valuable feature for me is the ability to distribute work among our API developers, so we don't have to do all the work as IBM API Connect administrators and IBM DataPower administrators."
"What's best about IBM API Connect is the excellent administration. The development tool that builds the API is also very simple, and user-friendly, and it doesn't consume too much time. Another valuable feature in IBM API Connect is its good reporting feature, particularly for operations, but the most valuable feature of the solution for the customer is security. IBM API Connect provides a DMZ and a security gateway between the external and internal environment, so you can publish your API safely. IBM API Connect can also integrate with any tool or middleware that works on open standards without the need for development or coding, so integration with the solution is easier."
"DataPower Gateway holds significant value for us as it serves as the cornerstone of our enterprise security controls."
"IBM API Connect is a good product, and their technical support is excellent."
"The tool's feature that I find most beneficial is rate limiting. In our usage, especially in the financial sector, we prioritize limiting API usage. This is crucial because we provide APIs to other companies and must ensure they adhere to their allocated usage limits. Without rate limiting, there's a risk of excessive usage, which could result in significant costs."
"The most valuable features of Kong Enterprise are the out-of-the-box open source easy functionality."
"This is a solid intrusion prevention system that combines a firewall and antivirus in a single solution."
"Kong Enterprise has excellent plugin support."
"The route limiting feature is very valuable."
"It boasts remarkable speed and stability, and these qualities, particularly the gateway's resilience, are standout features for me."
"The solution provides good performance."
"We use the solution for load-balancing, caching, and rate-limiting APIs."
"The design time setup has a lot of customizable fields, but we need certain standard fields to be added, such as what all of the consuming systems are. This needs to be very clearly articulated during the design time."
"We've had some issues upgrading to the latest version of the solution."
"Different versions of the same thing can mean unnecessary duplication."
"There are issues with upgrading in the cloud version. The cloud version is extremely buggy. We prefer to use the on-premise version."
"There is room for improvement regarding the connectivity of the DevOps."
"The administration of the user interface and the technical documentation are areas of concern in the solution where improvements are required."
"The platform’s integration with the payment gateway needs enhancement. The setup process and support services could be improved."
"There are some performance issues and issues related to asynchronous APIs."
"It becomes difficult if you try to scale it up to multiple clusters."
"From an improvement perspective, the product should offer more readily available connectors and also allow for more seamless AI integrations."
"We are facing issues with the solution's features like reports and traffic analysis."
"Kong Enterprise can improve the customization to be able to do the integration properly."
"The solution should include policy features that are available in other solutions like MuleSoft API manager but missing in Kong Enterprise."
"The ease of billing is lost when Kong is not available directly on the Azure marketplace. This is one area where they can improve."
"We would like to see an automatic data API when we have a table in the database."
"Kong Enterprise fails to provide live tracing of the APIs, which is possible nowadays."
IBM API Connect is ranked 5th in API Management with 73 reviews while Kong Gateway Enterprise is ranked 6th in API Management with 20 reviews. IBM API Connect is rated 8.0, while Kong Gateway Enterprise is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of IBM API Connect writes "Good speed and performance, but it's based on a bit dated architecture". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Kong Gateway Enterprise writes "Provides role-based access control and can be easily customized with Lua script". IBM API Connect is most compared with IBM DataPower Gateway, Apigee, Microsoft Azure API Management, MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager and 3scale API Management, whereas Kong Gateway Enterprise is most compared with Microsoft Azure API Management, WSO2 API Manager, Apigee, Apache APISIX and IBM DataPower Gateway. See our IBM API Connect vs. Kong Gateway Enterprise report.
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