Compare Gravitee and Kong on pricing, features, platforms, and ratings — both API Tools tools, Freemium (open-source Community Edition plus tiered commercial…
At a Glance
Gravitee
Kong
Primary category
API Tools
API Tools
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Freemium (open-source Community Edition plus tiered commercial plans)
Freemium
Starting price
Free (Community Edition); paid plans from $1,250/month
Free (open source); paid plans custom-priced
Free plan
Yes
Yes
Free trial
Not documented
Yes
Platforms
Web
Not documented
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Yes
Yes
Public API
Yes
Yes
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
Gravitee
Community Edition — Free N/A (self-hosted, open source)
Planet — $2,500/month Monthly
Galaxy — Custom Custom
Universe — Custom Custom
Kong
Kong Gateway (Open Source) — Free N/A
Konnect Free Trial — $0 for 30 days 30-day trial
Konnect Plus — Custom, billed per gateway monthly Monthly
Konnect Enterprise — Custom pricing Annual
Pros & Cons
Gravitee
Pros
Free, actively maintained open-source Community Edition with no artificial feature caps on core gateway functionality
Unlimited API calls and events per gateway rather than metered usage pricing, which makes costs predictable at scale
Native support for both REST/GraphQL APIs and Kafka-style event streaming in one platform
Early, dedicated tooling for governing AI agents and MCP servers rather than bolting AI support onto a legacy product
Cons
Commercial tiers above the entry Planet plan require a custom quote, making upfront cost comparison difficult
Gateway-based pricing can get expensive quickly for organizations that need many production gateways for isolation
Smaller ecosystem and third-party plugin marketplace compared to larger incumbents like Kong or Apigee
Self-hosting the Community Edition requires in-house DevOps expertise for scaling and upgrades
Kong
Pros
Open-source Kong Gateway is free, production-ready and widely adopted
Unified platform for both traditional API traffic and AI/LLM traffic governance
Large plugin ecosystem covers most authentication, security and transformation needs
30-day free trial of Konnect gives full enterprise functionality before committing
Backed by significant funding and a mature enterprise support organization
Cons
Konnect's per-gateway pricing can become expensive as API programs scale
Plugin development and Lua-based customization require specialized expertise
Enterprise pricing is not publicly listed and requires a sales conversation
Feature set can be more complex to configure than lighter, purpose-built gateways
Some advanced governance features are gated behind the Enterprise tier only
Use Cases
Gravitee
Enterprise API governance — Centralizing design, security and monitoring for hundreds of internal and partner-facing APIs behind a consistent gateway and access policy.
Event-driven architecture mediation — Applying access control, schema governance and monitoring to Kafka topics and event streams alongside conventional REST APIs.
AI agent and MCP governance — Applying rate limits, authentication and observability to AI agents and Model Context Protocol servers as they connect to internal systems.
Kong
Enterprise API management — Platform teams use Kong Gateway and Konnect to manage authentication, rate limiting and analytics across hundreds of internal and external APIs.
AI traffic governance — Teams route LLM calls through Kong's AI Gateway to enforce token quotas, prompt governance and cost control.
Microservices connectivity — Organizations use Kong Mesh alongside Kong Gateway to manage service-to-service traffic in Kubernetes environments.