Zuplo
API Gateway Comparison

Zuplo vs
Kong API Gateway

Skip the Kubernetes, the Lua plugins, and the consumption-pricing surprises.

Talk to an Architect Compare with AI
Feature
Zuplo
Kong
Operational Simplicity
Developer Experience
Global Edge Performance
Developer Portal
GitOps and CI/CD
Pricing Model
AccuWeather
Read the Case Study
Blockdaemon
Read the Case Study
Lake Michigan Credit Union
Read the Case Study
Finsolutia
Read the Case Study
VNDR
Read the Case Study
Mews
Read the Case Study
Yext
Read the Case Study
Zumiez
Read the Case Study

What's wrong with Kong

Kong's key limitations for modern engineering teams

The forces driving enterprises off Kong in 2026 — operational tax, plugin sprawl, retrofitted AI, and pricing that doesn't predict.

Kubernetes operator burden

Postgres or Cassandra, data-plane clusters, Redis for distributed limits, upgrade paths. Konnect helps the control plane — the data plane stays yours to run.

Plugin-language fragmentation

Lua, Go, Python, or JavaScript plugins via a proprietary PDK. Every custom integration carries a specialist hire and its own release cycle.

AI Gateway is a plugin, not a product

AI Gateway and MCP support shipped as Gateway 3.12 plugins in late 2025, with the enterprise MCP gateway as a separate product. Token economics, semantic caching, and agent identity are bolted on.

Opaque consumption pricing

Konnect bills per service, per request, plus enterprise plugin fees; Enterprise contracts are negotiated and unlisted. Procurement forecasting is hard.

Why Zuplo

Built for teams replatforming off Kong API Gateway

Managed, modern API management with predictable economics across procurement cycles — no operator overhead, no plugin sprawl, no consumption-pricing surprises.

Compliance and Audit Readiness

First-class compliance controls in a managed gateway vs. compliance split between Konnect and customer-operated data planes.

Enterprise Identity (SSO + RBAC)

Direct SAML/SCIM with project-level RBAC vs. plugin-based identity in the open-source path.

Managed Dedicated Deployment

Managed dedicated across major clouds vs. Konnect Dedicated Cloud Gateways or self-managed Kubernetes.

A solutions architect can walk you through your current Kong setup, surface the biggest operational tax, and map a migration path — no slide deck required.

Talk to an Architect Evaluate your migration
"The combined strengths of Zuplo and Akamai enable us to deliver weather data with unmatched speed and reliability."
AccuWeather

Chris Patti

Chief Data and Science Officer, AccuWeather

Read the case study

Enterprise ready

Production-ready for regulated and high-volume workloads

Compliance & Audit

  • SOC 2 Type II audited annually
  • Third-party penetration test reports available under NDA
  • GDPR-aligned data processing
  • Audit logs across the control plane
  • API governance with policy enforcement

Identity & Access

  • SAML SSO and SCIM provisioning
  • Role-based access control across organizations, projects, and environments
  • Service-account credentials with scoped permissions
  • API key metadata for downstream authorization

Deployment Flexibility

  • Managed edge across 300+ locations — global by default
  • Managed dedicated single-tenant on AWS, Azure, GCP, Akamai, or any major cloud
  • Self-hosted on Kubernetes with full control plane
  • Bring-your-own-cloud for data residency requirements

Support & Success

  • Up to 30-minute response SLA on Enterprise
  • 24/7/365 emergency hotline for critical incidents
  • Named technical account manager
  • Architecture and migration professional services

Built for the AI era

Built for AI agents, MCP, and token-aware traffic

Zuplo's AI Gateway is built into the platform from day one — not assembled from plugins.

Unified AI Gateway

Multi-provider model routing, semantic caching, prompt injection protection, budgets, and auto-failover — all native.

MCP Gateway

Turn any API into a remote MCP server, or govern third-party MCP servers behind one managed gateway.

Agentic auth and identity

Per-agent API keys, scoped credentials, dynamic per-call policies for agent-shaped traffic.

Token economics built in

Per-token metering, per-customer model budgets, Stripe-native monetization.

See it in action

See Zuplo running on your stack

A 30-minute working session with a Zuplo solutions engineer. Bring an OpenAPI spec or a Kong route definition and walk away with a working preview.

Talk to Sales Compare features

Side by side

Feature-by-feature comparison

Feature
Zuplo
Kong
Compliance and Audit Readiness
SOC 2 Type II audited annually, third-party penetration test reports under NDA, audit logs across the control plane, GDPR-aligned data processing.
Konnect maintains SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Self-hosted Kong inherits compliance from the customer's deployment environment.
Enterprise Identity (SSO + RBAC)
SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, and RBAC across organizations, projects, and environments — included on Enterprise.
Konnect supports SSO and RBAC. Self-hosted Kong identity depends on configured plugins (LDAP, OIDC, etc.) and customer infrastructure.
Managed Dedicated Deployment
Single-tenant managed deployment on AWS, Azure, GCP, Akamai, or any major cloud with 30-minute SLA response on Enterprise. Self-hosted on Kubernetes also supported.
Konnect Dedicated Cloud Gateways available in select regions. Self-hosted requires customer-operated Kubernetes plus Postgres or Cassandra.
AI Gateway and MCP Support
Purpose-built AI Gateway integrated into the platform with model routing, semantic caching, prompt injection protection, budget and token controls. Dedicated MCP Gateway product.
AI Gateway and MCP proxy plugin available since Gateway 3.12 (October 2025). Plugin-based approach with enterprise MCP gateway as a separate offering.
Operational Simplicity
Fully managed and auto-scaled across 300+ edge locations. Zero database, cluster, or upgrade operations.
Self-hosted Kong requires Postgres or Cassandra, data plane cluster management, and upgrade pathing. Konnect reduces but does not eliminate data-plane operations.
Developer Experience
TypeScript-based programmability with the full npm ecosystem. PR-level preview environments, Git as source of truth.
Lua, Go, Python, or JavaScript plugins with the Kong PDK. cURL-based Admin API and YAML declarative configuration via decK CLI.
Global Edge Performance
V8 isolate runtime across 300+ edge locations with near-zero cold starts. Requests processed at the nearest PoP automatically.
Self-hosted in customer infrastructure or Konnect Cloud regional deployment. Global distribution requires multi-region cluster management.
Developer Portal
Auto-generated from OpenAPI spec with self-serve API key management, interactive docs, and monetization support — included on all plans.
Available in Konnect (paid tier) with manual documentation upload. Not included in open-source Gateway.
Rate Limiting
Programmable per-user, per-key, and per-API rate limits with TypeScript logic — distributed as a single zone across all edge locations.
Plugin-based rate limiting backed by Redis. Distributed rate limiting requires customer-managed Redis infrastructure.
GitOps and CI/CD
Git-native — repo is the single source of truth. Every push deploys, every PR gets a live preview environment.
decK CLI for declarative config sync, but the database (not Git) is the source of truth. No native preview environments.
Authentication
Built-in API key and JWT management with unlimited keys and self-service key management for API consumers.
Plugins for API keys, JWTs, HMAC, LDAP, OpenID Connect — broad protocol coverage with plugin-based composition.
Pricing Model
Predictable Enterprise pricing that includes the developer portal, managed dedicated tier, SOC 2 controls, SSO, audit logs, and AI Gateway at one tier.
Konnect uses consumption-based pricing (per service, per request) plus enterprise plugin fees. Kong Enterprise contracts are negotiated and not publicly listed.

Migration path

Migrating from Kong to Zuplo

OpenAPI and route definitions import directly. Built-in plugins map to Zuplo policies; custom Lua becomes short TypeScript. Most teams cut over in 4–10 weeks.

Migration phases

Typical production cut-over in 4–10 weeks

  1. Inventory routes and plugins

    Catalog routes, services, consumers, and plugins. Flag custom Lua for TypeScript translation.

    2 wksPlan locked

  2. Foundation deployment

    Stand up Zuplo Enterprise, wire SSO/SCIM, RBAC, audit logs, and CI/CD.

    2 wksFoundation live

  3. Policy and consumer migration

    Translate plugins to Zuplo policies. Migrate keys via the Developer API. Run side-by-side with weighted routing.

    4 wksSide-by-side

  4. Cut-over and decommission

    Shift primary traffic, validate SLOs, decommission Kong data planes.

    2 wksCut-over done
Read the full migration guide

What our customers say

Trusted by engineering teams at scale

Blockdaemon

90%

Hardware footprint reduction at scale

"The move to Zuplo from our existing API Management vendor was easy, taking just over 2 months to switch mission critical systems, and we're saving over 70% on costs."

Ryan Waites

Senior Director, Blockdaemon

Case study →

"Zuplo gives us the flexibility to scale efficiently, ensures security and compliance, and reduces operational complexity so we can focus on building new capabilities."

Daryl Benzel

Staff Software Engineer, Yext

Case study →
AccuWeather

1B+

End users served via Zuplo APIs

Finsolutia

Hours

To launch MCP server on regulated APIs

"We didn't touch a line of code, it's just plug and play. The results were very surprising, in just a couple of hours we had a great result and a fully working MCP Server."

Miguel Madeira

CTO & Co-Founder, Finsolutia

Case study →

Trusted for regulated and high-volume workloads

SOC 2 Type II Third-party penetration testing GDPR-aligned 24/7/365 emergency hotline
300+ Global edge locations
Billions API requests served / month
Up to 99.999% Enterprise uptime SLA
<20s Global deploy time

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Zuplo vs Kong API Gateway.

Ready to talk to an expert?

Book a call with a solutions architect for a tailored walkthrough — SOC 2 controls, dedicated deployment, AI Gateway, and enterprise support. Or start free and explore the platform yourself.

Book a Call Start for Free