Kong vs Tyk
Kong and Tyk both start from a free open-source gateway with a paid cloud on top, so the differences are commercial and ecosystem ones. Kong has the larger plugin marketplace and is the gateway most teams have already run. Tyk has a flat-rate plan with unlimited requests and strong GraphQL federation. Ecosystem seekers choose Kong; cost-ceiling and GraphQL teams choose Tyk.
Niels AbrahamsenAnalyst, Security & Infrastructure
Sebastiaan Smits
Hannah ReiterVendors can pay for visibility on this site; it never changes what we say about a product. How that works.
Choose Kong ifyou already run services on Kubernetes with a platform team, want the widest range of plugins and integrations, and are interested in a managed control plane with an AI gateway.
Choose Tyk ifyour traffic is growing and you want a flat price regardless of request volume, GraphQL federation matters to you, and a thinner plugin marketplace is acceptable.
Kong and Tyk side by side
| Kong | Tyk | |
|---|---|---|
| Our API management rank | #1 of 16 | #2 of 16 |
| Established in | United States | United Kingdom |
| Pricing | Kong Gateway open source is free, self-hosted; Konnect cloud priced per gateway and per million requests, published; Enterprise quoted | Open-source gateway free; Core plan usage-based, Professional plan flat-rate unlimited, both published; Enterprise quoted |
| Free tier | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Self-hostable | Yes | — |
| Built for | A team already running services on Kubernetes that wants an open-source gateway with a paid path to a managed control plane | An API-first engineering team that wants open-source flexibility with a flat-rate ceiling on cost as traffic grows |
| Not for | A small team without a platform engineer that just needs to publish one API this week | A team that wants the widest possible ecosystem of pre-built plugins and integrations |
Both are reviewed in full in our API management ranking: Kong and Tyk.
Where they differ
Kong 1 · Tyk 2 · open 1- 01
Forecasting the bill as traffic grows
Tyk's Professional plan is a flat rate with unlimited requests, one of the few in this market that does not rise with volume. Kong Konnect charges per gateway plus per million requests, which becomes hard to forecast beyond the entry Plus plan. Both publish prices and both have a free open-source gateway, but Tyk is the more predictable.
Edge: Tyk
- 02
Plugins and third-party integrations
Kong is the larger company with the bigger plugin marketplace, and its gateway is one most engineering teams have already deployed somewhere in production. Tyk's marketplace and integration coverage are thinner, which is the acknowledged trade-off of choosing it. A team relying on ready-made plugins instead of writing its own has more to draw on with Kong.
Edge: Kong
- 03
GraphQL
Tyk's GraphQL federation is described as strong compared with the rest of this category, and it is one of the product's headline traits. Our data on Kong does not single out GraphQL at all, focusing instead on the control plane, developer portal and AI gateway. That is not proof Kong lacks it, but Tyk has the documented strength.
Edge: Tyk
- 04
Running it your way
Tyk runs the same code base across cloud, hybrid and fully self-managed deployments. Kong offers a self-hosted open-source gateway and the Konnect cloud control plane, and getting full value assumes a dedicated platform team. Both cover self-hosted and managed routes, so the deciding factor is team size and existing Kubernetes experience, not deployment options.
Depends on the buyer
When neither fits
A small team without a platform engineer that needs to publish a few APIs quickly should consider neither. AWS API Gateway charges per call with a free tier for teams already on AWS, and Gravitee is a managed service with a flat monthly fee per gateway.
Kong or Tyk: questions
3 answersIs Tyk cheaper than Kong?
It depends on volume. Both have a free open-source gateway. Tyk's Professional plan is flat-rate with unlimited requests, while Kong Konnect charges per gateway and per million requests. As traffic grows, Tyk's cost stays level and Kong's becomes harder to forecast.
Are Kong and Tyk both open source?
Both have an open-source gateway that is free to self-host. Kong adds the Konnect cloud and a quoted Enterprise tier. Tyk adds a usage-based Core plan, a flat-rate Professional plan and a quoted Enterprise tier. The paid layers, not the gateways, are where they differ.
Which has the better ecosystem, Kong or Tyk?
Kong. It is the larger company, its plugin marketplace is bigger, and its gateway is widely deployed already. Tyk is smaller, with fewer third-party integrations. Tyk's counterweight is flat-rate pricing and strong GraphQL federation, not breadth of ecosystem.