Websites using Kong

Okay, let s break down Kong, a popular API gateway and service connectivity platform.

What is Kong?

Kong Gateway is a cloud-native, platform-agnostic, scalable API Gateway. It sits in front of your APIs and microservices to manage, secure, and extend them. Think of it as a gatekeeper and traffic manager for your internal and external API traffic. It s built on top of Nginx or OpenResty (Nginx + Lua) and is highly extensible through plugins.

Key Features and Benefits:

• API Management: Handles routing, authentication, rate limiting, transformations, and more.
• Service Connectivity: Connects services across different environments (cloud, on-premises, hybrid).
• Extensibility: Highly extensible through plugins. You can add functionality without modifying your core APIs. There are many open-source and enterprise plugins.
• Scalability: Designed to handle high volumes of traffic with low latency.
• Security: Protects your APIs from unauthorized access and threats. Includes authentication, authorization, and traffic control features.
• Observability: Provides insights into API traffic and performance.
• Platform Agnostic: Can run on various infrastructures like Kubernetes, VMs, and bare metal.
• Developer Portal: Helps developers discover and consume your APIs.
• Centralized Configuration: Manage all your API configurations from one place.
• Traffic Management: Provides the ability to route, load balance, and manage traffic to your APIs.
• Transformation: Allows for request and response transformation so that your existing services can be adopted by a modern platform.
• Protocol Support: Supports protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, gRPC, WebSocket, TCP, and UDP.

Use Cases:

• Microservices Management: A common use case. Kong helps manage and secure communication between microservices.
• API Security: Protecting APIs from unauthorized access and malicious attacks.
• Legacy API Modernization: Adding new features and security to older APIs without rewriting them.
• Cloud Migration: Managing API traffic during and after a migration to the cloud.
• Mobile Backend: Providing a secure and scalable backend for mobile applications.
• IoT (Internet of Things): Managing and securing communication between IoT devices and backend systems.

Revenue:

Kong Inc. is a privately held company, so specific revenue figures aren t publicly available. However, as a well-established player in the API management space with a large customer base, it s safe to assume they generate significant revenue through:

• Kong Enterprise: Their commercial offering, which includes additional features, support, and services. This is likely their primary revenue stream.
• Kong Konnect: Their cloud-based, fully managed API platform. Subscriptions to Konnect contribute to their recurring revenue.
• Professional Services: Consulting, training, and implementation services.
• Open-Source Contributions: While the open-source Kong Gateway is free, it serves as a lead generation tool for their commercial offerings. Many companies start with the open-source version and then upgrade to Enterprise for the additional features and support.

Alternatives to Kong:

The API gateway and service mesh landscape is competitive. Here are some popular alternatives to Kong, categorized by approach:

• Other API Gateways:

  • Apigee (Google Cloud): A full-fledged API management platform with a wide range of features. Often considered an enterprise-grade solution.
  • MuleSoft Anypoint Platform (Salesforce): A comprehensive integration platform with API management capabilities.
  • Amazon API Gateway: A fully managed service on AWS. Tightly integrated with other AWS services.
  • Azure API Management: A fully managed service on Azure. Integrates well with other Azure services.
  • Tyk: An open-source and commercial API gateway with a focus on performance and flexibility.
  • Ambassador Edge Stack: An API gateway and Kubernetes ingress controller built on Envoy Proxy.
  • Traefik: A modern HTTP reverse proxy and load balancer that s easy to configure and integrates well with container orchestrators.
  • Gravitee.io: An open-source API management platform with a focus on developer experience.

• Service Meshes (for Microservices Architectures): (These often overlap with API gateway functionality, especially for internal APIs)

  • Istio: A popular service mesh that provides traffic management, security, and observability for microservices.
  • Linkerd: A lightweight and simple service mesh.
  • Envoy Proxy: A high-performance proxy that s often used as the foundation for service meshes and API gateways.
  • Kuma: A universal service mesh that can run on any platform.
  • Consul Connect: A service mesh from HashiCorp.

• Lightweight API Gateways/Reverse Proxies:

  • HAProxy: A popular and performant load balancer and reverse proxy.
  • Nginx: A versatile web server, reverse proxy, load balancer, and API gateway. (Kong is built on top of Nginx or OpenResty).

Choosing an Alternative:

The best alternative depends on your specific requirements, including:

• Scale: How much traffic do you need to handle?
• Complexity: How complex are your API management needs?
• Existing Infrastructure: Do you already use a particular cloud provider or container orchestration platform?
• Open-Source vs. Commercial: Do you prefer an open-source solution or a commercial one with support?
• Budget: How much are you willing to spend?
• Skills: What are your team s existing skills and experience? (e.g., Kubernetes, Lua, etc.)
• Use Cases: Internal vs. external APIs, microservices management, etc.

Pricing:

Kong offers a few different pricing models, depending on the product you re using:

• Kong Gateway (Open Source): Free to use.
• Kong Enterprise: Subscription-based pricing. The price depends on the number of Kong Gateway instances you need and the features you require. You ll need to contact Kong directly for a quote. Factors influencing price include:
  • Number of Gateways: Pricing is often based on the number of gateway instances you deploy.
  • Features and Support Level: Different tiers offer varying levels of features, support, and SLAs.
• Kong Konnect: Consumption-based pricing, based on API traffic and usage.

Generally, you can expect Kong Enterprise pricing to be in the range of tens of thousands of dollars per year, depending on your scale and needs. Konnect is more usage-based.

Customer Care Details:

Kong provides customer care through a variety of channels, depending on your subscription level:

• Documentation: Extensive online documentation for all their products.
• Community Forum: A community forum for users to ask questions and get help from other users.
• Knowledge Base: A searchable knowledge base with articles and FAQs.
• Support Tickets: For Kong Enterprise customers, you can submit support tickets through their support portal. Response times depend on your support level (e.g., Basic, Standard, Premium).
• Professional Services: Kong offers professional services to help you with implementation, training, and consulting.
• Kong Academy: Online self-paced courses that will help you learn about all things Kong.
• Events and Webinars: Regular online events and webinars that can help you to get to know Kong products.

Here s how to potentially find specific contact information:

1. Kong Inc. Website: Start at the official Kong website: https://konghq.com/
2. Contact Us Page: Look for a Contact Us or Support link, usually in the footer or main navigation.
3. Support Portal: If you re a customer, look for a link to their support portal.
4. Sales Inquiries: There s usually a form for sales inquiries if you re interested in their commercial offerings.

Key Takeaways:

• Kong is a powerful and versatile API gateway and service connectivity platform.
• It s well-suited for microservices architectures and API management.
• The open-source version is a great way to get started, but you ll likely need Kong Enterprise for production environments and enterprise-level features.
• The API gateway market is competitive, so carefully evaluate your requirements and consider the alternatives.
• Contact Kong directly for pricing information and to discuss your specific needs.