How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
What is the best API gateway alternative in 2026?
Kong is the best pick for most teams in 2026, because its free open source gateway and paid Konnect control plane cover self-hosted and managed setups with a large plugin library. AWS API Gateway is the best alternative for teams already on AWS, since it charges per request and needs no servers to run.
There is no single product named "API Gateway" to replace. This guide compares the 8 leading API gateways as alternatives to each other and to a hand-rolled proxy, for teams choosing or switching a gateway. It is written for product and platform teams that need routing, authentication, rate limiting, and observability in front of their services. Every price in this guide comes from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on 11 November 2026.
Key points before the detailed list:
- Kong leads for most teams, with a free open source gateway and Konnect Plus from $25 per month plus usage.
- AWS API Gateway is the cheapest per-request option for AWS teams, at $1.00 per million HTTP API calls.
- Apigee and Azure suit teams already on Google Cloud or Azure, but their bills need careful modelling.
- Tyk, Gravitee, KrakenD, and WSO2 suit teams that want self-hosted control, with free open source editions in each case.
How should a team choose an API gateway?
Start with where the gateway will run. A managed cloud gateway such as AWS API Gateway, Apigee, or Azure API Management removes server work and scales on demand, but it ties routing to one cloud and charges per request or per environment. A self-hosted gateway such as Kong, Tyk, Gravitee, KrakenD, or WSO2 runs on your own servers or Kubernetes cluster, so you control the network path and the data, but your team owns upgrades, patching, and scaling. Hybrid options sit between the two, with a vendor control plane and gateways in your own environment.
Then match the pricing model and the protocol fit to your traffic. Usage-priced gateways are cheap at low volume and rise with every call, while flat monthly tiers are easier to budget once traffic is steady. Check that the gateway supports the protocols your services use, including REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and WebSocket, and that it covers the auth methods your clients need, such as API keys, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and mutual TLS. Shortlist two options, run a real service behind each one, and compare latency, plugin coverage, and the effort needed to change a route before you commit.
What does an API gateway cost for a small team?
A small team sending 1 million calls a month can start near zero on several options in this list; AWS HTTP APIs cost about $1.00 for that volume after the free tier, Azure Consumption includes 1 million operations a month, and Kong Gateway open source costs nothing for the software itself, with hosting as the only cost; Apigee pay-as-you-go would cost about $20 for the calls plus $365 for a Base environment in one region, so the environment fee dominates the bill; Kong Konnect Plus starts at $25 per month plus usage and includes 1 million requests; Azure Developer costs $48.04 per month; WSO2 Growth starts at $119 per month for up to 10 million gateway events; Gravitee Planet costs $2,500 per month, so it only fits teams with a production budget; Tyk and KrakenD Enterprise are quote only, so a small team should start on their free open source editions and ask sales for a price only when paid features are needed.
| Tool |
Best for |
Starting price (checked 11 Nov 2026) |
Free plan |
| Kong |
Most teams, self-hosted or managed |
$25 per month (Konnect Plus, plus usage) |
Yes, Gateway open source |
| Apigee (Google Cloud) |
Google Cloud teams needing governance |
$20 per 1 million standard proxy calls, plus $365 per month per Base environment |
60-day evaluation |
| AWS API Gateway |
AWS teams, serverless APIs |
$1.00 per 1 million HTTP API calls; $3.50 per 1 million REST API calls |
Yes, 1 million calls per month for 12 months |
| Azure API Management |
Microsoft shops, Azure-native APIs |
$48.04 per month (Developer tier) |
Consumption tier, 1 million operations included |
| Tyk |
Self-hosted teams wanting a dashboard |
quote |
Yes, Gateway open source |
| Gravitee |
Regulated teams, event and API traffic |
$2,500 per month (Planet) |
Yes, Community Edition |
| KrakenD |
High-throughput, stateless self-hosting |
quote |
Yes, Community Edition |
| WSO2 API Manager |
Full lifecycle management, open source core |
$119 per month (Growth) |
30-day free trial |
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Kong | Teams that want a proven open source gateway with a managed control plane option | $25 per month (Konnect Plus, plus usage; 1 million requests included, $200 per extra 1 million) | Yes, Kong Gateway open source is free to self-host; Konnect Plus has a 30-day free trial |
 Apigee (Google Cloud) | Google Cloud teams that need deep governance, analytics, and API monetization | $20 per 1 million standard proxy calls, plus $365 per month per Base environment per region | 60-day free evaluation; no permanent free production tier |
 AWS API Gateway | Teams already running on AWS with Lambda or other AWS backends | $1.00 per 1 million HTTP API calls; $3.50 per 1 million REST API calls | Yes, 1 million REST and 1 million HTTP API calls per month for 12 months for new accounts |
 Azure API Management | Microsoft shops that want a gateway, developer portal, and policy engine inside Azure | $48.04 per month (Developer tier); Consumption tier starts at $0 with 1 million operations included | Consumption tier includes 1 million operations per month; Developer tier has no SLA |
 Tyk | Self-hosted teams that want a visual dashboard and developer portal on an open source gateway | quote | Yes, Tyk Gateway and Tyk Pump are free open source; a free self-managed trial licence is available |
 Gravitee | Regulated teams that need API, event stream, and AI traffic governance in one platform | $2,500 per month (Planet; 1 production and 1 non-production gateway, 1 module) | Yes, Community Edition is free under Apache 2.0; Gravitee Cloud has a free trial |
 KrakenD | High-throughput teams that want a fast, stateless gateway with flat pricing | quote | Yes, Community Edition is free open source under Apache 2.0 |
 WSO2 API Manager | Teams that want full API lifecycle management on a 100 percent open source core | $119 per month (Growth; up to 10 managed interfaces and 10 million gateway events) | 30-day free trial; the open source API Manager can be self-hosted |
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The 8 best API gateway alternatives
The eight tools below cover the main ways to run a gateway in 2026. Three are managed cloud services from the large cloud vendors, and five are open source cores with paid control planes or support. The right pick depends on where your services already run, how much traffic you expect, and how much operational work your team can take on. Use the table above to shortlist, then test your top two with real traffic.
#1Kong
Best for: Teams that want a proven open source gateway with a managed control plane option4.4/5 on
G2 (358 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit konghq.com
Starting price$25 per month (Konnect Plus, plus usage; 1 million requests included, $200 per extra 1 million)
Free planYes, Kong Gateway open source is free to self-host; Konnect Plus has a 30-day free trial
Kong Gateway is built on NGINX and OpenResty, and it has been the default open source gateway choice for many platform teams for years. Its plugin system covers auth, rate limiting, request transformation, logging, and AI traffic controls, so most common needs work without custom code. Konnect adds a hosted control plane, a developer portal, and metering, but the Plus tier caps at 10 million requests a month and 5 proxied models, so larger teams should price Enterprise before they grow into it.
What we like- Large plugin library
- Runs self-hosted, hybrid, or fully managed
- Strong Kubernetes support
Watch out for- Request fees rise fast above 1 million calls a month, and SSO and audit logging need Enterprise
#2
Apigee (Google Cloud)
Best for: Google Cloud teams that need deep governance, analytics, and API monetization
Visit cloud.google.com
Starting price$20 per 1 million standard proxy calls, plus $365 per month per Base environment per region
Free plan60-day free evaluation; no permanent free production tier
Apigee is Google Cloud's full lifecycle API platform, and it suits large teams that need policy control, traffic analytics, and developer onboarding in one place. Standard proxy calls cost $20 per million up to 50 million calls, while extensible proxy calls cost $100 per million, so teams should check which proxy type their policies need. The Base environment fee of $365 per month per region applies before any calls are counted, and add-ons such as Advanced API Security cost extra, so a small pilot can cost more than the per-call rate suggests.
What we like- Rich policy engine and analytics
- Strong developer portal and monetization
- Hybrid runtime option
Watch out for- Environment fees and extensible proxy rates stack up fast, and the pricing model is hard to forecast
#3AWS API Gateway
Best for: Teams already running on AWS with Lambda or other AWS backends4.3/5 on
G2 (142 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit aws.amazon.com
Starting price$1.00 per 1 million HTTP API calls; $3.50 per 1 million REST API calls
Free planYes, 1 million REST and 1 million HTTP API calls per month for 12 months for new accounts
AWS API Gateway is a fully managed, serverless gateway, and it is the simplest option for teams that already build on AWS. HTTP APIs are the leaner and cheaper type at $1.00 per million calls, while REST APIs cost $3.50 per million and add request transformation, usage plans, and WAF integration. There is no monthly gateway fee, but teams should budget for data transfer out at $0.09 per GB and for Lambda and CloudWatch costs, since those sit outside the gateway bill.
What we like- No servers to run
- Deep AWS integration
- Simple per-request pricing with no fixed gateway fee
Watch out for- REST and HTTP APIs differ in features, and data transfer, caching, and logging are billed on top
#4Azure API Management
Best for: Microsoft shops that want a gateway, developer portal, and policy engine inside Azure4.2/5 on
G2 (32 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit azure.microsoft.com
Starting price$48.04 per month (Developer tier); Consumption tier starts at $0 with 1 million operations included
Free planConsumption tier includes 1 million operations per month; Developer tier has no SLA
Azure API Management bundles a gateway, a management plane, and a developer portal, and it fits teams that already run services on Azure. The Consumption tier bills per operation after the first million, at $0.042 per 10,000 operations, so quiet APIs cost almost nothing. The Developer tier costs $48.04 per month and includes nearly every feature, but it has no SLA and is meant for non-production use, so production teams should start at Basic v2 at $150.01 per month.
What we like- Built-in developer portal
- Strong Azure and Entra integration
- Consumption tier suits spiky traffic
Watch out for- Each environment needs its own instance, and classic tiers take 30 to 40 minutes to provision
#5Tyk
Best for: Self-hosted teams that want a visual dashboard and developer portal on an open source gateway4.5/5 on
G2 (51 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit tyk.io
Starting pricequote
Free planYes, Tyk Gateway and Tyk Pump are free open source; a free self-managed trial licence is available
Tyk Gateway is free and open source under MPL 2.0, while the Dashboard, Developer Portal, and Operator need a paid licence. Its Core plan is priced by the number of APIs managed, and its Professional plan uses one flat price based on data planes and environments, with unlimited APIs and calls on both. That structure suits teams with unpredictable traffic, but buyers cannot compare Tyk against a priced rival without a quote, and older third-party listings that show $600 or $1,800 a month no longer match the vendor's own pricing page.
What we like- Open source gateway core
- Unlimited APIs and calls on paid plans
- Strong Kubernetes and GitOps support
Watch out for- Tyk publishes no list prices, so every paid plan needs a sales quote, and the dashboard needs a licence
#6Gravitee
Best for: Regulated teams that need API, event stream, and AI traffic governance in one platform4.7/5 on
G2 (41 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit gravitee.io
Starting price$2,500 per month (Planet; 1 production and 1 non-production gateway, 1 module)
Free planYes, Community Edition is free under Apache 2.0; Gravitee Cloud has a free trial
Gravitee is an open source API platform that handles synchronous APIs and event streams, including Kafka and MQTT, from the same control plane. Its Planet tier costs $2,500 a month and includes one production gateway, one non-production gateway, one module, and Gold Support, with Galaxy and Universe priced by quote. The fixed per-gateway model makes costs predictable as traffic grows, but teams that only need basic routing will find cheaper options, and enterprise features such as audit trails and SSO sit in the paid editions.
What we like- Covers REST, SOAP, GraphQL, Kafka, and MQTT
- Fixed per-gateway pricing
- Self-hosted or SaaS
Watch out for- The entry paid tier is $2,500 a month, so small teams must rely on the Community Edition
#7
KrakenD
Best for: High-throughput teams that want a fast, stateless gateway with flat pricing
Visit krakend.io
Starting pricequote
Free planYes, Community Edition is free open source under Apache 2.0
KrakenD is a stateless gateway written in Go, and it is built for teams that need high request rates on modest hardware. Its Community Edition is the same runtime as Enterprise, with no database, no persistent control plane, and no per-request charge, which keeps the architecture simple. Enterprise adds support SLAs, advanced security features, quotas, and AI gateway controls on flat-tiered plans, but the vendor publishes no dollar prices, so teams should request a quote and compare it against the free edition first.
What we like- Very high throughput per node
- No database in the runtime
- Flat-tiered pricing with unlimited requests
Watch out for- Configuration is declarative JSON, so teams used to a visual designer face a learning curve
#8
WSO2 API Manager
Best for: Teams that want full API lifecycle management on a 100 percent open source core
Visit wso2.com
Starting price$119 per month (Growth; up to 10 managed interfaces and 10 million gateway events)
Free plan30-day free trial; the open source API Manager can be self-hosted
WSO2 API Manager covers API design, publishing, security, analytics, and monetization, and its core is fully open source. The hosted WSO2 API Platform Growth plan starts at $119 a month for up to 10 managed interfaces and 10 million gateway events, with a 30-day free trial and no card required. Older third-party listings still show a $500 a month Micro plan from the retired API Cloud, but the vendor's current pricing page shows $119 a month for Growth, so buyers should use the current page and treat the $500 figure as outdated.
What we like- Full lifecycle coverage from design to monetization
- Open source core
- Self-hosted or SaaS
Watch out for- The platform is broad and heavy to run, and self-hosted Enterprise pricing still needs a sales quote
Frequently asked questions
Is Kong or AWS API Gateway better for a small team?
AWS API Gateway is better for a small team that already runs on AWS, because it needs no servers and costs about $1.00 per million HTTP API calls. Kong is better for a small team that wants to self-host or stay cloud neutral, because its open source gateway is free and Konnect Plus starts at $25 a month plus usage.
Do I need an API gateway if I only have one API?
A gateway is still useful for one public API, because it adds auth, rate limiting, logging, and a stable public address in one place. A team with one private internal API and no external callers can often skip a gateway and add one later, once more clients or more services appear.
What is the cheapest API gateway in this list?
AWS API Gateway has the lowest per-request price in this list, at $1.00 per million HTTP API calls, with 1 million calls a month free for 12 months for new accounts. Kong Gateway open source, Tyk Gateway, Gravitee Community Edition, and KrakenD Community Edition cost nothing for the software, but the team still pays for the servers or cloud hosting that runs them.
Can I switch API gateways later without rewriting my APIs?
Switching gateways is possible without rewriting backend services, because the gateway sits in front of them and the backends stay unchanged. The work sits in moving routes, policies, auth rules, and developer portal content, so teams should keep API definitions in OpenAPI files and store gateway config in version control from the start.
Which API gateway is best for Kubernetes?
Kong and Tyk are strong picks for Kubernetes, because both ship a Kubernetes operator and support the Gateway API alongside their own custom resources. Gravitee and WSO2 also run well on Kubernetes, while AWS, Apigee, and Azure suit teams that prefer a managed gateway outside the cluster.
Sources we checked (16)
- https://konghq.com/pricing
- https://konghq.com/
- https://cloud.google.com/apigee/pricing
- https://cloud.google.com/apigee
- https://aws.amazon.com/api-gateway/pricing/
- https://aws.amazon.com/api-gateway/
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/api-management/
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/api-management/
- https://tyk.io/pricing/
- https://tyk.io/
- https://www.gravitee.io/pricing
- https://www.gravitee.io/
- https://www.krakend.io/
- https://www.krakend.io/enterprise/
- https://wso2.com/api-platform/pricing/
- https://wso2.com/api-manager/
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.