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Brief
Kong

Kong

API Management & Service Connectivitykonghq.com

High-performance architecture built on NGINX with low latency

Last updated Jun 23, 2026

Founded
2017
HQ
San Francisco, California, USA
Connections
14

At a glance

Employees
201-500
Funding
series-d
12integrations2competitors

About

Kong is recognized as a leader in the API management and service connectivity space, particularly strong in cloud-native and microservices environments. The company has differentiated itself through its open-source heritage, high-performance architecture, and Kubernetes-native approach, appealing to DevOps and platform engineering teams.

Kong is a leading provider of API management and service connectivity solutions, specializing in cloud-native API gateway technology and microservices management platforms. The company's flagship product, Kong Gateway, is built on top of NGINX and provides a scalable, open-source foundation for managing, securing, and connecting APIs and microservices across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Kong has established itself as a critical infrastructure component for enterprises undergoing digital transformation, enabling developers and platform teams to manage API traffic, implement security policies, and gain observability into their distributed architectures. Kong serves a diverse customer base ranging from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises across various industries including financial services, healthcare, retail, and technology. The company operates on a hybrid open-source and commercial model, offering both a community edition and enterprise-grade solutions with advanced features such as enhanced security, developer portals, and premium support. With a strong presence in the cloud-native ecosystem and active participation in the open-source community, Kong has positioned itself as a key enabler of modern application architectures and API-first development strategies.

Business model

B2B SaaS with hybrid open-source and commercial licensing

Target market

Enterprise and mid-market companies implementing microservices architectures, API-first strategies, and cloud-native applications

What they offer

  • Kong Gateway

    High-performance, scalable API gateway built on NGINX for managing, securing, and routing API traffic across distributed architectures

  • Kong Konnect

    Unified cloud-native API lifecycle management platform providing centralized control, analytics, and governance across all services

  • Kong Mesh

    Enterprise service mesh built on Envoy for securing and observing service-to-service communication in microservices environments

  • Developer Portal

    Customizable self-service portal enabling API consumers to discover, test, and integrate with published APIs

  • Kong Ingress Controller

    Kubernetes-native ingress controller for managing external access to services running in Kubernetes clusters

  • API Analytics & Monitoring

    Real-time analytics and monitoring capabilities providing insights into API performance, usage patterns, and traffic metrics

  • Rate Limiting & Throttling

    Advanced traffic control features to protect backend services from overload and implement usage quotas

  • Authentication & Authorization

    Comprehensive security plugins supporting OAuth 2.0, JWT, API keys, LDAP, and other authentication mechanisms

  • Service Catalog

    Centralized registry for discovering and managing all services and APIs across the organization

  • Plugin Marketplace

    Extensible plugin ecosystem with pre-built and custom plugins for adding functionality to the API gateway

Tech & specs

Technology stack

KubernetesGoPostgreSQLEnvoyNginx

Deployment

CloudOn-PremiseHybridSaaSManaged Service

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