We began by creating a model with the community version to assess its capabilities. Once we confirmed that this tool met our needs, we opted for an enterprise license. Simply to benefit from tools that facilitate integration into our model and address specific requirements of our architecture in terms of security, data transformation, and authentication management.
Nicolas Gabetty
Senior Engineer / Coop Atlantique
API Gateway Migration
Real trade-offs, real G2 data. Pick your current gateway to see why teams switch and what changes when they do.
Kong solved the gateway problem, but the cost shows up later: Lua plugins to re-validate on every upgrade, a database-backed control plane in your critical path, and Enterprise pricing that scales with your traffic, API count, or service footprint.
Migrate From Kong to KrakenD » | KrakenD vs Kong »
We had tried other API gateways like Kong, but KrakenD was the first that solved our problems without introducing new complexity.
Google Apigee ties your gateway to Google Cloud's control plane and prices by the API call. Every successful feature, every new integration, every traffic spike is a line item. The lock-in and the bill both grow with your success.
Migrate From Apigee to KrakenD » | KrakenD vs Google Apigee »
With Kong and Apigee, you can't start small. The pricing doesn't allow it.
Tyk adds operational dependencies that a gateway should not require: a Redis instance for node coordination, a database-backed dashboard for configuration, and a plugin system needed even for standard functions like transformation and filtering. The Community and Enterprise editions diverge further with each release.
Migrate From Tyk to KrakenD » | KrakenD vs Tyk »
Other gateways make complexity the default, you end up needing UIs just to manage their bloat. KrakenD is the opposite: well-documented, simple, powerful. It just works.
AWS API Gateway locks your gateway to AWS infrastructure and bills per million requests. The deeper your Lambda and IAM integrations go, the harder it is to leave. And the more your traffic grows, the more you pay, with no ceiling and no flat-rate option.
Migrate From AWS to KrakenD » | KrakenD vs AWS API Gateway »
KrakenD is an elegant and powerful API gateway that's enabled us to build an industry-changing API-first platform that we know our customers can rely on.
Why Teams Switch
G2 Fall 2026 API Management, Mid-Market: KrakenD customers recover their investment in 3 months. The category average is 11.65 months. 100% of implementations are done in-house with no external consultants. Average time to go-live: 2 months.
The reasons teams switch vary by gateway. The pattern does not: operational overhead, pricing that scales with traffic, or a cloud dependency that was not visible on day one.
Source: G2 Fall 2026 API Management reports. Data collected through July 28, 2026.
Metric | KrakenD | Kong | Google Apigee | Tyk | AWS API Gateway |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ROI payback, Mid-Market | 3 months | 11 months | 11 months | 17 months | 13 months |
Source: G2 Fall 2026 API Management reports, Mid-Market segment. Data collected through July 28, 2026. Third-party verified peer reviews, not vendor claims.
The Cost Curve
Kong, Google Apigee, Tyk, and AWS API Gateway all share the same structural trap: what you pay is tied to how much you use the gateway. Kong Enterprise scales with traffic volume, API count, or service footprint. Google Apigee charges per API call. Tyk publishes no dollar pricing at any tier and routes every deal through a contact-sales flow. AWS API Gateway bills per million requests, with no flat-rate ceiling. Every new team, every traffic spike, every integration you add becomes a line item, and the number moves without your permission.
KrakenD is priced by flat-tiered plans. A traffic spike that doubles your call volume does not change your invoice. A record-breaking sales day costs the same as a quiet Tuesday. Your gateway cost is a line in the annual budget, not a variable you track weekly across four different vendor contracts.
What About AI?
Every page above covers what changes for AI Gateway capabilities: LLM routing, prompt guarding, semantic caching, token budgets, and an MCP server, all native config in the same binary. No additional service to deploy, no additional database to manage.
About KrakenD
KrakenD is a stateless, high-performance open source API gateway and an enterprise-grade gateway used by teams in 23+ countries. Its declarative configuration model, flat-tiered pricing, and zero-dependency runtime make it the most common destination for teams switching from Kong, Google Apigee, Tyk, and AWS API Gateway. Configuration lives in Git. Deployments go through your existing CI/CD pipeline. The gateway runs on any cloud or on-premise infrastructure without modification.
Walk through your current setup, the routes and integrations involved, and what a phased, low-risk path looks like for your architecture.
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