In this blog, we analyze Kong Konnect Plus, a scalable API management solution offering three distinct pricing models: Serverless, Self-hosted/k8s, and Dedicated Cloud. Each model caters to different deployment needs while leveraging Kong Konnect's core strengths.
What Is Kong Konnect?
Controlled by Kong Inc., Kong Konnect is an API lifecycle management platform designed for the cloud-native era and delivered as a service.
Kong Konnect provides several choices for control plane options:
- Kong Gateway
- Kong Ingress Controller
- Kong Mesh
The control plane passes those configurations to the data plane group, which is composed of data plane nodes. The individual nodes can be running on-premise, in cloud-hosted environments, or fully managed by Kong Konnect with Dedicated Cloud Gateways. The control plane is hosted in the cloud by Kong, while users can choose to host the data plane in a preferred network environment or on the Kong cloud.
Key Features
- Offer the control plane to deploy and manage users' APIs and microservices in any environment.
- Apply authentication, API security, and traffic control policies across services.
- Provide real-time and centralized monitoring of services, and monitor golden signals like error rate and latency.
- Operate in the target geographic region the same as end-users, thus ensuring data privacy and regulatory compliance.
- Provide service catalog, gateway manager, mesh manager, API products, Dev Portal, analytics, and team modules.
Kong Konnect Pricing
When you first try this product, you can use the Kong Konnect Plus version for free for 30 days. If you need to make an annual bill or custom plan, you need to contact Kong sales for details.
Kong Konnect Plus Features
- Access to Kong Gateway, Ingress Controller, and Kong Mesh
- Access to Kong Konnect's Dedicated Cloud Gateways
- Customized Dev Portal to catalog and expose APIs to internal and external users
- Plugins to extend your Gateway's capabilities
Kong Konnect Plus Pricing Models
There are three types of pricing models due to the difference between gateway managers:
- Serverless: The fastest way to run an API gateway in Konnect. Great for development and prototyping.
- Self Hosted / K8s: A flexible option for deploying your production API gateway, integrated into our Konnect API platform.
- Dedicated Cloud: Fully managed, multi-cloud enterprise-grade API gateways that auto-scale.
Serverless Plan
Features Included
| Feature | Availability |
|---|---|
| Gateway Services | ✅ |
| API Requests | ✅ $20 for the first 1M API requests |
| Custom Domains | ✅ Limited to 1 |
| Cloud Infrastructure - Network | ✅ |
| Cloud Infrastructure - Bandwidth | ✅ |
| Cloud Infrastructure - Compute | ✅ |
| Developer Portal | ✅ 1 developer portal with 1 published API included |
| Published API | ✅ $10 per month per additional published API |
| Basic Analytics | ✅ |
| Advanced Analytics | ✅ Additional $20/million API requests |
| Data Retention | ✅ Up to 14 months |
| Mesh Manager Zones | ✅ $4,166/zone per month |
Monthly Cost Calculation
| API Requests | Cost (per month) |
|---|---|
| 1 million | $20 |
| 10 million | $200 |
| 50 million | $1000 |
| 100 million | $2000 |
Self-Hosted/ K8s Plan
Features Included
| Feature | Availability |
|---|---|
| Gateway Services | ✅ $105/month per service |
| API Requests | ✅ $34.25 per 1M API requests |
| Custom Domains | ✅ |
| Custom Plugins | ✅ |
| Private Networking | ✅ |
| Multi-Cloud | Self Managed |
| Network Isolation | Self Managed |
| Auto-Scaling | Self Managed |
| Cloud Infrastructure | Self Managed |
| Dataplane SLA | Self Managed |
| Developer Portal | ✅ 1 developer portal with 1 published API included |
| Published API | ✅ $10 per month per additional published API |
| Basic Analytics | ✅ |
| Advanced Analytics | ✅ Additional $20/million API requests |
| Data Retention | ✅ Up to 14 months |
| Mesh Manager Zones | ✅ $4,166/zone per month |
Monthly Cost Calculation
| Services/API Requests (per month) | 1 million | 10 million | 50 million | 100 million |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $1084.25 | $1382.5 | $2762.5 | $4475 |
| 20 | $2134.25 | $2442.5 | $3812.5 | $5525 |
| 50 | $5284.25 | $5592.5 | $6962.5 | $8675 |
| 100 | $10534.25 | $10842.5 | $12212.5 | $13925 |
| 1000 | $105034.25 | $105342.5 | $106712.5 | $108425 |
Dedicated Cloud Plan
Features Included
| Feature | Availability |
|---|---|
| Gateway Services | ✅ $105/month per service |
| API Requests | ✅ $34.25 per 1M API requests |
| Custom Domains | ✅ |
| Custom Plugins | ✅ |
| Private Networking | ✅ |
| Multi-Cloud | ✅ |
| Network Isolation | ✅ |
| Auto-Scaling | ✅ |
| Cloud Infrastructure - Network | ✅ $1/hour |
| Cloud Infrastructure - Bandwidth | ✅ $0.15 per GB |
| Cloud Infrastructure - Compute | ✅ $0.05-0.80/hour (Depending on instances) |
| Dataplane SLA | ✅ 99.95% |
| Developer Portal | ✅ 1 developer portal with 1 published API included |
| Published API | ✅ $10 per month per additional published API |
| Basic Analytics | ✅ |
| Advanced Analytics | ✅ Additional $20/million API requests |
| Data Retention | ✅ Up to 14 months |
| Mesh Manager Zones | ✅ $4,166/zone per month |
Monthly Cost Calculation
| Services/API Requests (per month) | 1 million | 10 million | 50 million | 100 million |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $1084.25 | $1382.5 | $2762.5 | $4475 |
| 20 | $2134.25 | $2442.5 | $3812.5 | $5525 |
| 50 | $5284.25 | $5592.5 | $6962.5 | $8675 |
| 100 | $10534.25 | $10842.5 | $12212.5 | $13925 |
| 1000 | $105034.25 | $105342.5 | $106712.5 | $108425 |
Cloud Infrastructure Fees
| Category | 1 GB | 10 GB | 20 GB | 50 GB | 100 GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Infrastructure - Bandwidth | $0.15 | $1.5 | $3 | $7.5 | $15 |
| Cloud Infrastructure - Network | $1/hour | $730 | $730 | $730 | $730 |
| Cloud Infrastructure - Compute | $0.05-0.80/hour | $36.5~$584 | $36.5~$584 | $36.5~$584 | $36.5~$584 |
| Total Costs (per month) | $766.65~$1314.15 | $768~$1315.5 | $769.5~$1317 | $774~$1321.5 | $781.5~$1329 |
Additional Add-on Costs
| Feature | Cost (per month) |
|---|---|
| Advanced Analytics | $20/million API requests |
| Published API | $10 per month per additional published API |
| Mesh Manager Zones | $4,166/zone per month |
| Additional Portals | $299/month |
Tiered Pricing
| Tier | Advanced Analytics (API Requests) | Published APIs | Mesh Manager Zones | Additional Portals | Total Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 million ($20) | 1 ($10) | 1 ($4,166) | 1 ($299) | $4,495 |
| 2 | 5 million ($100) | 3 ($30) | 2 ($8,332) | 2 ($598) | $9,060 |
| 3 | 10 million ($200) | 5 ($50) | 3 ($12,498) | 3 ($897) | $13,645 |
| 4 | 15 million ($300) | 10 ($100) | 5 ($20,830) | 5 ($1,495) | $22,725 |
Budgeting Tips
- For APIs and Mesh Manager Zones, calculate based on your maximum expected needs.
- For analytics, track API request volume to forecast costs.
Kong Konnect Pricing Summary
- Serverless plan includes gateway service and cloud infrastructure fees, but excludes features like custom plugins, multi-cloud, network isolation, and auto-scaling.
- Self Hosted/K8s and Dedicated Cloud plans charge fees mainly on gateway services and API requests while the latter also charges cloud infrastructure fees.
- Extra charges may apply for advanced analytics, published API, cloud infrastructure, additional portals, and Mesh Manager zones.
Drawbacks of Kong Konnect
Kong Konnect Plus excels in scalability and flexibility but faces challenges in hybrid deployment complexity, cost unpredictability, and feature limitations in lower tiers. Here are the drawbacks:
1. Multi-Dimensional Complexity
The pricing model is highly complex due to multiple dimensions such as gateway services, API requests, network usage, bandwidth, compute resources, advanced analytics, and mesh manager zones. This complexity not only increases operational overhead but also contributes to higher overall costs for customers.
Pricing of Kong Enterprise is not transparent, requiring consultation with sales for details. This lack of clarity can create barriers for businesses seeking predictable and straightforward pricing structures.
2. High API Calls Cost
The cost for API calls exceeds $30 per million requests, a rate that is markedly higher than competitors' offerings. For instance, AWS charges only $1 per million requests, making this pricing model significantly less cost-effective for high-volume operations.
3. High Gateway Service Cost
The gateway service fees are prohibitively expensive for businesses leveraging microservices architecture, especially as the number of services grows. This cost structure creates a financial barrier for enterprises seeking to adopt more scalable and modern microservices architectures.
If there are many services, costs become extremely high, restricting users from adopting a more advanced microservices architecture.
4. Vendor Lock-in
There is a significant risk of over-reliance on a specific vendor due to proprietary technologies and pricing structures. This dependency complicates migration to more advanced or cost-effective technologies, as transitioning would require substantial re-architecture efforts and potential downtime.
Benefits of Switching to API7 Cloud
Migrating from Kong Konnect to API7 Cloud, you can try it with a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. You can enjoy the following features:
- Run Apache APISIX data plane on hybrid and multi-clouds
- Professional Apache APISIX management platform
- Built-in Apache APISIX monitoring
- No vendor lock-in and pay-as-you-go
Cost-Effective CPU Core-based Pricing
- API7 Cloud on-premise plan follows a simple CPU core-based pricing model
- API7 Cloud charges only $2/million API requests, $10/service, and $250/cluster per month
- The advanced analytics features are included in API7 Cloud but are free to use
Suppose there are two users, each has 10 million and 100 million API requests per month. Let's compare the price of using Kong Konnect and API7 Cloud.
| Product/Fees | API Requests | Advanced Analytics (API Requests) | Gateway Services | Published APIs | Clusters | Total Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kong Konnect (Self Hosted/K8s) - 5M | 10 million ($342.5) | 10 million ($100) | 30 ($3150) | 3 ($30) | 0 | $3,622.5 |
| API7 Cloud - 5M | 10 million ($20) | 0 | 30 ($300) | 0 | 1 ($250) | $570 |
| Kong Konnect (Self Hosted/K8s) - 10M | 100 million ($3,425) | 100 million ($200) | 100 ($10,500) | 20 ($200) | 0 | $14,325 |
| API7 Cloud - 10M | 100 million ($200) | 0 | 100 ($1,000) | 0 | 3 ($750) | $1,950 |
No Hidden Fees
- API requests, authentication, rate limiting, and service discovery are included at no extra cost
- Enterprise SSO and security features are fully included, with no additional charges
- Supports switching between API7 Cloud and its open-source version, Apache APISIX
- Provides direct human support from Apache APISIX experts
No Vendor Lock-in
Based on Apache APISIX, API7 Cloud is vendor-agnostic, reducing the risk of vendor lock-in. It can be deployed across multiple cloud platforms and integrated with various tools and services.
Conclusion
In summary, while Kong Konnect offers unified management and multi-cloud agility, its complex pricing structure and high costs make it less attractive for businesses with fluctuating or high traffic volumes.
API7 Cloud offers rich authentication methods, high performance, a dynamic architecture, cloud-native capabilities, comprehensive API management, cost-effectiveness, strong security, a rich plugin ecosystem, and vendor agnosticism, making it a stronger choice for businesses looking for a comprehensive and scalable API management solution.
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