Kong AI Gateway vs Envoy AI Gateway

Kong AI Gateway8.8Visit Envoy AI Gateway8.4Visit

Higher score Kong AI Gateway #3 in Byok System 8.8/10 30-day trial Free trial✓ 0 of 3 features Visit Kong

vs

Envoy AI Gateway #6 in Byok System 8.4/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 0 of 3 features Visit Agent Router

• Kong AI Gateway fits best

  Organizations governing AI traffic across teams

• Envoy AI Gateway fits best

  Kubernetes teams needing open-source routing control

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Side by side

Feature	Kong AI Gateway 8.8/10 Visit ↗	Envoy AI Gateway 8.4/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	8.8	8.4
Ranking	#3 in Byok System	#6 in Byok System
Best for	Organizations governing AI traffic across teams	Kubernetes teams needing open-source routing control
Pricing model	Paid	Free
Starting price	—	Free plan
Free plan	—	✓ (best)
Free trial	30 days	—
Deployment	Cloud, Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Support	Email, Tickets	Community, Docs
Integrations	14 integrations	16 integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Kong AI Gateway 0/3 · Envoy AI Gateway 0/3
Request routing	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Team key sharing	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Self-hosting	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Specs
Key storage	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Supported providers	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Usage limits	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Our review
Pros	Routes across LLM providers with load balancing and automatic failover Combines token, cost, latency, and error analytics with spend controls Supports cloud and self-hosted deployment for LLM, MCP, and A2A traffic	Routes across hosted providers and self-hosted model endpoints Supports failover, weighted backends, token limits, and usage budgets Provides traffic, performance, usage, and cost observability
Cons	The $0 offer lasts 30 days; there is no perpetual free plan Plus limits gateway counts and supports up to 5 unique LLM models Enterprise uses custom pricing, making costs less predictable upfront	Deployment is self-hosted rather than a managed service Kubernetes installation uses Helm charts, so it favors Kubernetes teams Support channels are limited to community and documentation
Our verdict	Kong AI Gateway sits between applications, agents, MCP servers, and model providers, giving platform and infrastructure teams a shared layer for production AI traffic. It brings routing, authentication, access controls, analytics, rate… Read the review →	Teams building Kubernetes-based AI infrastructure may consider Envoy AI Gateway, an open-source gateway for routing application requests to hosted LLM providers and self-hosted models. It presents a unified API for multiple providers and… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Kong AI Gateway — where it wins

  • Routes across LLM providers with load balancing and automatic failover
  • Combines token, cost, latency, and error analytics with spend controls
  • Supports cloud and self-hosted deployment for LLM, MCP, and A2A traffic

  Where it doesn't

  • The $0 offer lasts 30 days; there is no perpetual free plan
  • Plus limits gateway counts and supports up to 5 unique LLM models
  • Enterprise uses custom pricing, making costs less predictable upfront

• Envoy AI Gateway — where it wins

  • Routes across hosted providers and self-hosted model endpoints
  • Supports failover, weighted backends, token limits, and usage budgets
  • Provides traffic, performance, usage, and cost observability

  Where it doesn't

  • Deployment is self-hosted rather than a managed service
  • Kubernetes installation uses Helm charts, so it favors Kubernetes teams
  • Support channels are limited to community and documentation

• Kong AI Gateway8.8/10 · 30-day trial

  A governed gateway for routing, controlling, and analyzing production AI traffic.

  Visit KongFull verdict →
• Envoy AI Gateway8.4/10 · Free plan

  A Kubernetes-oriented open-source gateway for routing, governing, and observing LLM traffic.

  Visit Agent RouterFull verdict →