Suggestions appear as you type. Use the up and down arrows to choose one and Enter to open it.

This page's audience our own tag's counts — open to see them
–Visits
–Page views
–Clicks to vendors
–Time on page
–Reading now
Clicks to vendors, by tool
  • –
Top countries
  • –
Devices
  • –

– · visits, page views and clicks counted by our own tag, which counts more than our checked analytics; every figure rounded down · how we count

Head-to-head · Tool Calling

Kong AI Gateway vs MCP Gateway

  • Updated Oct 2026
  • Both researched from official sources
  • 3 checks side by side
Higher score Kong AI Gateway #5 in Tool Calling 8.1/10 30-day trial Free trial✓ 0 of 3 features Visit Kong
MCP Gateway #8 in Tool Calling 7.9/10 Pricing on request ✓ 2 of 3 features Visit MCP Gateway

Kong AI Gateway leads on 0 checks, MCP Gateway on 0, and 3 are even. Who comes out ahead on the 3 yes/no, price and count checks where we have data for both products. The editor score weighs everything else too.

Our verdict

  • Highest scoreKong AI Gateway · 8.1/10
  • Free trialonly Kong AI Gateway
  • Most featuresMCP Gateway · 2 of 3

Kong AI Gateway scores higher on our rubric for tool calling: 8.1 against 7.9 out of 10; our editors rank them #5 and #8.

Kong AI Gateway is the better fit for enterprises governing AI, MCP, and A2A traffic. MCP Gateway is the better fit for enterprises managing MCP tools and access.

  • Kong AI Gateway fits best

    Enterprises governing AI, MCP, and A2A traffic

  • MCP Gateway fits best

    Enterprises managing MCP tools and access

Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.

Side by side

Feature Kong AI Gateway 8.1/10 Visit ↗ MCP Gateway 7.9/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score 8.1 7.9
Ranking #5 in Tool Calling #8 in Tool Calling
Best for Enterprises governing AI, MCP, and A2A traffic Enterprises managing MCP tools and access
Pricing model Paid Paid
Starting price — Pricing on request
Free plan — Not checked yet
Free trial 30 days —
Deployment Cloud, Self-hosted Self-hosted
Platforms Web Web
Integrations 14 integrations 8 integrations
Built for Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Kong AI Gateway 0/3 · MCP Gateway 2/3
Parallel tool calls Not checked yet Not checked yet
Structured outputs Not checked yet ✓ (best)
Call observability Not checked yet ✓ (best)
Specs
Protocol support Not checked yet Mcp
Deployment Not checked yet Self_hosted
Tool-choice control Not checked yet Not checked yet
Authentication methods Not checked yet Both
Our review
Pros
  • Routes and load-balances requests across multiple LLM providers.
  • Supports LLM, MCP, and A2A traffic with access and governance controls.
  • Tracks token use, cost, latency, and errors with spend controls.
  • Searches MCP tool catalogs semantically and executes tools through one endpoint
  • Provides OAuth credential management and per-session allow and deny rules
  • Adds traces, Prometheus metrics, and audit logs with monitoring integrations
Cons
  • There is no perpetual free plan; the $0 offer lasts 30 days.
  • Fully self-hosted API gateways are listed as an Enterprise feature.
  • Support channels are email and ticket.
  • Pricing uses a contact-sales model
  • Deployment is self-hosted, so teams need to run it on customer infrastructure
  • Cloud marketplace deployment options are marked as coming soon
Our verdict

Kong AI Gateway gives platform and infrastructure teams a gateway for managing traffic among applications, agents, MCP servers, and large language model providers. Its tool-calling relevance comes from support for MCP and A2A traffic…

Read the review →

MCP Gateway gives AI agents a unified endpoint for finding and executing tools across MCP servers. It is aimed at mid-market and enterprise teams that need to manage server connections, credentials, and session-level access in one place.…

Read the review →
  1. Kong AI GatewayTool Calling 8.130-day trial
  2. MCP GatewayTool Calling 7.9Pricing on request

Strengths and trade-offs

  • Kong AI Gateway — where it wins

    • Routes and load-balances requests across multiple LLM providers.
    • Supports LLM, MCP, and A2A traffic with access and governance controls.
    • Tracks token use, cost, latency, and errors with spend controls.

    Where it doesn't

    • There is no perpetual free plan; the $0 offer lasts 30 days.
    • Fully self-hosted API gateways are listed as an Enterprise feature.
    • Support channels are email and ticket.

  • MCP Gateway — where it wins

    • Searches MCP tool catalogs semantically and executes tools through one endpoint
    • Provides OAuth credential management and per-session allow and deny rules
    • Adds traces, Prometheus metrics, and audit logs with monitoring integrations

    Where it doesn't

    • Pricing uses a contact-sales model
    • Deployment is self-hosted, so teams need to run it on customer infrastructure
    • Cloud marketplace deployment options are marked as coming soon
  • Kong AI Gateway8.1/10 · 30-day trial

    A gateway for governing AI and tool traffic across models, with routing and spend controls.

    Visit KongFull verdict →
  • MCP Gateway7.9/10 · Pricing on request

    A self-hosted MCP gateway for centralized tool discovery, access control, and observability.

    Visit MCP GatewayFull verdict →

More comparisons

All tool calling comparisons → · Full ranking →

Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

Last updated · How we research and update