Kong Gateway alternatives (2026)

Kong Gateway is a MCP & infra tool: Cloud-native API, LLM and MCP gateway that adds routing, auth, multi-LLM support, semantic security and MCP traffic analytics through plugins. Pricing, as the maker states it: Open source + cloud. Its GitHub repo has 44,278 stars. We found 289 tools in the directory that do overlapping work (customer support, data analysis, connecting tools with MCP); 166 of them are open source and 24 list a free or freemium plan. Below are the 10 closest, ranked by how many tasks and sub-tasks they share with Kong Gateway, then by GitHub stars.

1. Tyk Gateway (Open source + cloud): Cloud-native API and AI gateway supporting REST, GraphQL, gRPC and MCP, with rate limiting, auth and analytics. Consider it because it does the same job with a different approach (open source + cloud).
2. Casdoor (Open source): Agent-first identity and access management with an MCP and agent gateway. Consider it because it does the same job with a different approach (open source).
3. Open Connector (Open source): Open-source auth gateway connecting SaaS apps to AI agents via SDK, CLI and MCP. Consider it because it also covers agent frameworks and SDKs and terminal and CLI agents.
4. Jarvis Registry (Open source): Open-source MCP and A2A agent gateway that connects copilots and agents to enterprise tools with identity, access control and observability. Consider it because it also covers tracing and observability.
5. OneCLI (Open source): Sandboxed agent harness for teams with secure credential handling. Consider it because it also covers sandboxes and secure execution and agent frameworks and SDKs.
6. Metorial (Source-available + cloud): Open-source identity and access layer that connects AI agents to 1,200+ integrations via MCP, CLI or API with auth, permissions and observability. Consider it because it also covers guardrails and policies and tracing and observability.
7. ToolHive (Open source): Stacklok platform that runs MCP servers in isolated containers with per-request identity, access policy and observability. Consider it because it also covers sandboxes and secure execution and guardrails and policies.
8. OmniRoute (Open source): Self-hosted AI gateway that puts hundreds of model providers behind one endpoint for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and others, with quota-aware fallback and MCP/A2A support. Consider it because it also covers local and self-hosted; it has more GitHub stars (77,863 vs 44,278).
9. LiteLLM (Open source + cloud): Open-source AI gateway and Python SDK that calls 100+ LLM providers in the OpenAI format, with cost tracking, guardrails, load balancing and logging. Consider it because it also covers token usage and cost tracking and voice and phone agents; it has more GitHub stars (61,465 vs 44,278).
10. Portkey AI Gateway (Open source + cloud): Fast open-source AI gateway that routes requests to hundreds of LLMs through one API with fallbacks, load balancing and built-in guardrails. Consider it because it also covers guardrails and policies.

Kong Gateway vs alternatives at a glance

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Alternatives are picked from directory data only: same category plus shared tasks and sub-tasks. Pricing is as each maker states it; GitHub stars as recorded on each listing.