HAProxy vs Kong
Side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, and integrations.
Quick Verdict
HAProxy offers fewer features (35 vs 59) and fewer integrations (1 vs 8). Starting price: HAProxy at Contact Sales vs Kong at $12/mo. HAProxy has 33 unique features while Kong has 57 unique features, with 2 features in common.
| HAProxy | Kong | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | DevOps | DevOps |
| Total Features | 35 | 59 |
| AI-Powered Features | 2 | 4 |
| Starting Price | Contact Sales | $12/mo |
| Pricing Tiers | 0 | 6 |
| Integrations | 1 | 8 |
| Shared Features | 2 | |
| Shared Integrations | 0 | |
| Data Quality | 50% | 90% |
Feature Comparison by Category
AI Connectivity (0 vs 3)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| AI Gateway | ||
| AI Gateway Paid Plugins | ||
| MCP Gateway |
API Discovery (0 vs 2)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Developer Portal | ||
| Service Catalog |
API Governance (0 vs 5)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer Groups | ||
| Federated API Management | ||
| Plugin Ordering | ||
| Request Validation | ||
| Workspaces |
API Management (1 vs 0)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| API Gateway |
API Testing (0 vs 1)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Insomnia |
Automation (0 vs 1)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Gateway Event Hooks |
CDN/Edge (1 vs 0)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Global Application Delivery Network (ADN) |
Core Gateway (0 vs 1)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| API Gateway |
Data Processing (0 vs 1)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Data Transformation |
Deployment (0 vs 5)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated Cloud Gateway | ||
| Hybrid Gateway | ||
| Kubernetes Ingress Controller | ||
| Multi-Cloud Deployment | ||
| Serverless Gateway |
DevOps (0 vs 3)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| CI/CD Integration | ||
| Declarative Configuration | ||
| Git Sync |
Development Tools (0 vs 1)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| API Design & Testing |
Event Streaming (0 vs 2)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Event Gateway | ||
| Kafka Integration |
Extensibility (0 vs 2)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Plugin Development Kit | ||
| Plugin System |
Infrastructure (1 vs 0)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Cloud Support |
Kubernetes (5 vs 0)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Direct-to-Pod Load Balancing | ||
| External Load Balancing | ||
| Kubernetes Ingress Control | ||
| Multi-Cluster Routing | ||
| Service Discovery |
Management (2 vs 2)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Admin GUI | ||
| Central Management | ||
| HAProxy Fusion Control Plane | ||
| Kong Manager |
Monetization (0 vs 1)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Metering & Billing |
Monitoring (1 vs 0)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Health Checks |
Monitoring & Analytics (0 vs 3)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| API Analytics | ||
| Observability | ||
| OpenTelemetry Support |
Operations (3 vs 0)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Container Support | ||
| Hitless Reloads | ||
| Traffic Drain |
Performance (2 vs 0)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Connection Pooling | ||
| Traffic Overload Protection |
Platform (2 vs 0)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| HAProxy Enterprise | ||
| HAProxy One - Unified Platform |
Protocol Support (0 vs 2)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| GraphQL Support | ||
| Multi-Protocol Support |
Reliability (3 vs 1)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Circuit Breaking | ||
| Data Plane Resilience | ||
| High Availability | ||
| Retry Requests |
Security (8 vs 0)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| API/AI Protection | ||
| Bot Management and Protection | ||
| Central Security Policy | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| HAProxy Edge | ||
| SSL/TLS Processing | ||
| Threat Intelligence | ||
| Web Application Firewall (WAF) |
Security & Compliance (0 vs 16)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| ACME Certificate Management | ||
| API Security Shift Left | ||
| Advanced Authentication | ||
| Advanced Authorization (OPA) | ||
| Audit Logging | ||
| Basic Authentication | ||
| Bot Detection & CORS Controls | ||
| Domain Capture and Control | ||
| End-to-End Encryption | ||
| FIPS 140-2 Compliance | ||
| Native Vault Integration | ||
| Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) | ||
| SCIM Integration | ||
| SSO (SAML/OIDC) | ||
| Secret Management Integration |
Services (1 vs 0)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Load Balancing as a Service (LBaaS) |
Support (1 vs 0)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| 24/7/365 Support |
Testing (0 vs 3)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Gateway Mocking | ||
| Inso CLI | ||
| Mock Server Requests |
Traffic Management (4 vs 4)
| Feature | HAProxy | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Rate Limiting | ||
| Advanced Routing | ||
| Caching | ||
| Load Balancing | ||
| Rate Limiting | ||
| Reverse Proxy | ||
| Routing Engine |
Unique Features
Only in HAProxy (33)
Global Application Delivery Network (ADN)
Multi-Cloud Support
Direct-to-Pod Load Balancing
External Load Balancing
Kubernetes Ingress Control
Multi-Cluster Routing
Service Discovery
Central Management
HAProxy Fusion Control Plane
Health Checks
Container Support
Hitless Reloads
Traffic Drain
Connection Pooling
Traffic Overload Protection
HAProxy Enterprise
HAProxy One - Unified Platform
Circuit Breaking
High Availability
Retry Requests
+ 13 more unique features
Only in Kong (57)
AI Gateway
AI Gateway Paid Plugins
MCP Gateway
Developer Portal
Service Catalog
Consumer Groups
Federated API Management
Plugin Ordering
Request Validation
Workspaces
Insomnia
Gateway Event Hooks
Data Transformation
Dedicated Cloud Gateway
Hybrid Gateway
Kubernetes Ingress Controller
Multi-Cloud Deployment
Serverless Gateway
API Design & Testing
CI/CD Integration
+ 37 more unique features
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