Harness vs Kong
Side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, and integrations.
Quick Verdict
Harness offers fewer features (34 vs 59) and more integrations (18 vs 8). Starting price: Harness at Free vs Kong at $12/mo. Harness has 34 unique features while Kong has 59 unique features, with 0 features in common.
| Harness | Kong | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | DevOps | DevOps |
| Total Features | 34 | 59 |
| AI-Powered Features | 4 | 4 |
| Starting Price | Free | $12/mo |
| Pricing Tiers | 3 | 6 |
| Integrations | 18 | 8 |
| Shared Features | 0 | |
| Shared Integrations | 3 | |
| Data Quality | 85% | 90% |
Feature Comparison by Category
AI Connectivity (0 vs 3)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| AI Gateway | ||
| AI Gateway Paid Plugins | ||
| MCP Gateway |
API Discovery (0 vs 2)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Developer Portal | ||
| Service Catalog |
API Governance (0 vs 5)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer Groups | ||
| Federated API Management | ||
| Plugin Ordering | ||
| Request Validation | ||
| Workspaces |
API Testing (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Insomnia |
Administration (2 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Roles | ||
| Organizations |
Analytics & Insights (2 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Dashboards | ||
| Software Engineering Insights |
Artifact Management (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Artifact Registry |
Automation (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Gateway Event Hooks |
Build Automation (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous Integration |
Core Gateway (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| API Gateway |
Cost Optimization (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Cost Management |
Data Processing (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Data Transformation |
Database Management (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Database DevOps |
Deployment (0 vs 5)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated Cloud Gateway | ||
| Hybrid Gateway | ||
| Kubernetes Ingress Controller | ||
| Multi-Cloud Deployment | ||
| Serverless Gateway |
Deployment Automation (2 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous Delivery & GitOps | ||
| GitOps |
Deployment Options (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Self Managed Platform |
DevOps (0 vs 3)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| CI/CD Integration | ||
| Declarative Configuration | ||
| Git Sync |
Developer Experience (2 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Development Environments | ||
| Internal Developer Portal |
Development Tools (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| API Design & Testing |
Event Streaming (0 vs 2)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Event Gateway | ||
| Kafka Integration |
Extensibility (0 vs 2)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Plugin Development Kit | ||
| Plugin System |
Governance (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Policy as Code |
Incident Management (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| AI SRE |
Infrastructure Management (2 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure as Code Management | ||
| Self Hosted Runners |
Integration (2 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Code Repository Integration | ||
| Native Deployment Integration |
Management (0 vs 2)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Admin GUI | ||
| Kong Manager |
Monetization (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Metering & Billing |
Monitoring & Analytics (1 vs 3)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| API Analytics | ||
| Observability | ||
| OpenTelemetry Support | ||
| Pipeline Execution History |
Performance (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Concurrent Pipeline Executions |
Protocol Support (0 vs 2)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| GraphQL Support | ||
| Multi-Protocol Support |
Release Management (2 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment Freeze Windows | ||
| Feature Management & Experimentation |
Reliability (1 vs 1)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Data Plane Resilience | ||
| Service Reliability Management |
Security (4 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Application Security Testing | ||
| Security Testing Orchestration | ||
| Software Security Supply Chain | ||
| Web Application & API Protection |
Security & Compliance (0 vs 16)
| Feature | Harness | 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 |
Testing (2 vs 3)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| AI Test Automation | ||
| Gateway Mocking | ||
| Inso CLI | ||
| Mock Server Requests | ||
| Resilience Testing |
Testing & Resilience (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Chaos Engineering |
Traffic Management (0 vs 4)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Rate Limiting | ||
| Caching | ||
| Rate Limiting | ||
| Routing Engine |
Workflow Automation (3 vs 0)
| Feature | Harness | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment Templates | ||
| Pipeline Chaining | ||
| Templates |
Unique Features
Only in Harness (34)
Custom Roles
Organizations
Custom Dashboards
Software Engineering Insights
Artifact Registry
Continuous Integration
Cloud Cost Management
Database DevOps
Continuous Delivery & GitOps
GitOps
Self Managed Platform
Cloud Development Environments
Internal Developer Portal
Policy as Code
AI SRE
Infrastructure as Code Management
Self Hosted Runners
Code Repository Integration
Native Deployment Integration
Pipeline Execution History
+ 14 more unique features
Only in Kong (59)
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
API Gateway
Data Transformation
Dedicated Cloud Gateway
Hybrid Gateway
Kubernetes Ingress Controller
Multi-Cloud Deployment
Serverless Gateway
API Design & Testing
+ 39 more unique features
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