Kong vs Harness
Side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, and integrations.
Quick Verdict
Kong offers more features (59 vs 30) and fewer integrations (8 vs 17). Starting price: Kong at $12/mo vs Harness at Free. Kong has 59 unique features while Harness has 30 unique features, with 0 features in common.
| Kong | Harness | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | DevOps | DevOps |
| Total Features | 59 | 30 |
| AI-Powered Features | 4 | 5 |
| Starting Price | $12/mo | Free |
| Pricing Tiers | 6 | 3 |
| Integrations | 8 | 17 |
| Shared Features | 0 | |
| Shared Integrations | 3 | |
| Data Quality | 90% | 85% |
Feature Comparison by Category
AI Connectivity (3 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| AI Gateway | ||
| AI Gateway Paid Plugins | ||
| MCP Gateway |
API Discovery (2 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Developer Portal | ||
| Service Catalog |
API Governance (5 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer Groups | ||
| Federated API Management | ||
| Plugin Ordering | ||
| Request Validation | ||
| Workspaces |
API Testing (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Insomnia |
Access Control (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Roles |
Administration (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Organizations |
Analytics (0 vs 2)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Pipeline Execution History | ||
| Software Engineering Insights |
Artifact Management (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Artifact Registry |
Automation (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Gateway Event Hooks |
Continuous Delivery (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous Delivery & GitOps |
Continuous Integration (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous Integration |
Core Gateway (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| API Gateway |
Cost Management (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Cost Management |
Data Processing (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Data Transformation |
Database (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Database DevOps |
Deployment (5 vs 5)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated Cloud Gateway | ||
| Deployment Freeze Windows | ||
| Deployment Templates | ||
| GitOps | ||
| Hybrid Gateway | ||
| Kubernetes Ingress Controller | ||
| Multi-Cloud Deployment | ||
| Self Hosted Runners | ||
| Self Managed Platform | ||
| Serverless Gateway |
DevOps (3 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| CI/CD Integration | ||
| Declarative Configuration | ||
| Git Sync |
Developer Experience (0 vs 2)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Development Environments | ||
| Internal Developer Portal |
Development Tools (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| API Design & Testing |
Event Streaming (2 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Event Gateway | ||
| Kafka Integration |
Experimentation (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Experimentation |
Extensibility (2 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Plugin Development Kit | ||
| Plugin System |
Feature Management (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Feature Management |
Governance (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Policy as Code |
Infrastructure (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure as Code Management |
Integrations (0 vs 2)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Code Repository Integration | ||
| Native Deployment Integration |
Management (2 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Admin GUI | ||
| Kong Manager |
Monetization (1 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Metering & Billing |
Monitoring (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Release Monitoring |
Monitoring & Analytics (3 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| API Analytics | ||
| Observability | ||
| OpenTelemetry Support |
Performance (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Concurrent Pipeline Executions |
Protocol Support (2 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| GraphQL Support | ||
| Multi-Protocol Support |
Reliability (1 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Data Plane Resilience | ||
| Service Reliability Management |
Reporting (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Dashboards |
Security (0 vs 2)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Security Testing Orchestration | ||
| Software Security Supply Chain |
Security & Compliance (16 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| 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 (3 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Chaos Engineering | ||
| Gateway Mocking | ||
| Inso CLI | ||
| Mock Server Requests |
Traffic Management (4 vs 0)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Rate Limiting | ||
| Caching | ||
| Rate Limiting | ||
| Routing Engine |
Workflow (0 vs 1)
| Feature | Kong | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Pipeline Chaining |
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
Only in Harness (30)
Custom Roles
Organizations
Pipeline Execution History
Software Engineering Insights
Artifact Registry
Continuous Delivery & GitOps
Continuous Integration
Cloud Cost Management
Database DevOps
Deployment Freeze Windows
Deployment Templates
GitOps
Self Hosted Runners
Self Managed Platform
Cloud Development Environments
Internal Developer Portal
Experimentation
Feature Management
Policy as Code
Infrastructure as Code Management
+ 10 more unique features
Want to build your own alternative to Kong or Harness?
Analyze it with Reap