Kong Konnect or Tyk: which API gateway fits your team
If your renewal, metered-billing review or data residency rule is pushing you to choose between staying on Kong Konnect and moving to a self-hosted gateway, the deciding question is where your control plane must live. Konnect fits teams that want Kong to host the control plane and accept a SaaS dependency in exchange for a managed console, with data planes that can be self-hosted, run as serverless gateways, or fully managed by Kong on AWS, Azure or GCP. Self-hosted Tyk Gateway fits teams that want the gateway running inside their own infrastructure, and that can operate Redis, the gateway's storage dependency, and make a separate licensing decision for management tooling.
Choose Konnect if your platform team wants Kong to run the management plane, your data can leave your environment for control-plane traffic, and you are comfortable with usage-based billing that tracks gateway services and requests. Choose Tyk if the gateway itself must run in your own network and you can accept that the open source Tyk Gateway, released under MPL-2.0, covers runtime features while the Dashboard, Developer Portal and Kubernetes Operator require a Tyk license. Confirm with Tyk which of those management components your use case needs before you compare quotes, because the license boundary decides the cost of the self-hosted option.
The decision turns on three questions: where the control plane must live, which management features your team needs, such as a visual Dashboard, a developer portal or declarative Kubernetes management, and who will operate the stack day to day. A team with a strict residency rule and an in-house Redis and Kubernetes practice has a different answer from one that needs a portal for external developers and has no platform staff to run it.
Which option fits which scenario
This table matches six common team situations to the platform that fits better, and the condition that makes each advantage matter. Read the why column first, since the right answer usually depends on one constraint such as network placement, plugin language or existing Kong investment.
| Scenario | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Managed control plane with minimal operations | Kong Konnect | Kong hosts the control plane, so your team runs only data plane nodes. This matters when there is no platform team to operate Redis, a dashboard and a database. |
| Control plane must stay inside your network | Tyk Gateway with Tyk Self-Managed | Konnect's control plane is Kong-hosted. Self-managed Tyk runs Dashboard, Developer Portal, Pump, Redis and PostgreSQL in your environment, but it requires a Tyk license for those components. |
| Gateway only, configuration as code | Tyk Gateway (open source) | The MPL-2.0 gateway runs with Redis and supports hitless configuration reloads and the tyk-oss Helm chart. This fits when a GitOps pipeline owns all configuration and no portal is needed. |
| Developer Portal and dashboard required | Kong Konnect or Tyk Self-Managed | Both offer a portal and visual management, but Tyk's portal and dashboard sit under a commercial license. Confirm current portal features and seat terms with each vendor before deciding. |
| Plugins written in Python, JavaScript or Go | Tyk Gateway (open source) | Tyk supports plugins in these languages and any gRPC-capable language inside the open source gateway. This matters when your developers prefer those languages over Lua. |
| Already running Kong Gateway open source | Kong Gateway OSS (self-run) | Existing decK files and Kong plugins carry over directly. Moving to Tyk means rewriting configuration and plugins, so switch only if a requirement above forces it. |
How Konnect and Tyk tiers line up, tier by tier
Kong Konnect and Tyk split their offerings differently, so the same capability can sit in a free tier, a licensed self-managed stack or a hosted service. The cards below map each Tyk tier against Konnect's SaaS model so you can see which parts you would run yourself, which parts carry a license and which parts a vendor operates.
Konnect SaaS control plane
Konnect hosts the control plane in Kong's cloud, so your team manages routes, services, plugins and analytics through Kong's console. Data plane nodes can be self-hosted, run as serverless gateways or run as Dedicated Cloud Gateways that Kong manages on AWS, Azure or GCP. Your gateway traffic can stay in your network while configuration and usage metadata flow to Kong. Check where each data plane sits, what metadata leaves your environment and how billing counts gateway services and requests before you compare it with a self-run Tyk stack.
Tyk Gateway under MPL-2.0
The core gateway code outside the ee folder is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, so you can run it without a Tyk license. It needs Redis, installs through Docker, the tyk-oss Helm chart, Ansible or Linux packages, and supports JWT, rate limiting, versioning and hitless reloads. Plugins can be written in Python, JavaScript, Go or any gRPC language. Your team operates the gateway, Redis, monitoring and configuration files, and must confirm that no component you deploy comes from the ee folder.
Tyk Self-Managed with licensed components
The full Tyk Self-Managed platform adds Tyk Dashboard, the Developer Portal, Tyk Pump, Redis and PostgreSQL, and it requires a license. The Tyk Operator for Kubernetes-native declarative management is also licensed. Your team runs every component inside its own infrastructure, which keeps data local, but the Dashboard and portal features cost money and the license terms define what you may deploy. Ask Tyk which components are covered, how upgrades are delivered and what support includes before you design the stack.
Tyk Cloud hosted full stack
Tyk Cloud is Tyk's hosted service that manages the full stack, and it is available with a free trial. Tyk operates the infrastructure, so your team focuses on API configuration and policies rather than patching Redis or PostgreSQL. This tier shares the operating model of Konnect in that a vendor runs the management layer. Confirm where the hosted control plane and data are located, which regions are offered and whether the hosted service meets your data residency requirements.
Capability comparison from supplied facts
This table sets Kong Konnect's documented hosting model against the Tyk Gateway features covered by Tyk's public documentation, so you can see where each product's capabilities are confirmed and where you must check with the vendor. Read the Tyk rows as open-source gateway features, and note where Tyk's management layer needs a license. Confirm Konnect feature depth with Kong before drawing conclusions about gaps.
| Capability | Kong Konnect (commercial SaaS) | Tyk Gateway (MPL-2.0 open source) |
|---|---|---|
| Control plane deployment | Kong-managed SaaS control plane | Self-run gateway; full management stack (Dashboard, Developer Portal) requires Tyk Self-Managed under a license |
| Data plane hosting | Self-hosted nodes, serverless gateways, or Dedicated Cloud Gateways on AWS, Azure or GCP | Runs wherever you deploy it: Docker, Kubernetes via tyk-oss Helm chart, Ansible, or Red Hat, CentOS and Ubuntu packages |
| Gateway protocols | Confirm protocol coverage with Kong for your specific traffic types | REST with native OpenAPI support, SOAP, GraphQL, gRPC, TCP and MCP |
| Authentication | Confirm supported methods with Kong for your identity setup | JWT, bearer tokens, Basic Auth and client certificates |
| Rate limiting and quotas | Confirm the exact policy options with Kong | Supported in the open source gateway |
| API versioning and per-operation access control | Confirm with Kong how versioning and operation-level policies are expressed | Supported, including granular per-version and per-operation access control |
| IP allowlisting and config reloads | Confirm with Kong | IP allowlisting supported; hitless configuration reloads supported |
| Plugin languages | Confirm plugin development options with Kong for custom logic | Python, JavaScript, Go or any language supporting gRPC |
| Developer portal and dashboard | Included in the Konnect console; confirm portal limits and billing with Kong | Dashboard and Developer Portal require a Tyk license (Self-Managed) or Tyk Cloud |
| Kubernetes declarative management | Confirm Konnect and Kong Ingress options with Kong | Tyk Operator requires a license |
| Storage needs | Kong manages the control plane storage; confirm what you run for data planes | Redis required; PostgreSQL and Tyk Pump needed only in the full Self-Managed stack |
Where the control plane and data sit
Kong Konnect and Tyk split the gateway into a data plane and a management layer, but they place those layers differently. Where each part runs decides which data leaves your network, who operates it, and which compliance evidence your team must produce.
Konnect's Kong-managed control plane
Konnect hosts the control plane, so gateway configuration, analytics and account data are stored in Kong's SaaS environment rather than your own. Konnect control planes are offered in several regions, so confirm which region holds your configuration and where analytics are retained. Ask Kong for its data processing terms and sub-processor list before you rely on it for regulated traffic metadata.
Kong-managed or self-hosted data planes
Konnect data plane nodes can be self-hosted, run as serverless gateways, or run as Dedicated Cloud Gateways managed by Kong on AWS, Azure or GCP. Each option changes where request traffic is processed even though the control plane stays with Kong. Map each API's traffic path against these choices before you decide which gateways stay inside your boundary.
Tyk Gateway on your own infrastructure
Tyk Gateway is MPL-2.0 licensed and runs with Redis inside your environment. You can install it with Docker, the tyk-oss Helm chart, Ansible, or Red Hat, CentOS and Ubuntu packages, so traffic and request state never need to leave your network. Confirm which Redis deployment, persistence settings and backups your team will operate, because the gateway depends on them for rate limits and quotas.
Dashboard and Developer Portal need a license
The management control plane, Dashboard and Developer Portal are not part of the open-source gateway. Tyk Self-Managed bundles them with Tyk Pump, Redis and PostgreSQL under a commercial license, so you will host that stack and its analytics store yourself. Ask Tyk exactly which components are licensed, where portal user data is stored, and which components can run in an air-gapped network.
Tyk Cloud as a vendor-operated option
Tyk Cloud is a hosted service that manages the full stack, so Tyk operates the infrastructure and holds the data it processes. It is a different data boundary from self-managed Tyk, not a variant of it. Before choosing it, ask for the hosting regions, data retention periods, access controls for Tyk staff, and the contractual terms for incident notification.
Compliance evidence your team must produce
Whichever hosting model you pick, your team must produce the evidence for access reviews, change logs, encryption settings and backup tests. DeployOpen can help plan and prepare the controls and evidence for an assessment, but it does not issue audit reports, attestations or certifications. Independent auditors and certification bodies make those determinations, so agree the evidence list with them early.
What each option costs to run, by component
Konnect is a SaaS platform with a Kong-managed control plane, so the subscription pays for the control plane, the management console and the hosted operational work behind it. Data plane nodes can be self-hosted, run as serverless gateways, or run as Dedicated Cloud Gateways that Kong manages on AWS, Azure or GCP, and each of those choices changes who pays for compute. Ask Kong how its plan meters gateway services, requests and published APIs, because those meters are the main recurring driver.
- Konnect subscription (recurring): Paid to Kong for the hosted control plane and the features in your tier. Cost rises with the number of gateway services and the plan level you select.
- Usage metering (recurring): Requests, services and published APIs are metered items. Traffic growth and portal publishing raise this line without any change to your architecture.
- Data plane infrastructure (recurring): If you self-host data planes, you pay your cloud or data center for nodes, load balancers and egress. If you choose Dedicated Cloud Gateways, Kong bills that capacity instead.
- Implementation and migration (one-time): Mapping routes, plugins and consumers, and building CI/CD for configuration, is usually a one-time project. Its size depends on how many services you run and how much custom logic sits in plugins.
- Operations and on-call (recurring): Your team still owns upgrades of self-hosted data planes, certificate rotation and incident response for the traffic path.
Before comparing totals, request a written quote that separates the subscription, each metered unit, and any Dedicated Cloud Gateway capacity, and confirm which of those items your data residency requirements allow.
The open source Tyk Gateway is licensed under MPL-2.0, except the ee folder, which is commercial. You can run it with Redis, installed through Docker, the tyk-oss Helm chart on Kubernetes, Ansible, Red Hat, CentOS or Ubuntu packages, or from source. Software license fees are zero for this tier, so cost is almost entirely infrastructure, staff time and support you arrange yourself. The Tyk Dashboard, Developer Portal and Operator are not part of this tab because they require a license.
- Gateway compute (recurring): Gateway instances run on your VMs, containers or Kubernetes nodes. Cost rises with request volume, plugin complexity and the number of instances needed for availability.
- Redis (recurring): Redis holds gateway state such as rate limit and quota counters. You pay for its hosting, memory, replication and backups, whether managed by your cloud or run by your team.
- Plugin development (one-time, then recurring): Plugins in Python, JavaScript, Go or gRPC are code you write and maintain. Cost rises with the number of custom middleware steps and the frequency of gateway upgrades.
- Configuration and API lifecycle tooling (one-time): Without the Dashboard, you build or select tooling for API definitions, versioning and access control, often as code in your pipelines.
- Upgrades and on-call (recurring): Your engineers track releases, test them and run the gateway in production, with no vendor support contract unless you buy one elsewhere.
Ask your team to estimate Redis and compute costs in your own environment, and confirm which features you need that sit outside the open source gateway.
Tyk Self-Managed runs the Gateway, Dashboard, Developer Portal, Tyk Pump, Redis and PostgreSQL in your environment, and it needs a commercial license. Tyk Cloud is Tyk's hosted service that manages the full stack, and it has a free trial. The Tyk Operator for Kubernetes-native declarative management also requires a license. This tab covers the commercial layer on top of the same gateway, so the license and support terms are the main cost decisions.
- License fees (recurring): Self-Managed requires a license for the Dashboard, Developer Portal and Operator. Ask Tyk how the license is priced, what term applies and whether it scales with environments or traffic.
- Tyk Cloud subscription (recurring): For the hosted option, Tyk bills the managed stack. Ask how it meters traffic and environments, and what regions are available for your residency needs.
- PostgreSQL and Redis (recurring): Self-Managed adds PostgreSQL for the platform, on top of Redis for the gateway. You pay for hosting, backups and high availability for both.
- Infrastructure and Pump (recurring): Self-Managed components run on your nodes, and Tyk Pump moves analytics data to your storage. Cost follows the size of the analytics retention you choose.
- Implementation, support and upgrades (one-time and recurring): Deploying the stack, migrating definitions and training are one-time work. Support tiers and upgrade windows are recurring line items to confirm in writing.
Request a quote that lists each license item, the Tyk Cloud metering basis, and the support level, and confirm whether your environment must stay inside your own network.
What moving from Konnect to Tyk involves
The sequence takes a Konnect estate from an inventory of services, routes, consumers and plugins to a Tyk Gateway running in your infrastructure, with traffic moved route group by route group and a licensing decision made before go-live. Each step ends with a check that tells you whether to move on.
Inventory services, routes, consumers and plugins
Platform engineering and the API owners list every Konnect service, route, consumer, plugin and credential type, along with the upstream each one calls and the clients that depend on it. Include the developer portal content, published specs and application registrations, because these do not move with the gateway configuration. Expect this step to take longer when there are many consumers, many routes per service or several teams sharing one control plane. It is done when every API has an owner, a traffic profile and a named set of consumers.
Export gateway configuration from Konnect
The platform team exports the declarative configuration from the Konnect control plane using decK, following the export guidance in the Kong Konnect migration hub. Store the exported file in version control and record the Konnect version and date it was taken from. The step is complete when a second export from a clean workspace matches the first, and the team can read the services, routes and plugins in the file without gaps.
Map Kong plugins and auth to Tyk
Engineers map each Kong plugin and authentication method to a Tyk equivalent. Tyk natively supports JWT, bearer tokens, Basic Auth, client certificates, rate limiting, quotas, versioning, per-operation access control and IP allowlisting, so most standard plugins translate directly. Identify any custom Lua plugins or plugins without a Tyk equivalent, and rewrite them as Tyk middleware in Python, JavaScript, Go or a gRPC service. Custom plugins are the most common cause of delay in this step, so budget extra review time when there are several. It is done when every plugin has a documented Tyk target and every custom plugin has a rewrite plan and owner.
Stand up Tyk Gateway and Redis in staging
The platform team deploys open-source Tyk Gateway with Redis in a staging environment, using Docker, the tyk-oss Helm chart on Kubernetes, or a supported package install. Load the translated API definitions and test each route with the same JWT, client certificate and rate limit behaviour your consumers rely on. Confirm that the configuration reloads without dropping connections, and that monitoring and logging capture the traffic. The step is done when a representative test suite passes against staging and the team has a tested rollback path back to Konnect.
Run parallel traffic and cut over by route group
Mirror or split a small share of production traffic to Tyk while Konnect continues serving the rest, then compare error rates, latency and authentication outcomes between the two paths. Move route groups one at a time, starting with the least critical APIs, and keep Konnect configured for each group until its consumers have been stable on Tyk through a full business cycle that your owners agree on. The step is done when every route group serves production from Tyk and Konnect has no remaining live traffic.
Decide Dashboard and Portal licensing before go-live
Before the final cutover, leadership and procurement decide how the team will manage APIs and publish documentation. The open-source gateway runs without the Tyk Dashboard, Developer Portal or Tyk Operator, which need a Tyk license, so the team must either choose a commercial Tyk Self-Managed or Tyk Cloud subscription, or replace those functions with self-run tooling. Ask Tyk for written pricing and license terms for each option, and confirm what support covers. The step is done when a signed decision exists and the management and portal path is funded before Konnect is switched off.
What buyers ask before choosing Tyk or staying on Konnect
What does it cost to switch from Kong Konnect to Tyk?
The switch cost is driven by the work, not by a license fee alone. Cost falls into four parts: the infrastructure you run for Tyk Gateway and Redis, the engineering time to rebuild routes, auth and rate limits as Tyk API definitions, the custom plugins you need to port, and the commercial license if you want the Dashboard, Developer Portal or Operator. Konnect's plan fee and metered usage stop, but your own platform operations start. Ask any quote to separate one-time migration work from recurring infrastructure, support and license costs, and to state which Tyk components it assumes.
How long does a Tyk migration take?
No timeline figure is supplied for this migration, so treat any number you hear with caution. The duration depends on how many services, routes and plugins you run, how much Konnect-specific configuration (portal, analytics, Enterprise plugins) you rely on, how many consumers need new credentials, and how many environments must be cut over. Ask for a fixed-scope estimate with written deliverables and milestones before work starts, and ask which parts are assumed in the timeline.
Can our own team migrate from Konnect to Tyk without outside help?
Yes, a capable platform team can attempt it, provided it has Kubernetes or Linux operations experience, familiarity with API gateway policy design, and time to test. The main risks are rebuilding authentication and rate limiting correctly, validating plugin behavior, and running Redis and monitoring reliably. Many teams split the work: they keep ownership of routes and consumers while bringing in outside help for plugin porting, hardening or cutover testing. DeployOpen plans, implements and supports self-hosted platforms in your own environment, under a fixed-scope written agreement.
What skills and staff time does a self-hosted Tyk gateway need?
Your staff need to operate Tyk Gateway as a service: deploying it with Docker, the tyk-oss Helm chart, Ansible or system packages, running Redis alongside it, and handling upgrades and configuration reloads. Engineers who write plugins need proficiency in Python, JavaScript, Go or a gRPC-capable language, depending on the plugin model they choose. Security staff should own JWT, client certificate and IP allowlisting policies. Plan for recurring time on monitoring, certificate rotation and version upgrades, and confirm the expected operating model with your own engineers before committing.
Can Tyk Gateway open source run without a license?
Yes. Tyk Gateway code is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, except the ee folder, which is under a separate commercial Enterprise Edition license. The open source gateway supports JWT, bearer tokens, Basic Auth, client certificates, rate limiting, quotas, versioning and hitless reloads, and runs with Redis. Confirm with your legal team which components you use and whether any of them touch the ee folder, because the license boundary is defined by the repository license file, not by how you deploy.
Do the Tyk Operator and Dashboard require a license?
Yes. The Tyk Operator for Kubernetes-native declarative API management requires a license, and the Dashboard, Developer Portal and the full Tyk Self-Managed platform also need a license. Tyk Cloud is a hosted option that manages the full stack and is available with a free trial. If you rely on declarative Kubernetes management or a GUI, price that into the comparison, and ask Tyk to confirm the current license terms for your deployment model.
What happens to the Konnect developer portal and analytics after a move?
They do not move automatically. Konnect's developer portal, analytics and Enterprise plugins are part of the Konnect platform, so a move means choosing replacements. The open source Tyk Gateway handles routing and policy enforcement, while the Developer Portal and Dashboard require a Tyk license, and analytics depend on the Tyk Pump and PostgreSQL components of the Self-Managed stack. Ask for an inventory of every Konnect feature your teams use, a mapped replacement for each, and a written decision on which features you will retire.
Should we stay on Konnect or move to Tyk?
Stay on Konnect if its hosted control plane, Dedicated Cloud Gateways and portal are central to how your teams work and you accept its metered billing. Consider Tyk if you need to run the data plane and control plane in your own infrastructure, want an open-source gateway core under a known license, and have the platform engineering capacity to operate it. Many organizations compare both against running open-source Kong Gateway, so define your must-have features first, then request written scope for each option.
How DeployOpen helps you evaluate, implement or migrate
DeployOpen plans, implements and supports self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own infrastructure, so a move from Kong Konnect to a self-run Tyk Gateway starts with a written view of your traffic, licensing and data handling. We help you decide which Tyk components you actually need before any build work begins.
How we scope
- We map your Konnect services, routes, plugins, portals and consumers against the Tyk features you need.
- We confirm which Tyk components need a license, such as Dashboard, Developer Portal and Operator.
- Engagements are fixed-scope, with deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before work starts.
- We document Redis, PostgreSQL and Tyk Pump requirements for your target environment.
How we build
- We deploy the open-source Tyk Gateway with Redis in your cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks.
- We rebuild authentication, rate limits, quotas and versioning policies in Tyk configuration.
- We port custom Kong plugins to Tyk middleware in Python, JavaScript, Go or gRPC where needed.
- We run security testing of the gateway and APIs before cutover.
How we hand over
- You receive documentation of the target architecture, configuration and operational runbooks.
- We provide a cutover plan with parallel running and rollback steps agreed with your team.
- We prepare evidence of configuration and controls for your compliance assessors, who issue any audit opinion.
- Knowledge transfer sessions cover upgrades, including checking the Tyk release notes for each version.
How we support
- Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as retainers after handover.
- Retainers can cover Tyk Gateway version upgrades, backups and Redis maintenance in your environment.
- We can continue security testing of your APIs on a recurring schedule agreed in writing.
- DeployOpen does not publish a price list, and a quote follows from the written scope.
