Top 6 Kong Alternatives for AI Gateways and Agent Data Access (2026)

Kong is an API and AI gateway designed to govern and route LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent traffic, offering capabilities such as multi-model proxying, semantic routing, caching, guardrails, and centralized management, but it relies on existing APIs or MCP servers rather than providing direct enterprise-data connectivity. Alternatives vary by use case: CData Connect AI supplies governed, live MCP-based access to hundreds of databases, warehouses, SaaS applications, APIs, and files while preserving existing user permissions and avoiding data copies; Apigee targets Google Cloud enterprises managing APIs and LLM traffic; Gravitee combines API management with LLM, MCP, and agent governance; Solo.io focuses on Kubernetes-native, Envoy-based deployments; Tyk serves open-source-oriented teams seeking API and AI governance; and Portkey emphasizes AI-native LLM routing, observability, prompts, and guardrails across many models. The comparison distinguishes traffic-governance gateways from data-connectivity platforms, noting that organizations commonly combine both layers to give agents secure access to enterprise information while controlling AI and API traffic.

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