Kong has announced the general availability of Kong Gateway 2.3, introducing a "free" operating mode for its Enterprise version, previously exclusive to paying customers. This release includes several enhancements such as a user interface called Kong Manager for easier configuration and additional bug fixes and testing. New features include support for UTF-8 characters, improved plugin capabilities, and simplified license management, allowing licenses to be applied only to the Control Plane and distributed to connected Data Planes. Existing Kong customers still need a paid Konnect license to access certain Enterprise features, and the terminology will shift from "Enterprise" to "Kong Gateway" to reduce confusion. The update also brings new plugin configurations, enhanced logging capabilities, and improved compatibility checks between control and data planes, with further details available in the Kong Gateway 2.3 Changelog.