Compare Fusio to Kong

This page compares Fusio, an open-source API management platform, with Kong, an open-source API gateway. While both projects operate in the API space, they address different layers of the API lifecycle and are often used for different purposes.

🔍 Feature Comparison

Feature Fusio Kong
Project Type API management platform API gateway / reverse proxy
Primary Purpose Build, manage, and secure APIs Route, secure, and control API traffic
API Creation ✅ Built-in API design and implementation ❌ APIs must already exist
Admin UI ✅ Web-based admin interface ⚠️ Admin API (OSS), web UI mainly in enterprise
Authentication ✅ Built-in OAuth2 server ⚠️ OAuth2 via plugin
API Documentation ✅ Automatic OpenAPI generation ⚠️ OpenAPI supported via plugins or external tooling
Extensibility ✅ Custom actions (PHP / JavaScript) ✅ Plugin system (Lua-based)
Scalability Focus Application-level APIs High-throughput, edge traffic
Cloud / Kubernetes Supported First-class focus

🎯 Key Differences

The main difference between Fusio and Kong lies in what part of the API stack they manage.

Fusio is a full API management platform. It allows you to:

  • Design and implement APIs
  • Define request/response schemas
  • Secure endpoints using OAuth2 and scopes
  • Manage users and applications
  • Generate API documentation
  • Execute backend logic through extensible actions

Fusio is responsible for the entire API lifecycle, from creation to consumption.

Kong, on the other hand, is an API gateway. It sits in front of existing services and focuses on:

  • Request routing and load balancing
  • Authentication and authorization via plugins
  • Rate limiting, logging, and traffic control
  • High performance and scalability
  • Cloud-native and Kubernetes-based deployments

Kong does not create APIs; it manages and controls access to APIs that already exist.

📌 When to Choose Which

Choose Fusio if:

  • You want to build APIs from scratch
  • You need an all-in-one API management solution
  • You want built-in OAuth2, OpenAPI documentation, and developer tooling
  • You prefer a centralized admin UI for API, user, and app management
  • You want a backend-focused API platform with minimal external components

Fusio is well suited for backend developers, internal APIs, SaaS products, and custom API platforms.

Choose Kong if:

  • You already have APIs or microservices in place
  • You need a high-performance gateway at the edge
  • You operate in cloud-native or Kubernetes environments
  • You want fine-grained traffic control through plugins
  • You need to scale API traffic across distributed systems

Kong is ideal for DevOps-driven architectures and large-scale API traffic management.

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