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Kong AI Gateway vs n8n

Kong AI Gateway

Gateway that governs LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent traffic

n8n

Platform for AI agents and workflows you can see and control, built visually or with code

Short answer

Kong AI Gateway is a gateway for LLM, MCP, and A2A traffic; n8n says it is for building AI agents and workflows, on n8n Cloud or self-hosted.⁠Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4 Kong proxies to agents registered as upstream URLs and says it doesn’t change how agents are built; n8n’s Agents feature, in preview, keeps agents in projects alongside workflows.⁠Source 5, Source 6, Source 7

By Blocks.ai teamLast checked

Where each one sits

Six layers of running AI agents at a company, and what each product’s own public sources say it covers.

These aren’t the same kind of product

Where they overlap
Both work with MCP and with several LLM providers: Kong can proxy MCP servers and model calls, and n8n can act as an MCP server and client.⁠Source 2, Source 8, Source 9, Source 10, Source 11
Where they differ
Teams build and run agents and workflows in n8n.⁠Source 3, Source 4 Building agents in Kong AI Gateway is not publicly documented; it proxies to agents registered as upstream URLs.⁠Source 5
Running both
Kong AI Gateway can proxy an upstream MCP server, and n8n can serve its tools and workflows to MCP clients.⁠Source 2, Source 9 Neither vendor publicly documents using the two together.
Public sources · checked 2 October 2026
  • Offered
  • Preview
  • Not publicly documented

Kong AI Gateway

  • Build agents: Not publicly documented
  • Host and run agents: Not publicly documented
  • Identity and access: OfferedPer-agent allow or deny lists⁠Source 5
  • Registry and governance: PreviewKonnect Catalog agents⁠Source 12
  • Traffic between agents, tools, and models: OfferedGateway for LLM, MCP, A2A⁠Source 1
  • Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

n8n

  • Build agents: OfferedLangChain-based AI Agent node⁠Source 13
  • Host and run agents: OfferedYour infrastructure or n8n’s⁠Source 3
  • Identity and access: Not publicly documented
  • Registry and governance: PreviewAgents stored in projects⁠Source 7
  • Traffic between agents, tools, and models: OfferedMCP client for external tools⁠Source 10
  • Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

At a glance

TopicKong AI Gatewayn8n
What it isA gateway for LLM, MCP, and A2A traffic, with shared authentication, observability, and policy features.⁠Source 1, Source 2n8n calls itself a platform for building AI agents and workflows visually and with code, on your infrastructure or n8n’s.⁠Source 3
Who runs itIn 2.x, Konnect manages the control plane and you run the data plane nodes.⁠Source 2 Fully self-hosted AI gateways are a separate offering.⁠Source 14Fully managed n8n Cloud, or self-hosted on your own infrastructure, on premises, or in a private cloud.⁠Source 4, Source 15
Access controlCallers can be required to authenticate by API key or OpenID Connect, then checked against a per-agent allow or deny list.⁠Source 5n8n says access to agents, in preview, follows n8n roles.⁠Source 16 SAML sign-in on Business and Enterprise plans, OIDC on Enterprise.⁠Source 17, Source 18
Pricing modelAI Management Plus from $25 a month plus usage; control planes are $200 a month hybrid, $500 Dedicated Cloud, or $25 serverless.⁠Source 14 Enterprise is custom, billed annually.⁠Source 14By monthly workflow executions, with unlimited users on paid plans.⁠Source 19 The self-hosted Community edition is free; Enterprise is priced through sales.⁠Source 19, Source 20
MaturityVersion 2.0 announced generally available on 1 September 2026.⁠Source 21 The agent inventory in Konnect Catalog is in beta.⁠Source 12The Agents feature is in preview; n8n’s changelog dates its release to September 2026.⁠Source 7, Source 22 n8n releases a new minor version most weeks.⁠Source 22

What each one is

Kong AI Gateway

Kong AI Gateway is one gateway for LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent (A2A) traffic, with shared authentication, observability, and policy features.⁠Source 1, Source 2 In 2.x, an AI Agent entity exposes an agent at a gateway endpoint and can carry policies.⁠Source 5, Source 23

n8n

n8n describes itself as a platform for building AI agents and workflows visually and with code, on n8n Cloud or self-hosted.⁠Source 3, Source 4 Its AI nodes implement LangChain’s JavaScript framework.⁠Source 13 Agents, a preview feature, live in n8n projects alongside workflows.⁠Source 7

The differences that matter

  1. Building and running agents

    Kong AI Gateway

    Kong AI Gateway proxies to agents at their own URLs; Kong says it governs A2A traffic without changing how agents are built.⁠Source 5, Source 6

    n8n

    In n8n, teams build agents in the Agent Builder, in preview, from a model, instructions, tools, and skills; workflows can use LangChain-based AI nodes.⁠Source 7, Source 13

  2. Agent inventory

    Kong AI Gateway

    Each AI Agent entity is scoped to one gateway instance; Konnect Catalog’s organization-wide agent inventory is in beta and not for production.⁠Source 2, Source 5, Source 12

    n8n

    Agents, in preview, live in n8n projects alongside workflows; the Agents exposed page lists each one enabled for MCP clients, with its project or folder.⁠Source 7, Source 24

    Konnect Catalog’s agent inventory (beta) represents an organization’s agents wherever they run; today they are added by pasting an A2A card.⁠Source 12 Listing agents built outside n8n is not publicly documented.

  3. Policy controls

    Kong AI Gateway

    AI Policies on an agent can add request transformation, input validation, request logging, and per-agent or per-consumer rate limits.⁠Source 2, Source 5

    n8n

    Workflows can require human approval before an AI Agent node runs a tool; agents, in preview, can pause for approval before running sensitive tools.⁠Source 7, Source 25

    Kong’s AI Policies can also apply to models, MCP servers, consumers, or globally.⁠Source 2 Self-hosted n8n can block users from specific nodes with an environment variable.⁠Source 26

For security teams

What a security review asks, answered from each vendor’s public documentation.

TopicKong AI Gatewayn8n
Network exposureIn 2.x, data plane nodes you run proxy to each agent’s URL and authenticate to Kong’s control plane over mTLS.⁠Source 2, Source 5Self-hosted on premises or in a private cloud.⁠Source 15 n8n says its MCP server needs public access for cloud clients.⁠Source 24
IdentityAgents can require API key or OpenID Connect (Okta, Azure AD, Google, or any OIDC provider) authentication before routing.⁠Source 5, Source 27SAML sign-in on Business and Enterprise plans, OIDC on Enterprise.⁠Source 17, Source 18 Per-agent identity from n8n is not publicly documented.
Access changes and revocationEach agent has an enabled switch; Request Termination or deny lists block callers.⁠Source 5, Source 28, Source 29 Nodes keep their last config without Konnect.⁠Source 2n8n disconnects a revoked OAuth MCP client at once.⁠Source 24 In preview, unpublishing stops users, channels, and schedules running an agent.⁠Source 7
Audit trailA2A audit logs record task IDs, method calls, latencies, and errors; Konnect telemetry omits request bodies unless you opt in.⁠Source 2, Source 30Enterprise plans can stream logs to syslog, a webhook, or Sentry.⁠Source 31 Agent sessions, in preview, show messages and tools used.⁠Source 7
Compliance2.2+ FIPS mode: FIPS 140-3 algorithms only, not NIST-validated.⁠Source 32 Kong Inc. lists ISO 27001 and SOC 2 (report under NDA).⁠Source 33n8n says the company holds a SOC 2 Type 2 report, for enterprise customers, and a SOC 3.⁠Source 34, Source 35

Full comparison

18 criteria in five groups. Every cell links to its source, or says no public source answers it.

Kong AI Gateway and n8n compared on 18 criteria
Kong AI Gatewayn8n
What it is
What it is and who it’s forGateway for LLM, MCP, and A2A traffic.⁠Source 1, Source 2 All three run through one data plane, with shared authentication, observability, and policy features.⁠Source 2n8n calls itself a platform to build AI agents and workflows visually and with code.⁠Source 3 Enterprise targets strict compliance and governance needs.⁠Source 19
MaturityVersion 2.0 announced generally available on 1 September 2026; 2.2.0 released 30 September 2026.⁠Source 21, Source 36 Konnect Catalog’s agent inventory is in beta.⁠Source 12The Agents feature is in preview; n8n’s changelog dates its release to September 2026.⁠Source 7, Source 22 A new minor version ships most weeks.⁠Source 22
Control
Agent registry and discoveryEach AI Agent entity is scoped to one gateway instance.⁠Source 2, Source 5 An organization-wide agent inventory in Konnect Catalog is in beta.⁠Source 12Agents, in preview, live in n8n projects.⁠Source 7 The node panel lists MCP servers to connect to an agent.⁠Source 37 Listing agents built elsewhere is not publicly documented.
Identity and access controlAn agent can require API key or OpenID Connect authentication before routing, and an allow or deny list enforced before traffic reaches it.⁠Source 5Access to agents (preview) follows n8n roles; self-hosted Community must be registered for project roles.⁠Source 16, Source 38 Per-agent identity from n8n: not publicly documented.
Ownership, policy, and revocationAgent policies include input validation, logging, and rate limits.⁠Source 5 Kong’s AI PII Sanitizer scrubs requests to AI models: a Plus add-on, included on Enterprise.⁠Source 14, Source 39Agents (preview) can be unpublished and can pause for approval before sensitive tools run.⁠Source 7 Workflows can require human approval before an AI Agent runs a tool.⁠Source 25
Audit log and observabilityA2A audit logs record task IDs, method calls, latencies, and errors.⁠Source 30 Konnect’s own audit logs (Enterprise) go to a webhook and are kept 7 days in Konnect.⁠Source 14, Source 40Enterprise log streaming to syslog, a webhook, or Sentry.⁠Source 31 MCP audit events cover the instance MCP server, not MCP Server Trigger workflows.⁠Source 31
Connection
How agents connectIn 2.x, data plane nodes you run receive LLM, MCP, and A2A traffic and forward allowed calls upstream, including to each agent’s URL.⁠Source 2, Source 5The MCP Server Trigger node exposes a URL for MCP clients.⁠Source 9 For its instance MCP server, n8n says cloud-based clients need a publicly accessible instance.⁠Source 24
Agents across organizationsProxies to agents at their upstream URLs.⁠Source 5 Another organization’s agents, under its control: not publicly documented.n8n tools can be exposed to external AI agents through the MCP Server Trigger node.⁠Source 10 Another organization’s agents, under its control: not publicly documented.
Protocol supportDetects A2A over JSON-RPC and REST bindings.⁠Source 5 Proxies or combines MCP servers; accepts four client MCP revisions, 2025-03-26 to 2026-07-28 (the last from 2.1).⁠Source 2, Source 41MCP server (a trigger node and a built-in instance server) and MCP client (a tool node).⁠Source 9, Source 10, Source 24 First-party A2A support is not publicly documented.
Frameworks, models, and clouds supportedProxies A2A and plain HTTP agents, including SigV4-signed calls to agents on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime.⁠Source 5 Kong says it doesn’t change how agents are built.⁠Source 6AI nodes implement LangChain’s JavaScript framework, with your choice of agent, LLM, and memory.⁠Source 13 Managing agents built outside n8n is not publicly documented.
Operations
Deployment options and data residency2.x: a Konnect-managed control plane in a region you choose, data plane nodes you run.⁠Source 2, Source 42 Kong also sells Kong-managed Dedicated Cloud and serverless gateways.⁠Source 14, Source 43, Source 44n8n Cloud on Microsoft Azure, with data stored in Frankfurt, Germany, or self-hosted, with data wherever you host it.⁠Source 19, Source 35
Compliance attestationsFrom 2.2, FIPS mode uses only FIPS 140-3 approved algorithms; not submitted for NIST validation.⁠Source 32 Kong lists ISO 27001, SOC 2, and PCI DSS for Kong Inc.⁠Source 33n8n says the company holds a SOC 2 Type 2 report and lists SOC 3 and GDPR.⁠Source 34 The SOC 2 report is for enterprise customers.⁠Source 35
Support and SLAKonnect targets 99.9% availability; Dedicated Cloud Gateways list a 99.99% SLA, serverless gateways none.⁠Source 14 Enterprise support SLAs: 30 min to 2 hours.⁠Source 14Dedicated support on Enterprise only, with guaranteed response times available through SLAs.⁠Source 19 An uptime SLA percentage is not publicly documented.
Time and effort to get runningA quickstart script creates a Konnect control plane and a local Docker data plane; you then add each agent as an AI Agent entity and attach policies.⁠Source 8, Source 23A 14-day Cloud trial, or a one-step local setup with Docker.⁠Source 15, Source 45 Self-hosted paid plans use a license key that pings n8n daily, or a certificate if air-gapped.⁠Source 19, Source 20, Source 46
Pricing model and public pricesPlus: from $25 a month plus usage; per control plane, $200 hybrid, $500 Dedicated Cloud, $25 serverless.⁠Source 14 Enterprise: custom, billed annually.⁠Source 14By monthly workflow executions.⁠Source 19 Cloud Starter is $20 and Pro $50 a month, billed annually.⁠Source 19 Self-hosted Community is free.⁠Source 20
Building
Agent building toolsAI MCP Server can turn REST APIs into MCP tools.⁠Source 2 Tools for building agents in Kong AI Gateway are not publicly documented.A visual editor with JavaScript or Python anywhere in a workflow, LangChain-based AI nodes, and the Agent Builder, in preview.⁠Source 3, Source 7, Source 13
Model accessOne API to providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Amazon Bedrock, Mistral, and Ollama, with your own credentials.⁠Source 2, Source 8, Source 47Bring your own LLM credentials for providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, and combine several models in one workflow.⁠Source 11, Source 48
Integrations and ecosystemA Policies Hub of policies and integrations.⁠Source 28 AI Vault resolves secrets from backends such as AWS, GCP, Azure, and HashiCorp Vault.⁠Source 2n8n’s homepage states over 500 integrations, and n8n states 600+ community-built templates for agentic workflows.⁠Source 3, Source 49

Which to choose

Choose Kong AI Gateway if

  • You want one gateway for LLM, MCP, and A2A traffic, with shared authentication, observability, and policy features.⁠Source 1, Source 2
  • You want to govern agents at their existing URLs; Kong says it doesn’t change how agents are built.⁠Source 5, Source 6
  • You’d rather run the data plane yourself: Kong’s control plane never carries your data traffic, and nodes keep proxying if it’s unreachable.⁠Source 2
  • You want per-agent allow or deny lists checked before traffic reaches an agent, plus rate limits and input validation on agent traffic.⁠Source 5

Choose n8n if

  • You want to build agents and workflows visually, writing JavaScript or Python where you need it, as n8n describes.⁠Source 3
  • You want to self-host for free: without a license key, n8n runs as the free Community edition on your own infrastructure.⁠Source 15, Source 20
  • You want people in the loop: workflows can require human approval before an AI Agent node runs a specific tool.⁠Source 25
  • You want pricing by workflow executions, with unlimited users on paid plans, and over 500 integrations, per n8n’s homepage.⁠Source 3, Source 19

Questions buyers ask

Is Kong AI Gateway an alternative to n8n?

They do different jobs: teams build and run agents and workflows in n8n, while Kong AI Gateway governs LLM, MCP, and A2A traffic, proxying to agents registered as upstream URLs.⁠Source 1, Source 3, Source 4, Source 5 Both work with MCP.⁠Source 2, Source 9

Do they support MCP and A2A?

Kong AI Gateway detects A2A over JSON-RPC and REST and can proxy or combine MCP servers.⁠Source 2, Source 5 n8n can act as an MCP server and an MCP client.⁠Source 9, Source 10 First-party A2A support in n8n is not publicly documented.

How is each one priced?

Kong’s AI Management Plus plan starts at $25 a month plus usage, with $200 a month per hybrid control plane; Enterprise is custom.⁠Source 14 n8n prices plans by monthly workflow executions; Cloud Starter is $20 a month billed annually, and self-hosted Community is free.⁠Source 19, Source 20

Can Kong AI Gateway and n8n be self-hosted?

Fully self-hosted AI gateways are part of Kong’s separate Gateway Enterprise offering; Kong AI Gateway 2.x runs hybrid, with a Konnect-managed control plane.⁠Source 2, Source 14 Self-hosted n8n’s paid license keys ping n8n’s license server daily; air-gapped installs can use a license certificate.⁠Source 15, Source 19, Source 46

How we compare

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Every claim on this page links to a public source. Where none answers a question, the page says so.

We re-check every fact at least every 90 days. This page was last checked .

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Sources

54 public sources, each with the date we checked it. Every one opens in a new tab.

  1. Source 1: Kong AI Gateway product page Kong · checked Back:abcdefg

  2. Source 2: AI Gateway architecture - Kong Docs Kong · checked Back:abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

  3. Source 3: AI Workflow Automation Platform - n8n n8n · checked Back:abcdefghijk

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  5. Source 5: AI Agents - Kong AI Gateway docs Kong · checked Back:abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv

  6. Source 6: The Agent Gateway for Secure, Observable Agent-to-Agent Communication (Kong) Kong · checked Back:abcd

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  13. Source 13: LangChain in n8n n8n · checked Back:abcde

  14. Source 14: Kong Pricing & Plans Kong · checked Back:abcdefghijkl

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  25. Source 25: Human-in-the-loop for tools n8n · checked Back:abc

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  31. Source 31: Stream logs to external systems n8n · checked Back:abc

  32. Source 32: FIPS 140-3 compliance in AI Gateway - Kong Docs Kong · checked Back:ab

  33. Source 33: Trust Center - Kong Inc. Kong · checked Back:ab

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  36. Source 36: Kong AI Gateway changelog - Kong Docs Kong · checked Back to text

  37. Source 37: MCP servers n8n · checked Back to text

  38. Source 38: Set permissions and roles (RBAC) n8n · checked Back to text

  39. Source 39: AI PII Sanitizer - Policy | Kong Docs Kong · checked Back to text

  40. Source 40: Konnect and Dev Portal audit logs - Kong Docs Kong · checked Back to text

  41. Source 41: MCP version support - Kong AI Gateway docs Kong · checked Back to text

  42. Source 42: Geographic regions - Kong Docs Kong · checked Back to text

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  44. Source 44: Serverless Gateways - Kong Docs Kong · checked Back to text

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  47. Source 47: AI Gateway providers - Kong Docs Kong · checked Back to text

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  50. Source 50: Your company's private network Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

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  52. Source 52: Solutions: Agent sprawl Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

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  54. Source 54: Pricing Blocks.ai · checked Back to text