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Kong AI Gateway vs Zenity
Kong AI Gateway
Gateway that governs LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent traffic
Zenity AI Agent Security & Governance Platform
Security and governance platform for AI agents, aimed at security teams
Short answer
Kong AI Gateway is a gateway for LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent traffic; Zenity is a security and governance platform that, it says, scans for agents, including in SaaS platforms or on laptops.Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4 Kong can limit who calls each agent; Zenity says it can block agent actions inline on Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry, and coding agents.Source 5, Source 6, Source 7
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
- Kong can block agent traffic a rule doesn’t allow and logs agent activity, including traffic between agents; Zenity says it does both, blocking where it runs inline.Source 4, Source 5, Source 6, Source 7, Source 8, Source 9, Source 10
- Where they differ
- Kong sits in the traffic path: callers reach an agent through a gateway endpoint.Source 2, Source 11 Zenity says it works through integrations, such as OpenTelemetry and coding-agent hooks.Source 12, Source 13
- Running both
- Zenity says it added step-by-step guides for Cribl, LiteLLM, and Kong on connecting custom agents to Zenity.Source 12
Kong AI Gateway
- Build agents: Not publicly documented
- Host and run agents: Not publicly documented
- Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented
Zenity
- Build agents: Not publicly documented
- Host and run agents: Not publicly documented
- Identity and access: Not publicly documented
- Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented
At a glance
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 each agent at a gateway endpoint and can carry policies.Source 5, Source 11
Zenity AI Agent Security & Governance Platform
Zenity is a SaaS security and governance platform for AI agents across SaaS, homegrown cloud platforms, and end-user devices, which it aims at security teams.Source 3, Source 15 Zenity describes three layers, Surface, Enforce, and Protect, from finding exposure to stopping unsafe actions.Source 15
The differences that matter
How agents are listed
Kong AI GatewayIn 2.x, agents are added as AI Agent entities, each scoped to one gateway instance and created in the Konnect UI, the API, or kongctl.Source 2, Source 5, Source 11
ZenityZenity says AI Observability scans the environment and catalogs agents in SaaS platforms, custom builds, and on laptops, with their permissions and tool access.Source 4
Konnect Catalog’s organization-wide agent inventory is in beta.Source 14 Zenity says it flags agents operating outside sanctioned deployment channels.Source 4
Where rules apply
Kong AI GatewayOn gateway traffic: an agent’s callers can be required to authenticate by API key or OpenID Connect, then checked against an allow or deny list.Source 2, Source 5
ZenityRuntime Boundaries can check agent actions in real time; Zenity says it can block them on Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry, and coding agents.Source 6, Source 7
For MCP, Kong says it can show each caller only the tools it may use; Zenity says it can block or modify a coding agent’s dangerous tool call.Source 13, Source 19
Where it runs
Kong AI GatewayIn 2.x, Kong runs the control plane in Konnect, in a region you choose, and you run the data plane nodes that carry traffic.Source 2, Source 23
ZenityZenity is delivered as software as a service, deployed on AWS according to its AWS Marketplace listing.Source 3
Fully self-hosted Kong AI gateways are part of Kong’s separate Gateway Enterprise offering.Source 17 Zenity’s hosting regions and self-hosting aren’t in Zenity’s public docs.
For security teams
What a security review asks, answered from each vendor’s public documentation.
Full comparison
18 criteria in five groups. Every cell links to its source, or says no public source answers it.
| Kong AI Gateway | Zenity | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | ||
| What it is and who it’s for | Gateway 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 2 | A security and governance platform for AI agents across SaaS, cloud, and end-user devices; Zenity says it lets security teams inventory agents.Source 3, Source 15 |
| Maturity | Version 2.0 announced generally available on 1 September 2026; 2.2.0 released 30 September 2026.Source 19, Source 31 Konnect Catalog’s agent inventory is in beta.Source 14 | Zenity announced AWS Marketplace availability in January 2026.Source 21 It says coverage for GitHub Copilot and OpenAI Codex became generally available in August 2026.Source 12 |
| Control | ||
| Agent registry and discovery | In 2.x, each agent you add is an AI Agent entity, scoped to one gateway instance.Source 2, Source 5 Konnect Catalog’s organization-wide agent inventory is in beta.Source 14 | Zenity says AI Observability scans and catalogs agents in SaaS platforms, custom builds, and on laptops, with their permissions and tool access.Source 4 |
| Identity and access control | An agent can require API key or OpenID Connect authentication before routing, and an allow or deny list enforced before traffic reaches it.Source 5 | Zenity says Boundaries rules can reference Okta attributes such as active status, role, and department.Source 6 Issuing agent identities isn’t in Zenity’s public docs. |
| Ownership, policy, and revocation | Agent 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 17, Source 32 | Zenity says it blocks actions inline on Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry, and coding agents.Source 7 It says ownership is surfaced per discovered agent.Source 33 |
| Audit log and observability | A2A audit logs record task IDs, method calls, latencies, and errors.Source 9 Logging policies can route logs to external systems.Source 34 | Zenity says it logs agent messages, tool calls, retrievals, and handoffs.Source 4 It says its audit log events can stream to Splunk or Microsoft Sentinel.Source 12 |
| Connection | ||
| How agents connect | In 2.x, data plane nodes you run forward allowed agent traffic to each agent’s URL.Source 2, Source 5 An outbound-only path for agents is not publicly documented. | Zenity says custom agents connect over OpenTelemetry with an Evaluate API; coding agents use hooks.Source 12, Source 13 Network needs aren’t in Zenity’s public docs. |
| Agents across organizations | Not publicly documented (checked 2 October 2026) | Not in Zenity’s public docs; its product docs require a login (checked 2 October 2026)Source 35 |
| Protocol support | Detects A2A over JSON-RPC and REST bindings and rewrites agent-card URLs.Source 5 Converts REST APIs into MCP tools, and proxies or combines MCP servers.Source 2 | Zenity says custom agents use OpenTelemetry and AIDR shows agent-to-agent requests and responses.Source 10, Source 12 Whether Zenity supports A2A isn’t publicly documented. |
| Frameworks, models, and clouds supported | Proxies A2A and plain HTTP agents, including ones on AgentCore Runtime via SigV4.Source 5 Kong says it doesn’t change how agents are built.Source 8 | Zenity says it covers agents in Copilot Studio, ChatGPT Enterprise, and Agentforce, homegrown agents on Bedrock or Vertex AI, and coding agents.Source 4, Source 13 |
| Operations | ||
| Deployment options and data residency | 2.x: a Konnect-managed control plane in a region you choose, data plane nodes you run.Source 2, Source 23 Kong also sells Kong-managed Dedicated Cloud and serverless gateways.Source 17, Source 36, Source 37 | Software as a service, deployed on AWS per its AWS Marketplace listing.Source 3 Regions, data residency, and self-hosting aren’t in Zenity’s public docs. |
| Compliance attestations | From 2.2, FIPS mode uses only FIPS 140-3 approved algorithms; not submitted for NIST validation.Source 27 Kong lists ISO 27001, SOC 2, and PCI DSS for Kong Inc.Source 28 | Zenity says the company holds SOC 2 Type II and is ISO 27001 compliant.Source 29 It announced FedRAMP “In Process” status in March 2026, with authorization pending.Source 30 |
| Support and SLA | Konnect targets 99.9% availability; Dedicated Cloud Gateways list a 99.99% SLA, serverless gateways none.Source 17 Enterprise support SLAs: 30 min to 2 hours.Source 17 | Zenity’s subscription terms commit to commercially reasonable efforts toward 99.9% monthly uptime.Source 38 Support requests go through Zendesk during business hours.Source 38 |
| Time and effort to get running | A 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 11, Source 39 | Zenity says it added custom-agent guides for Cribl, LiteLLM, and Kong.Source 12 Prerequisites aren’t in Zenity’s public docs. |
| Pricing model and public prices | Plus: from $25 a month plus usage; per control plane, $200 hybrid, $500 Dedicated Cloud, $25 serverless.Source 17 Enterprise: custom, billed annually.Source 17 | Main AWS Marketplace listing: custom pricing by private offer.Source 3 Security Hub Extended listing: usage prices, such as $130 per resource a month for Observability.Source 18 |
| Building | ||
| Agent building tools | Kong says AI Gateway can generate MCP tools and servers from Kong-managed APIs.Source 1 Tools for building agents in Kong AI Gateway are not publicly documented. | Not in Zenity’s public docs; its product docs require a login (checked 2 October 2026)Source 35 |
| Model access | One API to providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Amazon Bedrock, Mistral, and Ollama, with your own credentials.Source 2, Source 39, Source 40 | Zenity says AIDR pairs rules mapped to OWASP LLM and MITRE ATLAS with LLM-based detections.Source 10 Its models aren’t in Zenity’s public docs. |
| Integrations and ecosystem | A Policies Hub of policies and integrations.Source 25 AI Vault resolves secrets from backends such as AWS, GCP, Azure, and HashiCorp Vault.Source 2 | Zenity says it integrates with Microsoft Agent 365, sends findings to AWS Security Hub Extended, and is on the Cursor Marketplace.Source 41, Source 42, Source 43 |
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 calls to agents checked in the traffic path, with per-agent allow or deny lists, rate limits, and A2A audit logs.Source 5, Source 9
- 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 one API to model providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and Amazon Bedrock, switching or combining them without rewriting integrations.Source 39, Source 40
Choose Zenity if
- Your agents live in platforms such as Copilot Studio, ChatGPT Enterprise, and Agentforce, where Zenity says it builds an inventory.Source 4
- You want the checks Zenity says it runs on agent actions, blocking inline on Copilot Studio and coding agents.Source 6, Source 7
- You need coding agents such as Claude Code and Cursor covered, with agent hooks Zenity says can block a dangerous tool call.Source 13
- You want what Zenity says it offers: rules mapped to OWASP LLM and MITRE ATLAS, and audit events in Splunk or Sentinel.Source 10, Source 12
Questions buyers ask
How does each one build its list of agents?
In Kong AI Gateway 2.x, you add each agent as an AI Agent entity; Konnect Catalog’s agent inventory, in beta, takes an agent’s pasted A2A card.Source 11, Source 14 Zenity says AI Observability scans an organization’s environment and catalogs agents, including in SaaS platforms or on laptops.Source 4
Do they support MCP and A2A?
Kong AI Gateway detects A2A requests over JSON-RPC and REST, and accepts four MCP revisions, 2025-03-26 to 2026-07-28 (the last from version 2.1).Source 5, Source 44 Zenity says its agent hooks can block a coding agent’s dangerous tool call.Source 13 Whether Zenity supports A2A isn’t publicly documented.
How is each one priced?
Kong’s AI Management Plus starts at $25 a month plus usage, and $200 a month per hybrid control plane; Enterprise is custom.Source 17 Zenity’s main AWS Marketplace listing is by private offer; its Security Hub Extended listing shows usage prices, such as $130 per resource monthly.Source 3, Source 18
Can either one be self-hosted?
Fully self-hosted Kong AI gateways are part of Kong’s separate Gateway Enterprise offering; the 2.x AI entities are hybrid, with a Konnect-managed control plane.Source 2, Source 17 Zenity is software as a service, deployed on AWS per its AWS Marketplace listing.Source 3 Self-hosting isn’t in Zenity’s public docs.
How we compare
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Sources
49 public sources, each with the date we checked it. Every one opens in a new tab.
Source 2: AI Gateway architecture - Kong Docs Back:abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv
Source 4: AI Observability | See Every Agent, Know What it Touches | Zenity Back:abcdefghijkl
Source 5: AI Agents - Kong AI Gateway docs Back:abcdefghijklmnopqrs
Source 6: Runtime Boundaries | The Runtime Boundary for Autonomous AI | Zenity Back:abcdefg
Source 7: Zenity's Coverage of the 2026 OWASP Top 10 for LLM Apps Back:abcde
Source 8: The Agent Gateway for Secure, Observable Agent-to-Agent Communication (Kong) Back:ab
Source 9: Route A2A traffic through AI Gateway - Kong Docs Back:abcd
Source 10: AI Detection and Response (AIDR) | See the Threat, Stop the Action | Zenity Back:abcd
Source 11: Route A2A agent traffic through AI Gateway - Kong Docs Back:abcde
Source 12: From Triage to Full Coverage: The Shift AI Agent Security Took in August Back:abcdefghijk
Source 13: Coding and Personal Agents | Zenity Back:abcdefghi
Source 15: Platform | AI Agent Security & Governance Platform | Zenity Back:abcd
Source 16: Claude's Agents Are Already Running Across Your Enterprise. Now Security Teams Can Catch Up. Back to text
Source 18: AWS Marketplace: Zenity AI Security & Governance Platform for Security Hub Extended Back:abc
Source 19: Kong AI Gateway 2.0 Is Now GA - And It's Already Moving Faster Back:abc
Source 20: Zenity Now Available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace Back to text
Source 21: Zenity Now Available on AWS Marketplace, Bringing End-to-End Security to Amazon Bedrock AgentCore and Enterprise AI Agents Everywhere Back:ab
Source 22: Introducing Microsoft Marketplace - Thousands of solutions. Millions of customers. One Marketplace. - The Official Microsoft Blog Back to text
Source 24: AI Auth Strategies - Kong AI Gateway docs Back to text
Source 26: Request Termination - Configuration Reference - Policy | Kong Docs Back to text
Source 27: FIPS 140-3 compliance in AI Gateway - Kong Docs Back:ab
Source 30: Zenity Achieves FedRAMP “In Process” Status for AI Agent Security Back:ab
Source 31: Kong AI Gateway changelog - Kong Docs Back to text
Source 32: AI PII Sanitizer - Policy | Kong Docs Back to text
Source 33: AI Security Posture Management (AISPM) | Stop Agent Risk Before Deployment | Zenity Back to text
Source 34: AI Gateway audit log reference - Kong Docs Back to text
Source 36: Dedicated Cloud Gateways - Kong Docs Back to text
Source 38: Zenity Subscription Terms and Conditions (EULA linked from Zenity's AWS Marketplace listings) Back:ab
Source 41: Zenity Now Integrates with Microsoft Agent 365 Back to text
Source 42: Zenity Selected for AWS Security Hub Extended to Secure Enterprise AI Agents Back to text
Source 43: Seeing Every MCP Connection: Zenity Joins the Cursor Marketplace Back to text
Source 44: MCP version support - Kong AI Gateway docs Back to text