This comparison is part of our MCP comparisons, within The MCP Guide. Facts are checked against each vendor's own documentation and pricing pages on the date shown.
Pick IBM ContextForge if you want a free, self-hosted gateway you control end to end, and you have engineers to run it. Pick Kong if you want a managed gateway with published pricing, and especially if your APIs already run through Kong.
Both products can turn existing REST APIs into MCP tools and put many services behind one endpoint. The real difference is who runs the gateway and who you call when it breaks.
Checked against: the ContextForge GitHub repository and Kong's AI Gateway docs on 28 October 2026. eSEOspace did not test either product.
Key Takeaways
- ContextForge describes itself as "an AI Gateway, registry, and proxy that sits in front of any MCP, A2A, or REST/gRPC APIs."
- Kong's AI Gateway offers "a single endpoint for any traffic type: LLM, MCP, or A2A," managed through its Konnect control plane.
- ContextForge is free under Apache 2.0; Kong's AI Management Plus plan starts "from $25/month" plus usage.
- ContextForge also translates gRPC services to MCP; Kong documents REST-to-MCP mapping and tool aggregation.
- ContextForge supports only its latest release; IBM lists Elite Support for v1.0.0-GA and later as a paid option.
At a glance
| Item | IBM ContextForge | Kong AI Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Open-source, self-hosted | Commercial, managed control plane |
| License | Apache 2.0 | Not covered on the pages checked |
| Traffic types | MCP, A2A, REST, gRPC | LLM, MCP, A2A |
| REST APIs to MCP tools | Yes, as virtual MCP servers | Yes, "Map a RESTful API to MCP tools" guide |
| gRPC to MCP | Yes, reflection-based | Not documented |
| Tool aggregation | Federation and registry | Aggregate tools from several AI MCP Server entities |
| Private registry | Built in | MCP Registry in Konnect Catalog, tech preview |
| Observability | OpenTelemetry tracing | OpenTelemetry metrics for AI, MCP and A2A |
| Price | Free; you pay hosting | From $25/month plus usage; Enterprise custom |
Where IBM ContextForge is stronger
No license cost and no paywall
ContextForge is Apache 2.0. The project's support guide says "there are no artificial restrictions, no feature paywalls, and no surprises." It adds that any commercial features "would be provided as extensions," not limits on the open-source product. Your costs are servers and staff time.
More protocols in one place
The ContextForge README lists four layers: a tools gateway, an agent gateway, an API gateway and 40+ plugins. The tools gateway handles MCP, REST and gRPC-to-MCP translation. gRPC is a fast, typed way for services to talk, common inside larger companies. If your internal services use it, ContextForge can find their methods by reflection and expose them as tools.
Runs anywhere, including air-gapped
The README lists PyPI, Docker or Podman, Docker Compose and Helm on Kubernetes. It also names cloud options such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Run, IBM Code Engine and OpenShift. The support guide says there is "no phone-home or data collection" and the gateway is "designed to run fully air-gapped." That suits regulated teams that cannot send traffic to a vendor's cloud.
Secure defaults
The README says required secrets must be set or the gateway will not start. Tokens need an expiry and a token ID by default, and public self-registration is off. The Helm chart defaults to strict settings that block private networks, which helps against server-side request forgery. Our SSRF explainer covers that attack.
Where Kong is stronger
Someone else runs the control plane
Kong's AI Gateway docs say you configure entities once and govern them from one control plane. Kong's pricing page offers serverless, hybrid and dedicated cloud gateway options. You do not need a team to patch and upgrade the gateway on a fixed cadence.
One bill for LLM and MCP traffic
Kong treats model calls, MCP and agent-to-agent traffic as one stream. If your company also routes calls to model providers through Kong, MCP lands in the same metering and dashboards. Kong lists "observability for model, token, MCP, and agent consumption" on its Plus plan.
Read and write scoping
The docs say you can "scope agent tool calls with OAuth2, so write actions can require tighter access than read actions." That matches the least-privilege approach in our excessive permissions guide.
A stable support model
ContextForge's guide says "we support only the latest release," with no long-term support branches or backported security patches. Kong is a commercial vendor with plan-based support. If you cannot upgrade often, that matters.
Pricing
ContextForge is free and open source. The support guide lists community help through GitHub Issues, Discussions and Discord. It also names IBM Elite Support for v1.0.0-GA and later, and paid consulting through an IBM representative. No prices are published for those.
Kong's pricing page listed AI Management on 28 October 2026:
| Kong plan | Price | Requests |
|---|---|---|
| Plus | From $25/month plus usage; 30-day free trial, no credit card | 1 million a month included, $200 per extra million, up to 10 million |
| Enterprise | Custom, billed annually | Customizable, volume discounts |
Kong adds control-plane fees: $25 a month per serverless AI gateway (up to 5), $200 per hybrid gateway (up to 2) and $500 per dedicated cloud gateway. There is no MCP-only price.
Security and admin controls
| Control | IBM ContextForge | Kong |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-in | Basic, JWT, custom; SSO via Google, GitHub, Entra ID, Keycloak | OAuth2 via AI Auth Strategies |
| Access rules | RBAC, user-scoped OAuth tokens | OAuth2 scoping; general ACLs |
| Admin interface | Admin UI with live log viewing; separate Web UI | Konnect control plane |
| Tracing | OpenTelemetry to Phoenix, Jaeger, Zipkin, Tempo, Datadog, New Relic | OpenTelemetry metrics and Gen AI span attributes |
| Registry | Built in | MCP Registry, tech preview; token-protected |
| Patching | Latest release only | Vendor-managed for cloud control planes |
Kong's MCP Registry docs say "only authenticated clients with appropriate access tokens can query a registry." You must contact Kong to enable it. Neither project page we checked lists compliance certifications, so ask for current reports before you buy. For what to log, see our MCP audit logging guide.
Which to choose
Pick IBM ContextForge if:
- You must self-host, including in an air-gapped network.
- You have gRPC services or a mix of MCP, A2A and REST to expose.
- You have engineers who can run Python services and Kubernetes, and upgrade often.
Pick Kong if:
- Your APIs already run through Kong Gateway or Konnect.
- You want a managed control plane with published pricing and a free trial.
- You want LLM, MCP and agent traffic metered together.
If you are weighing more options, see our MCP gateways list, the ContextForge spotlight, the Kong spotlight and our other MCP comparisons.
Next step
Pick one low-risk internal API and map it to MCP in a trial of each. Compare the generated tools, the logs and the admin effort. If you want a partner to run that bake-off, our MCP development team can help.
Frequently asked questions
Is IBM ContextForge really free?
Yes. It is Apache 2.0 licensed, and the project says core features are not paywalled. IBM lists paid Elite Support and consulting as options, without published prices.
Can both gateways turn my REST API into MCP tools?
Yes, per each vendor's docs. ContextForge wraps REST services as virtual MCP servers. Kong has a guide to map a RESTful API to MCP tools.
Does Kong have an open-source option for MCP?
The Kong pages we checked describe MCP support as part of AI Management in Konnect. They did not describe an open-source MCP edition, so ask Kong if that matters to you.
How often do I need to upgrade ContextForge?
The project supports only the latest release, with no long-term support branches or backported security fixes. Plan to upgrade whenever a new release ships.
