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Backport vs Kong vs Tyk vs Cloudflare

Find the right API gateway for your stack. Compare features, pricing, and deployment options side by side.

Feature
Backport
Kong
Tyk
Cloudflare
Open Source / License
MIT
Apache 2.0
MPL 2.0
Proprietary
Setup Time
~30 seconds
30 min+
15 min+
~5 min (DNS)
API Response Transformation
Included
Not built-in
Not built-in
Not available
API Mocking
Included
Not available
Not available
Not available
Built-in WAF
Included
Plugin
Included
Pro+ only
Custom WAF Rules
Included
Plugin
Included
Pro+ only
Per-API-Key Rate Limiting
Included
Included
Included
Not available
LRU Caching
Included
Not built-in
Yes (Redis)
CDN only
Idempotency Keys
Included
Not available
Not available
Not available
Webhook Notifications
Included
Plugin
Included
Not available
Dashboard Analytics
Included
Enterprise
Included
Included
Team Management
Included
Enterprise
Included
Enterprise
Starting Price
Free / $5.99 / $11.99
Free / Enterprise $$
Free (limited)
Free (limited)
Cloud-Managed
Managed Cloud
Self-host + Enterprise
Self-host + Cloud
Cloud only
Included / BestPlugin / PartialNot available / Enterprise

When to choose Backport

Backport is purpose-built for API-first developers who need production-grade protection without the enterprise complexity.

Purpose-built for APIs

Unlike Cloudflare (a generic CDN) or Kong (a general service mesh), Backport is designed specifically as an API gateway — with response transformation, API mocking, and idempotency keys built in.

Lightweight — no Kubernetes needed

No DevOps team required. Backport is a single Python/FastAPI process. Deploy it anywhere — a VPS, a container, or use the managed cloud. No complex orchestration.

MIT licensed — free forever

MIT licensed open-source project. Full source code available on GitHub. No feature gating, no enterprise paywalls for core functionality.

30-second setup

Sign up, set your backend URL, start proxying. No DNS changes, no infrastructure provisioning, no YAML configs. Just your API key and a target URL.

Get Started in 30 Seconds

Free plan available. No credit card required. Get started in seconds.