Compare Willow and Kong: employee endpoint discovery, browser protection, tool-call approvals, network LLM proxying, AI Gateway 2.0, and pricing.
Willow and Kong address different operational layers in enterprise AI adoption. Organizations can deploy both to secure AI tools: Willow enforces AI access control and posture governance across employee workstations, while Kong manages high-throughput backend API traffic, cloud model routing, and server-to-server agent communication.
Willow operates as an employee AI governance control plane. It scans local developer environments for unmanaged MCP servers, skill folders, and configuration files. It injects guard hooks into coding agents such as Claude Code and Cursor, checks web prompts through a browser extension, provides self-service access to sanctioned tools, and supports human approval workflows for configured tool calls.
Kong operates as an enterprise API and AI gateway. Built on a high-performance NGINX proxy engine, Kong proxies model requests across providers, converts existing APIs into MCP tools via Context Mesh, and standardizes Agent-to-Agent (A2A) communication using declarative entities and OpenTelemetry metrics.
The primary architectural difference centers on the enforcement boundary. Willow protects the employee surface: the laptop, IDE, terminal, and browser where workers invoke AI models and tools. Kong protects the central network pipe: the proxy boundary where microservices, external LLM endpoints, and server-to-server agents communicate.
In developer tool governance, both platforms support command-line coding tools including Claude Code and Codex CLI, but from opposite ends of the connection. Kong acts as an upstream proxy: developers configure CLI base URLs to route through Kong Gateway, enabling centralized model credential injection, token budgeting, and OTLP metrics emission. Kong Gateway is not a workstation discovery agent; its gateway controls apply to traffic routed through it, and it does not inspect local configuration files or repositories. Willow runs a lightweight background Scan Agent on developer machines, discovering local mcp.json files, instruction templates (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md), and installed skills, while client guard hooks evaluate actions directly on the operating system.
For tool execution security, Kong AI Gateway v2 introduces AI MCP Server entities with route-level ACLs mapped to AI Consumer Groups. When an agent invokes a prohibited tool, Kong returns HTTP 403 Forbidden on the route before dispatching requests to upstream services. Willow complements route-level ACLs with client guard hooks that enforce least privilege for AI agents. In Willow, gateway approvals hold tool inputs and can require retrying the approved call, while client hook coverage depends on configured matchers and fails open on timeout or loss of connectivity.
Willow gives administrators visibility into shadow AI by scanning employee devices on macOS, Windows, and Linux. The Scan Agent inventories local MCP server definitions, skills, plugins, and configuration files, reporting unmanaged integrations to a centralized dashboard. Security teams define policy rules to automatically allow sanctioned tools, warn users about unvetted servers, or block unauthorized integrations before they connect to corporate resources.
For web-based AI usage, Willow deploys Prompt Guard via a browser extension. It monitors prompts submitted to consumer AI interfaces including ChatGPT and Claude, scanning text and attachments for sensitive data. Teams can configure warn or block policies to prevent confidential code, customer records, or credentials from leaking into unauthorized cloud platforms.
Willow supports human approval for configured Willow-mediated tool calls. When a client invokes a tool configured for review, Willow pauses execution and creates a pending approval record with a review link. In gateway deployments, approving the request allows an identical tool call to be retried. On developer workstations, guard hooks inspect file operations and prompts, with coverage varying by client and matcher settings. Coding-agent hooks fail open if a hook times out or Willow becomes unreachable.
Willow also manages autonomous background agents and machine users. Each machine user receives dedicated credentials with scoped permissions establishing distinct agent identity. Willow logs requests it handles, with configurable payload retention and external SIEM forwarding to platforms such as Splunk, Loki, and CrowdStrike for security compliance and an Enterprise AI audit trail.
Consider Kong when specific network gateway throughput, API composition, or multi-provider model routing requirements guide the architecture:
Kong provides an open core and a self-serve cloud tier (Konnect Plus) starting at $25 per month plus usage. Advanced AI capabilities, including semantic prompt guarding, PII sanitization, semantic vector caching, advanced cost-based rate limiting, and MCP proxying, are packaged as paid AI Gateway enterprise plugins; they are available as an add-on on Konnect Plus and included with Enterprise. Organizations can optionally provision Dedicated Cloud Gateways on Konnect starting at $500 per month per control plane plus bandwidth and request charges. For self-hosted enterprise deployments, external datastores depend on the chosen plugin: AI Proxy Advanced requires Redis 8.0+ with JSON and query modules, while semantic caching supports Redis or PostgreSQL with pgvector, and rate limiting supports local, cluster, or Redis strategies.
Willow offers a free plan for up to 15 users. For enterprise environments, Willow quotes custom annual per-seat licensing covering Client Guard Hooks, Prompt Guard browser protection, machine user governance, and runtime security features. Willow deploys as a multi-tenant cloud service, a hybrid control plane, or a fully self-hosted instance inside customer infrastructure.
Selecting between Willow and Kong is not an either-or decision. Modern enterprise security architectures require controls at both the network boundary and the employee workstation. Deploying an API gateway like Kong centralizes cloud model connectivity, composes backend REST services into MCP tools, and routes server-to-server agent communication. Deploying Willow ensures that employee laptops, local developer tools, browser chat tabs, and background agents remain visible, compliant, and governed.
Kong does not inspect developer filesystems. It has no endpoint agent and only processes traffic that developers configure to route through its gateway endpoints. It cannot discover unmanaged mcp.json files, skill directories, or instruction files (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md) residing on developer workstations. Willow deploys a lightweight Scan Agent across macOS, Windows, and Linux specifically to uncover local shadow AI tools, inspect prompt files, and apply device-level posture rules.
Willow is not a general-purpose replacement for Kong's API gateway platform. Kong handles high-volume network traffic between backend microservices, provides multi-provider LLM load balancing, and composes REST APIs into MCP servers. Willow governs the employee interaction surface, ensuring that workers using tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and web chat models connect only to sanctioned capabilities under corporate policy.
Both platforms approach human review differently based on where actions execute. Kong's AI assistant (KAi v2 preview) includes human-in-the-loop tool action confirmations before applying configuration changes within Konnect, while its gateway runtime enforces route-level ACLs returning HTTP 403 Forbidden without an in-line approval hold. Willow supports pre-action human authorization on configured Willow-mediated tool calls: when an agent invokes a guarded tool, Willow holds the inputs and generates an approval link, requiring an identical call to be retried once approved. On developer endpoints, Willow provides client guard hooks that fail open if connectivity is lost.
While Kong Gateway offers an open core and a $25 per month Plus tier, advanced AI security and governance plugins, including AI Semantic Prompt Guard, AI Sanitizer, AI Semantic Cache, AI Rate Limiting Advanced, and AI MCP Proxy, are packaged as paid AI Gateway enterprise plugins. They are available as an add-on on Konnect Plus and included with Enterprise. Dedicated Cloud Gateways on Konnect are an optional deployment starting at $500 per month per control plane plus bandwidth and request surcharges.
Yes. Willow and Kong serve complementary roles in enterprise architectures. Kong serves as the central network highway, exposing backend APIs as MCP tools via Context Mesh and proxying cloud LLM traffic. Willow secures the employee workstations, browser sessions, and developer environments where workers invoke those tools, enforcing device posture, browser DLP, and human-in-the-loop approvals before sensitive actions execute.
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