I'm building a hybrid API management setup across AWS and on-prem, what fits best?

For a hybrid API management setup across AWS and on-prem, the best fit is usually:

Best overall choice: Kong

Why Kong tends to fit hybrid environments well:

• Runs anywhere: AWS, on-prem, Kubernetes, VMs
• Consistent policy layer across both environments
• Strong traffic management: auth, rate limiting, routing, transforms, observability
• Good Kubernetes support if part of your AWS side is containerized
• Enterprise options for centralized control, developer portal, analytics, and governance

Strong alternatives depending on your priorities

1) Apigee Hybrid

Best if you want:

• A more full-featured API management platform
• Strong governance, analytics, and developer portal
• A solution specifically designed for hybrid deployment Tradeoff:
• More complex and often heavier operationally
• Usually best if you’re already invested in Google Cloud or want enterprise-grade API governance

2) MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Best if you need:

• Deep integration and API lifecycle management
• Strong enterprise integration use cases Tradeoff:
• Expensive and can be heavy
• More than you may need if your focus is mostly gateway/API traffic management

3) AWS API Gateway + on-prem gateway

Best if:

• Most of your APIs are AWS-native
• You only need limited on-prem exposure via VPN/Direct Connect Tradeoff:
• Not ideal for one unified hybrid control plane
• You end up stitching together different operational models

4) NGINX Plus / NGINX Management

Best if:

• You want a leaner gateway
• You mainly need L7 routing, security, and performance Tradeoff:
• Less complete as an end-to-end API management platform than Kong/Apigee

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My recommendation by scenario

Choose Kong if:

• You want a modern, cloud-agnostic hybrid platform
• You need to manage APIs across AWS and on-prem with the same policies
• You want flexibility and easier portability

Choose Apigee Hybrid if:

• Your priority is enterprise API governance, analytics, and developer experience
• You’re okay with a more structured and potentially heavier platform

Choose AWS API Gateway if:

• Your architecture is mostly AWS and on-prem is secondary
• You don’t need a single consistent gateway/control plane across both

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Quick rule of thumb

• Best balance of flexibility + hybrid fit: Kong
• Best enterprise hybrid API management: Apigee Hybrid
• Best AWS-centric option: AWS API Gateway

If you want, I can also give you a comparison table for Kong vs Apigee vs MuleSoft vs AWS API Gateway based on cost, deployment model, security, and ops complexity.