Glossary

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#glossary

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Common terms used across Kong.

Term	Description	Link
Admin	An admin is a Kong Gateway user account capable of accessing the Admin API or Kong Manager.	Admin entity
Beta	A functionality of a feature or release version is of high quality and can be used in a non-production environment.	Stages of software availability
Consumer	A Consumer object represents the client of a Service.	Consumer entity
Credential	A unique string associated with a Consumer, for example, an API key.	Consumer entity
Dev Portal	A web application that functions as a collection of APIs, specs, and documentation objects. The purpose of a Dev Portal is to allow registration and consumption of services running through Kong to other teams, developers, and partners.	Dev Portal
Event Gateway policy	In Event Gateway, policies can be used to intercept client connections and transform messages between the client and the broker.	Event Gateway policies
Gateway Service	Gateway Services represent the upstream services in your system. These applications are the business logic components of your system responsible for responding to requests.	Gateway Service entity
Groups	Sets of role-defined entities.	Group entity
Insomnia plugin	Insomnia plugins can be used to extend the functionality of Insomnia with advanced features and customizable themes.	Insomnia plugins
Kong Gateway Community Edition	A deprecated term for Kong Gateway Open-Source (OSS).	N/A
Kong Gateway plugin	Kong Gateway plugins provide advanced functionality and extend the use of Kong Gateway, allowing you to add new features to your gateway. Plugins can be configured to run in a variety of contexts, ranging from a specific Route to all upstreams. Plugins can perform operations in your environment, such as authentication, rate limiting, or transformations on a proxied request.	Plugin entity Plugin Hub
Kong plugin or bundled plugin	A plugin developed, maintained, and supported by Kong. Unless otherwise noted in the plugin’s description on the Kong Plugin Hub, all Kong-supported plugins are bundled with their relevant Kong Gateway install packages, and are available in Konnect.	Plugins bundled in self-managed Kong Gateway Plugins bundled in Konnect
Mesh policy	Mesh policies bundle features for your service traffic and network configuration.	Mesh policies
Permissions	A permission is a policy representing the ability to create, read, update, or delete an Admin API entity defined by endpoints. Permissions are a self-managed Kong Gateway Enterprise concept.	RBAC entity
Premium partner plugin	A third-party custom plugin that has been validated by Kong and meets certain standards. Although these plugins are developed, tested, and maintained by an external developer, the plugin owner also ensures the plugin’s version compatibility with Kong Gateway.	Premium partners
Role	A role is a set of permissions that may be reused and assigned to admins and users.	Roles in self-managed Kong Gateway Roles in Konnect
Route	A Route defines rules to match client requests to upstream services. Each Route is associated with a Gateway Service, and a Service may have multiple Routes associated with it.	Route entity
Super admin	A super admin is a specialized role in self-managed Kong Gateway that manages Workspaces, admins, roles, and customizes permissions.	Create a super admin
Teams	Teams organize developers into working groups.	Teams in self-managed Kong Gateway Teams in Konnect
Tech preview	An early-stage, experimental feature that should not be used in a production environment. Some products or projects may also call this stage alpha.	Stages of software availability
Third-party or community plugin	A custom plugin developed, maintained, and supported by an external developer, not by Kong. Unless explicitly labeled as a premium partner, Kong does not test these plugins or maintain their version compatibility. If you need any support with these plugins, contact the maintainer directly.	Third-party plugins
Upstream	An Upstream enables load balancing by providing a virtual hostname and collection of Targets, or upstream service instances, to which client requests are forwarded.	Upstream entity
Upstream service	An instance of your own application, usually running behind Kong Gateway, Mesh, etc. Also referred to as an upstream application, service application, or backend service.	N/A
Workspace	Workspaces enable an organization to segment objects and admins into namespaces. The segmentation allows teams of admins sharing the same Kong Gateway cluster to adopt roles for interacting with specific objects. Workspaces are available in self-managed Kong Gateway Enterprise only. When running Kong Gateway in Konnect, entity and user segmentation is handled through Control Planes and Control Plane Groups.	Workspace entity
Catalog service	A Catalog service in Konnect represents a service running within your organization. Each Catalog service aggregates both internal tools, like Gateway and Mesh Services, and external integrations, like GitHub repositories and Slack webhooks.	Catalog

Metering & Billing

Common terms used in Metering & Billing.

Metering

Term	Description
Metering	A method of tracking and aggregating product or service consumption in real time based on usage events.
Usage	The consumption of a product or service measured through events and aggregated over time.
Billable event	The smallest unit of work that can be billed.

Pricing

Term	Description
Packaging	The process of bundling products and services into a unified offering.
Recurring pricing	A pricing model where a customer is charged on a regular schedule, such as monthly or annually.
Seat-based pricing	A pricing model where a customer is charged based on the number of individual users or licenses provisioned.
Usage-based pricing	A pricing model where a customer is charged based on how much they consume, rather than a flat rate.
Credit-based pricing	A pricing model where a customer purchases credits in advance and spends them to access products or services.
Outcome-based pricing	A pricing model where a customer is charged based on the results or value delivered.
Hybrid pricing	A pricing model that combines recurring charges with usage-based components.
Value metric	The unit of measurement that determines how a product or service is priced based on the value delivered to the customer.

Pricing models

Term	Description
Per-unit pricing	A pricing model where a customer is charged based on the number of units consumed.
Overage pricing	A charge applied when a customer exceeds their pre-defined usage limit.
Tiered pricing	A pricing model where fees vary depending on the customer’s usage level.
Graduated pricing	A pricing model where each unit is priced according to the tier in which it falls, regardless of total volume.
Volume pricing	A pricing model where the price per unit is determined by the customer’s total usage volume, with higher volumes unlocking lower rates.

Billing

Term	Description
Add-on	An optional product or service that can be purchased in addition to a base subscription.
Billing anchor	The specific day of the month or time period that determines when a customer’s billing cycle starts and ends.
Commitments	Pre-negotiated agreements where a customer commits to a minimum spend or usage volume in exchange for discounted rates or guaranteed capacity.
Entitlements	Rules that define what features, usage limits, or resources a customer is allowed to access based on their subscription or plan.
Grandfathering	The practice of keeping a customer on a legacy pricing plan when new pricing is introduced.
Paid in advance	A billing model where a customer pays for a product or service before it is consumed.
Paid in arrears	A billing model where a customer is charged after a product or service has been consumed.
Payment terms	The conditions and timeframes under which a customer must pay for products or services.
Proration	The calculation of partial charges when subscription changes occur mid-billing cycle.
Reverse trial	A trial model where a customer starts with full access to premium features and is downgraded to a free tier when the trial period ends.
Utilization	The measure of how much a customer uses a product, feature, or service compared to their purchased capacity or limits.

Payment

Term	Description
Dunning	The process of sending payment reminders or notifications to a customer with overdue invoices or failed payments.
Grace period	A defined window of time after a missed payment during which a customer can pay without service interruption or penalty.
Revenue leakage	The failure to collect all potential revenue due to billing errors, gaps in metering, or inefficient operations.
Revenue recognition	The accounting process of recording revenue in the period it is earned.
Invoice aging	A report that categorizes unpaid customer invoices based on the length of time they have been outstanding.
Invoice reconciliation	The process of matching invoices with payments received and ensuring billing records are accurate and consistent.

SaaS

Term	Description
Churn	The rate at which a customer cancels their subscription or stops using a service over a given time period.
Customer acquisition cost	The total cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing and sales expenses.
Net revenue retention	A metric that measures the percentage of recurring revenue retained from the existing customer base over a period, accounting for expansion, contraction, and churn.
Expansion	Revenue growth generated from an existing customer through higher-tier plans, additional features, or expanded usage.
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)	The annualized value of recurring revenue a company expects to generate from active subscriptions.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)	The total predictable revenue a company expects to generate from active subscriptions in a given month.

Glossary

Metering & Billing

Metering

Pricing

Pricing models

Billing

Payment

SaaS

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