Anubis vs Kong Gateway
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Anubis
Proof-of-work proxy to block AI scraper bots
VS
Kong Gateway
Cloud-native, fast, scalable API gateway
| Feature | Anubis | Kong Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Lua |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 21,230 | ★ 43,947 |
| First released | 2025 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Cloudflare Bot Management | AWS API Gateway, Apigee |
Why pick each one
Choose Anubis if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 21.2k GitHub stars
Choose Kong Gateway if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 43.9k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Anubis or Kong Gateway better?
Neither is universally better. Kong Gateway has the larger community, while Anubis is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Anubis and Kong Gateway free and open-source?
Yes. Anubis is licensed under MIT and Kong Gateway under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Anubis and Kong Gateway with Docker?
Anubis: yes. Kong Gateway: yes.