Contour vs Ingress-NGINX
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?
Contour
Kubernetes ingress controller powered by Envoy
VS
Ingress-NGINX
Kubernetes ingress controller using NGINX
| Feature | Contour | Ingress-NGINX |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | HTML | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | kubernetes, helm | kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,944 | ★ 19,485 |
| First released | 2017 | 2016 |
| Replaces | AWS ALB Ingress | AWS ALB Ingress |
Why pick each one
Choose Contour if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Active community (3.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in HTML
Choose Ingress-NGINX if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 19.5k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Contour or Ingress-NGINX better?
Neither is universally better. Ingress-NGINX has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Contour and Ingress-NGINX free and open-source?
Yes. Contour is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Ingress-NGINX under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Contour and Ingress-NGINX with Docker?
Contour: check the project docs for container support. Ingress-NGINX: check the project docs for container support.