relayd 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?
relayd
OpenBSD load balancer and relay daemon
VS
Kong Gateway
Cloud-native, fast, scalable API gateway
| Feature | relayd | Kong Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | ISC | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | Lua |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,851 | ★ 43,947 |
| First released | 2006 | 2015 |
| Replaces | HAProxy, F5 BIG-IP | AWS API Gateway, Apigee |
Why pick each one
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 relayd or Kong Gateway better?
Kong Gateway is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider relayd if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are relayd and Kong Gateway free and open-source?
Yes. relayd is licensed under ISC and Kong Gateway under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run relayd and Kong Gateway with Docker?
relayd: check the project docs for container support. Kong Gateway: yes.