SHSelfHostIndex

HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress 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?
HA HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress Kubernetes ingress controller based on HAProxy VS IN Ingress-NGINX Archived Kubernetes ingress controller using NGINX
FeatureHAProxy Kubernetes IngressIngress-NGINX
Deploy effortRead-the-docs projectRead-the-docs project
Health score82 · Excellent15 · At risk
StatusActively maintainedArchived
CategoryReverse Proxy & GatewaysReverse Proxy & Gateways
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentkubernetes, helmkubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 868★ 19,469
First released20192016
ReplacesAWS ALB IngressAWS ALB Ingress

What are HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress and Ingress-NGINX?

HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress

HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress Controller routes external traffic to cluster services using HAProxy as the data plane. It delivers high performance and detailed traffic control.

  • HAProxy-powered ingress
  • High-performance routing
  • Rate limiting
  • TLS termination

Ingress-NGINX

Ingress-NGINX is the community-maintained Kubernetes ingress controller built on NGINX. It routes external HTTP and HTTPS traffic to services inside a cluster using ingress resources.

  • NGINX-based ingress
  • TLS termination
  • Path and host routing
  • Annotations for fine control

HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress vs Ingress-NGINX: key differences

The biggest difference is maintenance: Ingress-NGINX's repository is archived and no longer developed, while HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress is actively maintained. Both projects are written in Go. Ingress-NGINX is the more established project (first released 2016), while HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress arrived in 2019. Ingress-NGINX has the considerably larger community, at 19,469 GitHub stars versus 868.

Why pick each one

Choose HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Written in Go
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress details

Choose Ingress-NGINX if…

  • Battle-tested at scale
  • Wide community adoption
  • Flexible annotation system

Watch out for

  • Upstream development stopped
  • Annotation config sprawl
Ingress-NGINX details

Frequently asked questions

Is HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress 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 HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress and Ingress-NGINX free and open-source?

Yes. HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress 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 HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress and Ingress-NGINX with Docker?

HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress: check the project docs for container support. Ingress-NGINX: check the project docs for container support.

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