Kong Gateway vs KrakenD
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Kong Gateway | KrakenD |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 99 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Lua | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 44,176 | ★ 2,686 |
| First released | 2015 | 2017 |
| Replaces | AWS API Gateway, Apigee | AWS API Gateway, Kong |
What are Kong Gateway and KrakenD?
Kong Gateway
Kong Gateway is an open-source API gateway built on Nginx that manages, secures, and observes API traffic with a rich plugin ecosystem. It scales from single nodes to large clusters.
- Plugin-driven API management
- Rate limiting and auth
- Kubernetes ingress controller
- Declarative config
KrakenD
KrakenD is a stateless, declarative API gateway that aggregates and transforms responses from many backend services. It is designed for extreme performance with no shared state.
- Response aggregation
- Stateless design
- Declarative configuration
- Very high throughput
Kong Gateway vs KrakenD: key differences
Kong Gateway is written in Lua, while KrakenD is built with Go. KrakenD is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Kong Gateway. Kong Gateway is the more established project (first released 2015), while KrakenD arrived in 2017. Kong Gateway has the considerably larger community, at 44,176 GitHub stars versus 2,686.
Why pick each one
Choose Kong Gateway if…
- Rich plugin ecosystem
- Scales to clusters
- Built on proven Nginx
Watch out for
- Postgres typically required
- Steep configuration curve
- Some plugins enterprise-only
Choose KrakenD if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Active community (2.7k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Kong Gateway or KrakenD better?
Neither is universally better. Kong Gateway has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Kong Gateway and KrakenD free and open-source?
Yes. Kong Gateway is licensed under Apache-2.0 and KrakenD under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kong Gateway and KrakenD with Docker?
Kong Gateway: yes. KrakenD: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Kong Gateway or KrakenD?
KrakenD has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Kong Gateway. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.