Kong Gateway vs Lighttpd
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?
Kong Gateway
Cloud-native, fast, scalable API gateway
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Lighttpd
Secure, fast, compliant, and very flexible web server that has been
| Feature | Kong Gateway | Lighttpd |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Lua | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 43,947 | — |
| First released | 2015 | 2020 |
| Replaces | 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
Choose Lighttpd if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in C
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Kong Gateway or Lighttpd 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 Lighttpd free and open-source?
Yes. Kong Gateway is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Lighttpd under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kong Gateway and Lighttpd with Docker?
Kong Gateway: yes. Lighttpd: yes.