Kong Gateway vs SmartDNS
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
VS
SmartDNS
Local DNS server that picks the fastest results
| Feature | Kong Gateway | SmartDNS |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Lua | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 43,947 | ★ 11,183 |
| First released | 2015 | 2018 |
| Replaces | AWS API Gateway, Apigee | Pi-hole, dnsmasq |
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 SmartDNS if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 11.2k GitHub stars
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Kong Gateway or SmartDNS 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 SmartDNS free and open-source?
Yes. Kong Gateway is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SmartDNS under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kong Gateway and SmartDNS with Docker?
Kong Gateway: yes. SmartDNS: check the project docs for container support.