Kong Gateway vs SWAG
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
SWAG
Secure web application gateway with Nginx and Certbot
| Feature | Kong Gateway | SWAG |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Lua | Dockerfile |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 43,947 | ★ 3,709 |
| First released | 2015 | 2020 |
| Replaces | AWS API Gateway, Apigee | Cloudflare |
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 SWAG if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.7k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Kong Gateway or SWAG better?
Neither is universally better. Kong Gateway has the larger community, while SWAG is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Kong Gateway and SWAG free and open-source?
Yes. Kong Gateway is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SWAG under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kong Gateway and SWAG with Docker?
Kong Gateway: yes. SWAG: yes.