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Kong

Orchestration
Open source · Apache-2.0

Kong is an API gateway built on top of Nginx and OpenResty, written in Lua. It sits at the edge of your infrastructure and handles routing, authentication, rate limiting, logging, and traffic control for APIs and microservices.

updated 2026-07-01

What it is

Kong is an API gateway built on top of Nginx and OpenResty, written in Lua. It sits at the edge of your infrastructure and handles routing, authentication, rate limiting, logging, and traffic control for APIs and microservices. It's plugin-driven — core proxy logic is thin, and most functionality (auth schemes, transformations, observability hooks) comes from plugins, either Kong's own or custom ones you write in Lua. It also ships a Kubernetes Ingress Controller, which is likely why it's filed under Orchestration & Management here, though the core gateway itself is infrastructure-agnostic and predates Kubernetes-native tooling.

Who builds it and why

Kong Inc. is the commercial entity behind the open source project, and this is their primary product — not a side project or donated tool. The commercial motive is straightforward: open source gateway drives adoption, Kong Konnect (their managed control plane / SaaS layer) monetizes it. 450 contributors on GitHub suggests real community involvement beyond core staff, but Kong Inc. controls the roadmap and release cadence. This is a vendor-led open source project, not a foundation-governed one — worth knowing going in, since plugin licensing and feature gating between OSS and Enterprise tiers has been a recurring friction point in the API gateway space generally.

Production readiness signal

43,704 GitHub stars and 450 contributors indicate wide adoption and a healthy contributor base, not just a popular repo with one maintainer. Latest release 3.9.3 shows active semantic versioning and continued maintenance. Apache-2.0 license means no copyleft surprises for commercial use. CNCF maturity level is not publicly available, meaning this is not a CNCF project (it operates outside that governance structure), so don't expect the graduation/incubation signal you'd get from a project like Envoy. Founded date isn't public, but Kong has been running in production at scale for a decade-plus at companies you've heard of. Lua as the core implementation language is a legitimate operational consideration — it's fast and lightweight for Nginx/OpenResty extension work, but your team needs comfort debugging Lua if you're writing custom plugins or troubleshooting deep issues.

Who should use this

Teams that need a battle-tested API gateway with a large plugin ecosystem and don't want to build gateway logic from scratch. Good fit if you're standardizing API auth, rate limiting, and traffic shaping across many services and want something proven at scale rather than rolling your own Nginx config layer. Also a reasonable choice if you're already invested in the Kong ecosystem (Konnect, Kong Mesh) or need the Kubernetes Ingress Controller specifically.

Who should NOT use this

If you're all-in on Envoy-based service mesh (Istio, Linkerd) already, adding Kong as a separate gateway layer is redundant complexity — pick one data plane philosophy. If your team has zero Lua experience and you need heavy plugin customization, expect a real learning curve or dependency on Kong's paid plugins to avoid writing Lua yourselves. If you just need basic ingress routing on Kubernetes with no advanced API management needs, Kong is overkill — plain nginx-ingress or Traefik will be lighter and simpler to operate. And if you're wary of vendor-led OSS where enterprise features are paywalled, go in with clear eyes about what's free vs. Konnect-gated.

Alternatives

  • Envoy / Istio — if you're building a service mesh rather than an edge API gateway, Envoy's data plane plus Istio's control plane is the more mesh-native choice.
  • Traefik — simpler, Kubernetes-native ingress controller with a gentler learning curve for basic routing use cases.
  • Apache APISIX — similar plugin-driven gateway model, Apache Software Foundation governed instead of vendor-led, worth a look if governance model matters to you.

Pricing

Core Kong Gateway is fully open source under Apache-2.0 — no cost, no usage limits on the OSS version itself. Kong Konnect (managed control plane, advanced plugins, enterprise support) is paid and priced by Kong Inc. directly; specific pricing is not publicly available and requires contacting sales.

Frequently asked

What is Kong?+
Kong is an API gateway built on top of Nginx and OpenResty, written in Lua. It sits at the edge of your infrastructure and handles routing, authentication, rate limiting, logging, and traffic control for APIs and microservices.
Who builds Kong?+
Kong Inc. is the commercial entity behind the open source project, and this is their primary product — not a side project or donated tool. The commercial motive is straightforward: open source gateway drives adoption, Kong Konnect (their managed control plane / SaaS layer) monetizes it.
Is Kong production ready?+
43,704 GitHub stars and 450 contributors indicate wide adoption and a healthy contributor base, not just a popular repo with one maintainer. Latest release 3.9.3 shows active semantic versioning and continued maintenance. Apache-2.0 license means no copyleft surprises for commercial use.
Who should use Kong?+
Teams that need a battle-tested API gateway with a large plugin ecosystem and don't want to build gateway logic from scratch. Good fit if you're standardizing API auth, rate limiting, and traffic shaping across many services and want something proven at scale rather than rolling your own Nginx config layer.
Who should not use Kong?+
If you're all-in on Envoy-based service mesh (Istio, Linkerd) already, adding Kong as a separate gateway layer is redundant complexity — pick one data plane philosophy.
What are the alternatives to Kong?+
Envoy / Istio — if you're building a service mesh rather than an edge API gateway, Envoy's data plane plus Istio's control plane is the more mesh-native choice. Traefik — simpler, Kubernetes-native ingress controller with a gentler learning curve for basic routing use cases.
How much does Kong cost?+
Core Kong Gateway is fully open source under Apache-2.0 — no cost, no usage limits on the OSS version itself. Kong Konnect (managed control plane, advanced plugins, enterprise support) is paid and priced by Kong Inc. directly; specific pricing is not publicly available and requires contacting sales.