Self-Hosted / Projects / Kong
Kong
StableSpecs verified September 26, 2026 · against v3.9.3
Overview
Self-hosted API gateway for routing, securing, and managing microservice traffic.
Kong Gateway is a cloud-native API gateway and reverse proxy that sits in front of REST APIs and routes requests to upstream services. It is designed for teams managing microservices, hybrid environments, or multiple API consumers rather than for ordinary homelab web publishing.
Why people choose Kong
The practical search intent is self-hosted API management: one control point for routes, authentication, rate limits, observability, and policy across services. Kong can reduce duplicated gateway logic in applications, but it adds an infrastructure layer that needs deliberate design.
What is included
Official Kong docs cover services, routes, consumers, plugins, authentication, rate limiting, load balancing, health checks, circuit breakers, analytics integrations, the Admin API, declarative configuration with decK, Terraform workflows, and Kubernetes ingress integration.
Requirements and tradeoffs
Kong supports traditional, hybrid, and DB-less deployment modes. The deployment choice affects persistence, control-plane/data-plane separation, upgrades, and operational complexity. Review the official resource-sizing, security, and topology guidance, protect the Admin API, manage secrets carefully, and distinguish the open-source gateway from commercial Konnect and Enterprise capabilities.
Best fit
Choose Kong when you operate several APIs or microservices and need centralized gateway policy, plugins, and routing. A simpler reverse proxy is usually enough for a few homelab web apps, while larger organizations should evaluate Kong Gateway, Konnect, and competing API gateways against their support and governance needs.
Interface previews
Screenshots of the Kong interface.
Feature support
| Feature | Support |
|---|---|
| API gateway and reverse proxyOfficial docs define Kong Gateway as a lightweight cloud-native API gateway for managing and routing API requests. | Supported |
| Services, routes, and consumersThese are core entities in the official Gateway documentation. | Supported |
| Plugin-based extensionsThe official Plugin Hub extends the gateway with authentication, traffic control, logging, and other policies. | Supported |
| Authentication and rate limitingOfficial docs cover authentication plugins and rate limiting by IP, API key, consumer, and more. | Supported |
| Load balancing and health checksKong documents load balancing, health checks, and circuit breakers for upstream services. | Supported |
| DB-less deploymentOfficial topology docs list DB-less mode alongside traditional and hybrid modes. | Supported |
| Kubernetes ingress integrationKong Ingress Controller is listed as a supported tool for managing ingress traffic and routing rules. | Supported |
| Commercial managed control planeKonnect adds managed and commercial capabilities; do not present those features as part of the self-hosted open-source gateway by default. | Partial support |
Community signals
- Stars
- 44.2k
- Forks
- 5.2k
- Open issues
- 219
- Last commit
- 2d ago
- Latest release
- 3.9.3
- Repo created
- Nov 2014
Includes open pull requests
4mo ago
Refreshed nightly from the GitHub API.
Questions
What is Kong Gateway used for?
Kong Gateway is used as an API gateway and reverse proxy to route, secure, rate-limit, observe, and manage traffic between API consumers and upstream services.
Is Kong Gateway open source?
The Kong Gateway source repository is Apache-2.0 licensed, but Kong also offers commercial Enterprise and Konnect products with additional capabilities and support.
Can Kong Gateway be self-hosted?
Yes. Kong documents on-premises and self-hosted deployment options, including traditional, hybrid, and DB-less topologies.
Does Kong Gateway need a database?
Not always. Kong documents DB-less mode as well as traditional and hybrid modes, where persistence and control-plane choices differ. Follow the topology guidance for the architecture you choose.
Is Kong the same as a normal reverse proxy?
It can proxy traffic, but Kong is aimed at API management and adds entities, plugins, authentication, rate limits, and gateway policy. A simpler reverse proxy may be easier for basic homelab websites.
Does Kong Gateway include rate limiting and authentication?
Yes. Official documentation covers authentication plugins and rate limiting policies, but exact behavior depends on the selected plugin and deployment edition.
What is the difference between Kong Gateway and Konnect?
Kong Gateway is the gateway software that can run on infrastructure you control. Konnect is Kong's managed cloud control-plane and commercial platform with additional hosted capabilities.
support // the lab
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