Best Kong Ingress Controller Alternatives in 2026
Updated
20 platforms from Kubernetes ingress controllers ranked against Kong Ingress Controller on the same published basis.
- 1Kong Ingress Controller vs Airlock Microgateway
- 2Kong Ingress Controller vs ngrok
- 3Kong Ingress Controller vs agentgateway
- 4Kong Ingress Controller vs Envoy Gateway
- 5Kong Ingress Controller vs F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services
- 6Kong Ingress Controller vs Kusk Gateway
- 7Kong Ingress Controller vs Apache APISIX
- 8Kong Ingress Controller vs HAProxy Enterprise
- 9Kong Ingress Controller vs NGINX Ingress Controller
- 10Kong Ingress Controller vs Contour
- 11Kong Ingress Controller vs HAProxy Ingress
- 12Kong Ingress Controller vs NGINX Gateway Fabric
- 13Kong Ingress Controller vs Traefik Proxy
- 14Kong Ingress Controller vs N42 Gateway
- 15Kong Ingress Controller vs Skipper
- 16Kong Ingress Controller vs kgateway
- 17Kong Ingress Controller vs LiteSpeed Ingress Controller
- 18Kong Ingress Controller vs NetScaler Ingress Controller
- 19Kong Ingress Controller vs A10 Thunder Kubernetes Connector
- 21Kong Ingress Controller vs Varnish Gateway
Kong Ingress Controller alternatives compared
| # | Platform | Score | Free plan | From | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Airlock Microgateway | 7.3 | Free plan | Free | API, self-hosted |
| 2 | ngrok | 7.3 | Free plan | $10/mo | API, Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Web, Windows |
| 3 | agentgateway | 7.2 | Free plan | Free | API, Linux, self-hosted |
| 4 | Envoy Gateway | 7.2 | Free plan | Free | API, self-hosted |
| 5 | F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services | 7.2 | Free plan | Free | API, self-hosted |
| 6 | Kusk Gateway | 7.2 | Free plan | Free | API, Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Web, Windows |
| 7 | Apache APISIX | 6.9 | No | — | API, Linux, self-hosted |
| 8 | HAProxy Enterprise | 6.6 | No | — | API, Linux, self-hosted |
| 9 | NGINX Ingress Controller | 5.9 | Free plan | Free | self-hosted |
| 10 | Contour | 5.8 | Free plan | Free | self-hosted |
| 11 | HAProxy Ingress | 5.8 | Free plan | Free | Linux, self-hosted |
| 12 | NGINX Gateway Fabric | 5.8 | Free plan | Free | Linux, self-hosted |
| 13 | Traefik Proxy | 5.8 | Free plan | Free | Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows |
| 14 | N42 Gateway | 5.5 | No | — | Linux, self-hosted |
| 15 | Skipper | 5.5 | No | — | Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows |
| 16 | kgateway | 5.4 | No | — | Linux, self-hosted |
| 17 | LiteSpeed Ingress Controller | 5.4 | No | $59.58/mo | Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Web |
| 18 | NetScaler Ingress Controller | 5.4 | No | — | self-hosted |
| 19 | A10 Thunder Kubernetes Connector | 5.1 | No | — | — |
| 21 | Varnish Gateway | 5.1 | No | — | — |
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Questions about Kong Ingress Controller alternatives
What is the best alternative to Kong Ingress Controller?
Airlock Microgateway, number 1 in Kubernetes ingress controllers with a score of 7.3 out of 10. The others here: ngrok, agentgateway, Envoy Gateway and 16 more.
What is the best free alternative to Kong Ingress Controller?
Airlock Microgateway is the best-ranked alternative with a free plan. 11 of the 20 alternatives here publish a free plan on their own pricing pages.
How are these alternatives ranked?
Ranked on what each maker publishes, open and connectable first: a public API, open-source code, the depth of its documentation and a free tier to try it on. Model lists are sorted by the figure in their title, exactly as each provider publishes it.