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NGINX Ingress Controller

Input—per 1M tokens
Output—per 1M tokens
Context—tokens
WeightsClosed

About

NGINX Ingress Controller is ranked #6 of 27 in Kubernetes ingress controllers on Inferse. It runs on Self-hosted. There is a free plan.

Compared on Kubernetes ingress controllers

Free plan
Yesdocs.nginx.com
Ingress API model
ingressdocs.nginx.com
TLS automation
Yesdocs.nginx.com
Canary routing
Yesdocs.nginx.com
Rate limiting
Yesdocs.nginx.com
Web application firewall
Yesdocs.nginx.com
Auth policies
Yesdocs.nginx.com
Deployment model
self-hosteddocs.nginx.com

Facts

Purpose
NGINX Ingress Controller is a Kubernetes Ingress Controller that load balances WebSocket, gRPC, TCP, and UDP applications.docs.nginx.com · 30 Sept 2026
Routing and TLS
It supports content-based routing and TLS/SSL termination, with additional NGINX features configurable through annotations and ConfigMaps.docs.nginx.com · 30 Sept 2026
NGINX Plus features
NGINX Plus adds real-time metrics, additional load-balancing methods, session persistence options, active health checks, and JWT validation.docs.nginx.com · 30 Sept 2026
Security policies
Policy resources include access control, rate limiting, API keys, authentication, mTLS, WAF, CORS, and HSTS options, with some policies requiring NGINX Plus.docs.nginx.com · 30 Sept 2026
Integrations
Documented integrations include F5 WAF for NGINX, F5 DoS for NGINX, F5 BIG-IP, cert-manager, ExternalDNS, Prometheus, Istio, Linkerd, and Open Service Mesh.docs.nginx.com · 30 Sept 2026
Prometheus
The controller can expose NGINX and controller metrics in Prometheus format, including through a ServiceMonitor when using Prometheus Operator.docs.nginx.com · 30 Sept 2026
Deployment choices
Manifest installation supports Deployment, DaemonSet, or StatefulSet deployment modes.docs.nginx.com · 30 Sept 2026
Security guidance
The maker recommends encrypting Kubernetes Secrets at rest and documents least-privilege RBAC, while noting the default ServiceAccount can access all Secrets in the cluster.docs.nginx.com · 30 Sept 2026
Read-only filesystem
A read-only root filesystem is recommended to reduce attack surface but is not enabled by default.docs.nginx.com · 30 Sept 2026
Plus licensing telemetry
NGINX Plus requires a JWT for subscription validation and reports usage telemetry by default every hour and when NGINX is reloaded.docs.nginx.com · 30 Sept 2026
Release support
The maker says each annual Long-Term Support release is supported for up to three years and receives security and stability bug fixes.docs.nginx.com · 30 Sept 2026
Maker
F5 lists its headquarters as Seattle, Washington, and its founding year as 1996.f5.com · 30 Sept 2026

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Where it ranks on Inferse

Sources