Best Varnish Gateway Alternatives in 2026
Updated
20 platforms from Kubernetes ingress controllers ranked against Varnish Gateway on the same published basis.
- 1Varnish Gateway vs Airlock Microgateway
- 2Varnish Gateway vs ngrok
- 3Varnish Gateway vs agentgateway
- 4Varnish Gateway vs Envoy Gateway
- 5Varnish Gateway vs F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services
- 6Varnish Gateway vs Kusk Gateway
- 7Varnish Gateway vs Apache APISIX
- 8Varnish Gateway vs HAProxy Enterprise
- 9Varnish Gateway vs NGINX Ingress Controller
- 10Varnish Gateway vs Contour
- 11Varnish Gateway vs HAProxy Ingress
- 12Varnish Gateway vs NGINX Gateway Fabric
- 13Varnish Gateway vs Traefik Proxy
- 14Varnish Gateway vs N42 Gateway
- 15Varnish Gateway vs Skipper
- 16Varnish Gateway vs kgateway
- 17Varnish Gateway vs LiteSpeed Ingress Controller
- 18Varnish Gateway vs NetScaler Ingress Controller
- 19Varnish Gateway vs A10 Thunder Kubernetes Connector
- 20Varnish Gateway vs Kong Ingress Controller
Varnish Gateway 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 | — | — |
| 20 | Kong Ingress Controller | 5.1 | No | — | Linux |
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Questions about Varnish Gateway alternatives
What is the best alternative to Varnish Gateway?
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 Varnish Gateway?
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.