# Apache APISIX vs KrakenD

| Attribute | Apache APISIX | KrakenD |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 54.2 (53% (medium)) | 49.9 (67% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 67 | 23 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 1 | 0 |
| adoption.github_stars | 17,220 | 2,691 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A dynamic, high-performance gateway that routes and secures API traffic with built-in plugins for authentication, rate limiting, and observability. Runs anywhere from bare metal to Kubernetes with no vendor lock-in. It is indexed under API Gateways.","source":"https://apisix.apache.org","question":"What is Apache APISIX?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Apache APISIX is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://apisix.apache.org","question":"Is Apache APISIX free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Apache APISIX supports Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://apisix.apache.org","question":"What platforms does Apache APISIX support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Apache APISIX can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://apisix.apache.org","question":"Can Apache APISIX be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 20 integrations for Apache APISIX, including OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, DeepSeek, Ollama, gRPC, Open Policy Agent and Spring Boot, plus 12 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://apisix.apache.org","question":"What does Apache APISIX integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Apache APISIX is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/apache/apisix","question":"Is Apache APISIX open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"KrakenD is an open-source API gateway offering both a free community edition and a commercial enterprise version. It provides API aggregation, request/response transformation, traffic management, and security features for microservices and AI workload routing. It is indexed under API Gateways.","source":"https://www.krakend.io","question":"What is KrakenD?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"KrakenD is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Paid editions are also offered: Enterprise Edition, priced on request. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.krakend.io","question":"Is KrakenD free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"KrakenD supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.krakend.io","question":"What platforms does KrakenD support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. KrakenD can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.krakend.io","question":"Can KrakenD be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 13 integrations for KrakenD, including REST APIs, RabbitMQ, SNS, SQS, Kafka, GraphQL, gRPC and SOAP, plus 5 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.krakend.io","question":"What does KrakenD integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and GDPR for KrakenD. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as KrakenD not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.krakend.io","question":"What security certifications does KrakenD have?","confidence":0.48},{"answer":"Yes. KrakenD is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce","question":"Is KrakenD open source?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"KrakenD is available worldwide. The vendor is headquartered in Spain.","source":"https://www.krakend.io","question":"Where is KrakenD available?","confidence":0.75}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Open-source software that manages and routes traffic to APIs and AI services. Designed for flexible deployment on your own infrastructure with extensive customization through plugins. | An open-source gateway positioned between client applications and backend services that aggregates, transforms, and secures API traffic across distributed microservice architectures with minimal resource consumption. |
| features.capabilities | `{"mtls":true,"hosting":"both","k8s_native":true,"oauth_oidc":true,"open_source":true,"grpc_support":true,"monetization":true,"observability":true,"pricing_model":"open-source-self-host","rate_limiting":true,"graphql_gateway":false,"deployment_model":"self-hosted","developer_portal":true,"plugin_ecosystem":"extensive","routing_strategy":"custom","streaming_support":true,"automatic_failover":true,"budget_spend_controls":true,"guardrails_moderation":"built-in","openai_compatible_api":true,"request_transformation":true}` | `{"mtls":true,"hosting":"both","k8s_native":true,"oauth_oidc":true,"grpc_support":true,"monetization":true,"observability":true,"rate_limiting":true,"graphql_gateway":true,"developer_portal":true,"plugin_ecosystem":"limited","request_transformation":true}` |
| integrations.count | 11 | 12 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Anthropic"},{"name":"AWS Bedrock"},{"name":"DeepSeek"},{"name":"Ollama"},{"name":"gRPC"},{"name":"gRPC-Web"},{"name":"Open Policy Agent"},{"name":"Spring Boot"},{"name":"OAuth2"},{"name":"OpenID Connect"},{"name":"Keycloak"},{"name":"Istio"},{"name":"Kuma"},{"name":"AWS Lambda"},{"name":"Azure Serverless Function"},{"name":"Apache OpenWhisk"},{"name":"Vault"},{"name":"Dubbo"},{"name":"MQTT"},{"name":"etcd"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry","category":"observability"},{"name":"ClickHouse","category":"analytics"},{"name":"Google Cloud","category":"cloud"},{"name":"Kubernetes","category":"infrastructure"},{"name":"Azure Functions","native":true,"category":"cloud","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Prometheus","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"HashiCorp Vault","native":true,"category":"security","direction":"outbound"}]` | `[{"name":"REST APIs"},{"name":"RabbitMQ"},{"name":"SNS"},{"name":"SQS"},{"name":"Kafka"},{"name":"GraphQL"},{"name":"gRPC"},{"name":"SOAP"},{"name":"Lambda"},{"name":"NATS"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Moesif"},{"name":"Google Analytics"},{"name":"Amazon SNS","category":"messaging"},{"name":"Amazon SQS","category":"messaging"},{"name":"Apache Kafka","category":"messaging"},{"name":"AWS Lambda"},{"name":"Elasticsearch","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Kibana","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Datadog","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Prometheus","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Grafana","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Zipkin","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Jaeger","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"}]` |
| language.primary | Lua | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | - | `{"hqCountry":"ES","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://apisix.apache.org","retrievedAt":"2026-10-14T22:32:08.030Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Community Edition","description":"High-performance open source API gateway, free to use","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise Edition","description":"Production-grade gateway with security, governance, and 24/7 support backed by SLAs","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Free Community Edition; Enterprise Edition available by quote","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.krakend.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-05T13:08:11.806Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 61 | 19 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.19.0","date":"2026-09-28T05:13:59Z","type":"stable","version":"3.19.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.18.0","date":"2026-08-20T07:57:26Z","type":"stable","version":"3.18.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.17.0","date":"2026-06-16T07:22:13Z","type":"stable","version":"3.17.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.16.0","date":"2026-04-08T01:36:55Z","type":"stable","version":"3.16.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.15.0","date":"2026-02-05T13:55:04Z","type":"stable","version":"3.15.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.14.1","date":"2025-10-16T07:54:57Z","type":"stable","version":"3.14.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.14.0","date":"2025-10-10T05:53:01Z","type":"stable","version":"3.14.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.13.0","date":"2025-06-27T07:28:29Z","type":"stable","version":"3.13.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.12.0","date":"2025-04-01T07:27:27Z","type":"stable","version":"3.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.11.0","date":"2024-10-17T03:20:22Z","type":"stable","version":"3.11.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.10.0","date":"2024-08-14T06:16:05Z","type":"stable","version":"3.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.9.1","date":"2024-04-24T07:56:23Z","type":"stable","version":"3.9.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.8.1","date":"2024-04-29T03:06:26Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.9.0","date":"2024-03-25T10:09:53Z","type":"stable","version":"3.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.8.0","date":"2024-01-15T03:35:34Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.7.0","date":"2023-11-21T00:57:26Z","type":"stable","version":"3.7.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.6.0","date":"2023-10-04T06:40:49Z","type":"stable","version":"3.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.5.0","date":"2023-09-01T15:55:01Z","type":"stable","version":"3.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.2.2","date":"2023-07-22T16:32:15Z","type":"stable","version":"3.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.4.1","date":"2023-07-20T09:42:19Z","type":"stable","version":"3.4.1"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v3.0.1","date":"2026-10-13T11:29:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v3.0.0","date":"2026-09-30T14:26:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.13.11","date":"2026-09-08T07:59:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.13.10","date":"2026-08-20T10:43:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.13.9","date":"2026-08-14T11:26:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.13.8","date":"2026-07-08T13:47:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.13.7","date":"2026-06-03T13:58:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.13.6","date":"2026-05-22T10:54:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.13.5","date":"2026-05-11T13:11:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.13.4","date":"2026-04-08T12:52:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.13.3","date":"2026-03-19T12:27:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.13.2","date":"2026-03-09T14:36:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.13.1","date":"2026-02-18T11:21:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.13.0","date":"2026-02-10T14:36:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.12.1","date":"2026-01-16T14:57:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.12.0","date":"2025-10-27T15:37:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.11.2","date":"2025-10-16T13:47:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.11.1","date":"2025-10-08T16:03:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.11.0","date":"2025-09-09T13:38:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases/tag/v2.10.2","date":"2025-07-22T16:36:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.10.2"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.certifications | - | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","status":"active"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 7.2 | - |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://apisix.apache.org/blog/2023/03/02/security-policy-auditable/ | https://www.krakend.io/docs/security/ |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fapache%2Fapisix&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fkrakend%2Fkrakend-ce%2Fv2&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (API Gateways)

| Capability | Apache APISIX | KrakenD |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | Cloud + self-hosted |
| Kubernetes-native | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Traffic** |  |  |
| Rate limiting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Request/response transformation | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Security** |  |  |
| OAuth2 / OIDC / JWT | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mutual TLS | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Protocols** |  |  |
| GraphQL gateway | ✗ | ✓ |
| gRPC support | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Delivery** |  |  |
| Developer portal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Monetization | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Ecosystem** |  |  |
| Plugin ecosystem | Extensive | Limited |
| **Insight** |  |  |
| Observability | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:59:27.342Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*