# Emissary vs Envoy Gateway

| Attribute | Emissary | Envoy Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 50.2 (54% (medium)) | 59.6 (33% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 31 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 4 | 0 |
| adoption.github_stars | 4,519 | 2,989 |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | An open-source, CNCF incubation project providing a Kubernetes-native API gateway with Layer 7 load balancing and ingress capabilities for microservices, built on Envoy Proxy. | Open-source gateway providing traffic management, security controls, and observability for Kubernetes applications following the Gateway API specification. Can be deployed either standalone or as part of a Kubernetes cluster. |
| features.capabilities | `{"mtls":true,"hosting":"self","k8s_native":true,"grpc_support":true,"observability":true,"rate_limiting":true}` | `{"mtls":true,"hosting":"self","k8s_native":true,"oauth_oidc":true,"observability":true,"rate_limiting":true}` |
| integrations.count | 7 | - |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Consul"},{"name":"Linkerd"},{"name":"Istio"},{"name":"Knative"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Datadog"}]` | - |
| language.primary | Python | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | - | `{"cli":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://emissary-ingress.dev/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T08:33:38.485Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://gateway.envoyproxy.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-16T21:35:24.255Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | - |
| release.cadence_days | 18 | 6 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v4.1.0","date":"2026-05-19T21:35:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v4.1.0-rc.0","date":"2026-05-01T19:56:39Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v4.1.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v4.0.1","date":"2026-03-26T22:54:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v4.0.1-rc.0","date":"2026-04-30T20:43:30Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v4.0.1-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v4.0.0-rc.2","date":"2026-03-06T16:28:04Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v4.0.0-rc.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v4.0.0-rc.1","date":"2025-12-02T19:04:29Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v4.0.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.10.0","date":"2025-07-29T17:20:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.9.1","date":"2023-11-20T16:00:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/chart/v8.9.1","date":"2023-11-20T15:59:12Z","type":"stable","version":"chart/v8.9.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.9.0","date":"2023-11-13T12:42:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/chart/v8.9.0","date":"2023-11-13T12:40:29Z","type":"stable","version":"chart/v8.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.8.2","date":"2023-10-11T14:11:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.8.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/chart/v8.8.2","date":"2023-10-11T14:09:30Z","type":"stable","version":"chart/v8.8.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.8.1","date":"2023-09-18T14:54:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.8.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/chart/v8.8.1","date":"2023-09-18T14:53:18Z","type":"stable","version":"chart/v8.8.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.8.0","date":"2023-08-29T12:30:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/chart/v8.8.0","date":"2023-08-29T12:28:24Z","type":"stable","version":"chart/v8.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.7.2","date":"2023-07-25T17:22:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/chart/v8.7.2","date":"2023-07-25T17:20:17Z","type":"stable","version":"chart/v8.7.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.7.1","date":"2023-07-13T17:36:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.1"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.9.0","date":"2026-08-15T12:31:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.9.0-rc.1","date":"2026-08-09T01:54:41Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.9.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.8.3","date":"2026-07-22T18:59:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.7.5","date":"2026-07-08T15:36:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.8.2","date":"2026-07-01T07:14:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.8.1","date":"2026-06-05T07:32:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.7.4","date":"2026-06-05T07:55:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.8.0","date":"2026-05-13T15:45:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.7.3","date":"2026-05-09T23:13:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.8.0-rc.1","date":"2026-05-01T05:58:00Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.8.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.6.7","date":"2026-04-27T20:16:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.7.2","date":"2026-04-17T01:33:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.6.6","date":"2026-04-16T14:08:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.6.5","date":"2026-03-13T02:12:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.7.1","date":"2026-03-12T17:15:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.6.4","date":"2026-02-11T18:48:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.5.9","date":"2026-02-11T17:32:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.7.0","date":"2026-02-05T22:23:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.7.0-rc.2","date":"2026-02-03T22:28:07Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.7.0-rc.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.7.0-rc.1","date":"2026-01-30T11:49:29Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.7.0-rc.1"}]` |
| security.scorecard | 5.9 | 8 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Femissary-ingress%2Femissary%2Fv3&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=helm&package_name=gateway-crds-helm%2Fgateway-crds-helm&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (API Gateways)

| Capability | Emissary | Envoy Gateway |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Self-hosted only | Self-hosted only |
| 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 | - | - |
| **Insight** |  |  |
| Observability | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:30:48.556Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*