Alternatives for Kubernetes Ingress Nginx

The Ingress Nginx is officially retiring in March 2026, as posted in the Kubernetes blog. This means that Kubernetes community managed Ingress Ngnix will not receive security updates and bug fixes from March 2026. It is recommended to migrate to the alternative to avoid security issues and smooth upgrade.

Let's look at some alternative Kubernetes gateways that work in both self hosted and cloud provided Kubernetes environments.

1. Gateway API

The Kubernetes community has recommended Gateway API as a successor to the Ingress Nginx. Visit the Gateway API official website for more details.

2. Traefik

The Traefik gaining popularity due to its dynamic configuration and UI. Visit the Traefik official website for more details.

3. HAProxy Ingress Controller

The HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress Controller is an open-source, stable, high performance controller with strong L7 capabilities. Visit HAProxy official website for more details.

4. Enovy Gateway

The Envoy Based Gateways is an open-source, cloud native, L7 capable and preferred for AI gateways. Visit the Envoy official website for more details.

5. KarakenD Gateway

KarakenD gateway is an open-source, high performance API gateway designed for API aggregation, transformation, and composition rather than service-mesh or ingress use cases. Visit the KarakenD official website for more details.

6. kgateway (formerly Gloo Gateway)

KGateway is an open-source, Kubernetes-native API gateway built on the Kubernetes Gateway API standard. Visit the official kgateway website for more details.

7. Kong Gateway

The Kong Getaway is a high performance, cloud-native gateway built on NGINX and OpenResty and supports API management. It is preferred API gateways, thanks for the plugin support. The core Kong gateway is an open-source while additional features are available in the enterprise version.  Visit the Kong gateway official website for more details.

8. Istio Gateway

The Istio service mesh consists of Istio gateway. It is possible to only deploy Istio gateway for managing ingress and egress traffic. The installation is minimal and does not require sidecar. Visit the Istio official website for more details.

9. Cloud Vendor Gateway

• Google Kubernetes Engine Gateway Controller - Google cloud
• AWS API Gateway Controller - AWS cloud
• Azure Application Gateway - Azure cloud