# Alternatives to KrakenD KrakenD is a high-performance, stateless open-source API gateway that aggregates and transforms backend services through declarative configuration. KrakenD ranks #6 of 8 in API gateways, with an Alt Score of 86. It is licensed under Apache-2.0, open source with paid hosting from Free and available on Linux and Web. 13 of 13 checklist rows are verified against a public source. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/krakend/ Category: API gateways ## Overview - **Who it's for**: Platform and backend engineering teams building microservices or Backend-for-Frontend architectures who need a stateless, high-performance API gateway they run themselves — from startups running the free Community Edition to regulated enterprises (banking, government, e-commerce) that need SLA-backed support, RBAC/security policies, and audited GitOps deployments on the paid Enterprise Edition. - **What you get**: A single Go binary / Docker image that acts as an API gateway and Backend-for-Frontend: it aggregates, transforms, and filters calls to REST, gRPC, GraphQL, SOAP, Kafka, RabbitMQ, and Lambda backends, and adds JWT/OAuth2 authentication, rate limiting, circuit breaking, and OpenTelemetry-based observability, all driven by a declarative JSON/YAML configuration file. The Enterprise Edition adds 30+ extras such as a Security Policies engine (CEL-based RBAC/ABAC), Redis-backed stateful rate limiting, an AI Gateway (LLM routing, MCP server), and 24/7 SLA support. - **How it works**: You write (or auto-generate with the browser-based Designer) a krakend.json configuration describing endpoints and the backends they aggregate, then run the krakend binary or container, which loads that config at startup with no external database or coordination needed. Because it is stateless and immutable, you version the config in Git and roll it out via CI/CD (GitOps); there is no managed/hosted KrakenD service, so you deploy the binary yourself on Linux, Docker, or Kubernetes. ## Profile - **License**: Apache-2.0 (verified 2026-07-17) - **Pricing model**: OSS + paid hosting (verified 2026-07-17) - **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-17) - **Platforms**: Linux, Web - **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-17) ## Ranked alternatives | # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms | |---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------| | 1 | [Gravitee](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/gravitee.md) | 100 | Apache-2.0 | Web | | 2 | [Kong](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/kong.md) | 100 | Apache-2.0 | Web | | 3 | [Tyk](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/tyk.md) | 100 | MPL-2.0 | Web | | 4 | [WSO2 API Manager](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/wso2.md) | 100 | Apache-2.0 | Web | | 5 | [Apigee](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/apigee.md) | 89 | Proprietary — Google Cloud managed service | Web | | 6 | [Traefik Hub](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/traefik-hub.md) | 86 | Proprietary | Web | | 7 | [Zuplo](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/zuplo.md) | 86 | Proprietary — Zuplo gateway platform; Zudoku developer portal component is open source (MIT) | Web | Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/ ## Feature comparison Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified). | API gateways checklist | KrakenD | Gravitee | Kong | Tyk | WSO2 API Manager | Apigee | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Pricing model | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | Usage-based | | Starts at | Free | $2,500/month | $25/month | Free | Free | $20 per 1M API calls | | License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary — Google Cloud managed service | | Platforms | Linux, Web | Web | Web | Web | Web | Web | | Open source | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | Self-hostable | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | | Managed / SaaS option | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Rate limiting & throttling | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Authentication (OAuth/JWT/API keys) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Developer portal | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Plugin / extension ecosystem | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Kubernetes-native / ingress | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | GraphQL support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | gRPC support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Analytics & monitoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Declarative / GitOps config | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | WAF / security policies | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ## Sources Sources for KrakenD. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **License**: Apache-2.0 — (verified 2026-07-17) - Quote: “Apache License Version 2.0, January 2004” - **Pricing model**: OSS + paid hosting — (verified 2026-07-17) - Note: KrakenD Community Edition is free/OSS (self-host); KrakenD Enterprise is a paid, self-hosted commercial edition (no managed cloud) with SLAs and extra features. - Quote: “Products Community Edition Open Source API Gateway Free to use ... Enterprise Edition API Gateway Enterprise-Grade with SLAs Production-grade gateway with security, governance, and 24/7 support backed” - **Starts at**: Free — (verified 2026-07-17) - Note: Community Edition is free/OSS. Enterprise Edition pricing is not publicly disclosed; the site only offers 'Contact Sales' / 'Book a Demo', no published price tiers found on the pricing/enterprise page - Quote: “Book an Enterprise Demo ... Contact Sales” - **Platforms**: Linux, Web — (verified 2026-07-17) - Note: KrakenD ships production packages/binaries for Linux (DEB/RPM/generic tar.gz) and as a Docker image; a browser-based 'API Configuration Designer' (Web) is also offered for building config files. macOS - Quote: “Linux generic AMD64 / ARM64 You can run Krakend on any GNU/Linux system by running the binary ... Ubuntu or Debian DEB packages ... Redhat, CentOS, RockyLinux, Fedora RPM packages” - **Status**: active — (verified 2026-07-17) - Note: Latest Community Edition release (v2.13.8) published 2026-07-08, days before this research; the krakend.io site banner also reads 'KrakenD CE 2.13.8 and EE 2.13.6 update released'. - Quote: “tag_name: v2.13.8, published_at: 2026-07-08” - **Open source**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-17) - Quote: “KrakenD Community Edition (or KrakenD-CE) is the open-source distribution of KrakenD.” - **Self-hostable**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-17) - Quote: “KrakenD is a single binary file that does not require any external libraries to work. To install KrakenD choose your operative system in the downloads section or use the Docker image.” - **Managed / SaaS option**: No — (verified 2026-07-17) - Note: KrakenD (CE and Enterprise) is distributed only as self-hosted binaries/Docker images/packages; even the 'Playground' demo is a local Docker Compose environment, not a hosted/managed instance. No mana - Quote: “The KrakenD Playground is a Docker Compose environment that puts together the necessary pieces to let you play with KrakenD in a working environment.” - **Rate limiting & throttling**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-17) - Quote: “Rate-Limiting Rate-limiting controls the number of requests users or systems can send. KrakenD allows you to throttle both the traffic of end-users and the traffic of KrakenD against your services.” - **Authentication (OAuth/JWT/API keys)**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-17) - Note: OAuth2 Client Credentials and API Key authentication are also documented (docs/authorization/client-credentials/, docs/enterprise/authentication/api-keys/). - Quote: “KrakenD implements both JWT signing and JWT validation models to protect endpoints from undesired users that are not entitled to use the information, reinforcing security.” - **Developer portal**: Partial — (verified 2026-07-17) - Note: KrakenD Enterprise can auto-generate and serve OpenAPI/Swagger/Redocly API documentation, but there is no dedicated hosted developer-portal product (self-service signup, API catalog UI) distinct from - Quote: “KrakenD supports exporting (and importing) OpenAPI Specification. This flexibility allows you to auto-generate documentation that you can serve from the gateway itself, or host somewhere else.” - **Plugin / extension ecosystem**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-17) - Quote: “Extensible with Go plugins, Lua scripts, Martian, or Google CEL spec.” - **Kubernetes-native / ingress**: Partial — (verified 2026-07-17) - Note: KrakenD documents deployment on Kubernetes as a Deployment + Service (via Docker image), but it is not a Kubernetes Ingress controller/CRD-based operator and has no first-party official Helm chart. - Quote: “There is no official Helm chart for KrakenD. However, there is a Helm chart here tracking Krakend releases maintained by Equinix Metal.” - **GraphQL support**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-17) - Quote: “The GraphQL integration allows you to work in two different modes: Apply gateway functionality in the middle of a GraphQL client and its GraphQL servers (just proxy) Convert REST endpoints to GraphQL ” - **gRPC support**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-17) - Quote: “The gRPC integration serves a double purpose (server and client) that you can use separately or together.” - **Analytics & monitoring**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-17) - Quote: “Our OpenTelemetry integration and its previous predecessors OpenCensus, and the Metrics API, are part of this effort. Our components provide: Ways to export data to detect root causes of problems. Mon” - **Declarative / GitOps config**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-17) - Quote: “KrakenD is an extensible, declarative, high-performance open-source API Gateway. ... KrakenD needs no programming as it offers a declarative way to create the endpoints.” - **WAF / security policies**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-17) - Note: This is an Enterprise-tier feature (still counted per policy: paid-tier-gated features count as yes). Community Edition also ships baseline HTTP security headers (docs/service-settings/security/) and - Quote: “The policies engine lets you write custom rules validated on runtime during requests, responses, and token validation. The policies allow you to implement all sorts of validations and user access cont” --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/