apisix VS Kong

Through this intelligent caching mechanism, APISIX efficiently utilizes system resources when handling a large volume of requests, thereby improving overall system performance and stability. APISIX, with its advanced LRU cache, provides developers with a reliable and efficient API gateway solution, facilitating smooth communication with external services.

The main issue is that priority is documented in the config-default.yaml file, while the phase is buried in the code. Worse, some plugins run across different phases. For example, let's check the proxy proxy-rewrite plugin and, more precisely, the functions defined there:

// references: // https://github.com/tetratelabs/proxy-wasm-go-sdk/tree/main/examples // https://github.com/apache/apisix/blob/master/t/wasm/ package main import ( "github.com/tetratelabs/proxy-wasm-go-sdk/proxywasm" "github.com/tetratelabs/proxy-wasm-go-sdk/proxywasm/types" "github.com/valyala/fastjson" ) func main() { proxywasm.SetVMContext(&vmContext{}) } // each plugin has its own VMContext. // it is responsible for creating multiple PluginContexts for each route. type vmContext struct { types.DefaultVMContext } // each route has its own PluginContext. // it corresponds to one instance of the plugin. func (*vmContext) NewPluginContext(contextID uint32) types.PluginContext { return &pluginContext{} } type header struct { Name string Value string } type pluginContext struct { types.DefaultPluginContext Headers []header } func (ctx *pluginContext) OnPluginStart(pluginConfigurationSize int) types.OnPluginStartStatus { data, err := proxywasm.GetPluginConfiguration() if err != nil { proxywasm.LogErrorf("error reading plugin configuration: %v", err) return types.OnPluginStartStatusFailed } var p fastjson.Parser v, err := p.ParseBytes(data) if err != nil { proxywasm.LogErrorf("error decoding plugin configuration: %v", err) return types.OnPluginStartStatusFailed } headers := v.GetArray("headers") ctx.Headers = make([]header, len(headers)) for i, hdr := range headers { ctx.Headers[i] = header{ Name: string(hdr.GetStringBytes("name")), Value: string(hdr.GetStringBytes("value")), } } return types.OnPluginStartStatusOK } // each HTTP request to a route has its own HTTPContext func (ctx *pluginContext) NewHttpContext(contextID uint32) types.HttpContext { return &httpContext{parent: ctx} } type httpContext struct { types.DefaultHttpContext parent *pluginContext } func (ctx *httpContext) OnHttpResponseHeaders(numHeaders int, endOfStream bool) types.Action { plugin := ctx.parent for _, hdr := range plugin.Headers { proxywasm.ReplaceHttpResponseHeader(hdr.Name, hdr.Value) } return types.ActionContinue }

API7 takes Apache APISIX as its robust foundation, which is open-source and has an active community with over 600 contributors all over the world. The nature of open source allows users to examine the source code, which promotes transparency. This transparency helps users understand how APISIX works, verify its security, and identify and fix any potential vulnerabilities or bugs.

But the best part is that the libraries mentioned here and Apache APISIX are entirely open source, meaning you can look under the hood and modify things yourself.

Default configuration

4. Plugin definition: It is a really important part of plugin implementation that we define as a table with properties for the version, priority, name, and schema. The name and schema are the plugin's name and schema defined earlier. The version and priority are used by APISIX to manage the plugin. The version typically refers to the version that is currently in use like API versioning. If you publish and update your plugin logic, it is going to be 1.1 (You can set any version you wish). But you need to be very careful in choosing priority. The priority field defines in which order and phase your plugin should be executed. For example, the 'ip-restriction' plugin, with a priority of 3000, will be executed before the 'example-plugin', which has a priority of 0. This is due to the higher priority value of the 'ip-restriction' plugin. If you're developing your own plugin, make sure that you followed the order of plugins not to mess up the order of existing plugins. You can check the order of existing plugins in the config-default.yaml file and open the Apache APISIX Plugin Development Guide to determine.

Their use of etcd was a hard pass for me; I don't need more etcd in my life

Apache APISIX Apache APISIX is an open source, dynamic, real-time, high-performance cloud native API gateway. APISIX provides rich traffic management features such as load balancing, dynamic upstream, canary release, circuit breaking, authentication, observability, and more. Official website https://apisix.apache.org/ GitHub projects APISIX (the core): https://github.com/apache/apisix GitHub - apache/apisix: The Cloud-Native API Gateway GitHub - apache/apisix-dashboard: Dashboard for Apache APISIX GitHub - apache/apisix-website: Apache APISIX Website GitHub - apache/apisix-docker: the docker for Apache APISIX GitHub - apache/apisix-go-plugin-runner: Go Plugin Runner for APISIX GitHub - apache/apisix-java-plugin-runner: APISIX Plugin Runner in Java GitHub - apache/apisix-python-plugin-runner: Apache APISIX Python plugin runner GitHub - apache/apisix-helm-chart: Apache APISIX Helm Chart GitHub - apache/apisix-ingress-controller: ingress controller for K8s

Grafana configuration. Most of it comes from the configuration provided by APISIX.

Kong: A cloud-native, fast, scalable, and distributed Microservice Abstraction Layer (also known as an API Gateway or API Middleware). Made available as an open-source project in 2015, its core functionality is written in Lua and it runs on the nginx web server.

OPeNsOuRcE. Good time to switch to Kong, better option anyways.

Sounds like you want an API gateway? What about Kong?

Unquestionably no, Kong is "OpenResty plus a management plane" and they're Apache 2: https://github.com/kong/kong#license

Kong (https://konghq.com) | Gateway Senior Engineer | REMOTE Europe | Full-time

The Kong Gateway is an API Management solution, which serves as a foundation for many other solutions by the company. The business model is open-core: an Open Source solution exists (https://github.com/kong/kong), and there's an Enterprise version with more features and dedicated support.

The tech stack is a modified Openresty with of Lua code on top. The ideal candidate would be someone who is already familiar with Kong. Alternatively, if you are familiar with Openresty or other API management solution, we also would love to talk with you.

I am personally interested in finding people to join me in the European Gateway Team. The role involves adding features, fixing bugs, and collaborating with other teams. Here's that position:

https://jobs.lever.co/kong/c1a2b204-45a8-4c19-9cd4-d9824a778...

We have many projects and many teams all around the world (current headcount is ~450), using other technologies like Node in the Kong Manager or Go in the Koko project, and we are constantly looking for people. Please visit our careers page to find out more!

https://konghq.com/careers/

Kong Gateway allows the complexity of service-tier APIs to be reduced to a collection of endpoints (or URIs) focused on meeting a collection of business needs and functionality. Often-duplicated components (like authentication, logging, and security) are handled by the gateway and can be removed from the service-tier design.

I am seeing different companies taking different approach. I am not sure anymore where each should be actually used. On top of that tech like Kong make me question whether API Gateway should be one thing for all. Some perspective into this would be really appreciated.