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Kong vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?
Scaling and Orchestration: Kubernetes is primarily designed for container orchestration and is focused on managing, scaling, and automating the deployment of containerized applications across a cluster of machines. On the other hand, Kong is an API gateway that acts as a proxy layer between clients and backend services, providing additional functionalities like traffic routing, security, and rate limiting.
Service Discovery: Kubernetes offers a built-in service discovery mechanism, allowing containers to discover and communicate with other containers within the cluster using DNS. Kong, on the other hand, does not provide service discovery natively but can be integrated with external service discovery tools like Consul or etcd.
Load Balancing: Kubernetes provides load balancing capabilities out of the box, distributing incoming requests across multiple replicas of a service. Kong, being an API gateway, offers more advanced load balancing features like load balancing algorithms, circuit breakers, and health checks, providing fine-grained control over routing requests to backend services.
API Management: Kong is specifically designed for managing APIs, providing features like authentication, authorization, rate limiting, request/response transformations, and analytics. Kubernetes, on the other hand, focuses on container orchestration and does not offer these API management functionalities out of the box.
Extensibility and Middleware: Kong is highly extensible, allowing developers to write custom plugins to extend its core functionality. These plugins can be used to add additional features or customize the behavior of Kong. Kubernetes, on the other hand, is not as extensible when it comes to adding new functionalities or customizing its behavior.
Deployment Complexity: Kubernetes has a steeper learning curve and requires a deeper understanding of containerization, networking, and infrastructure management. It requires more setup and configuration compared to Kong, which can be easily deployed as a standalone application without the need for complex infrastructure management.
In Summary, Kubernetes is primarily focused on container orchestration, providing scalability, and managing containerized applications, while Kong is an API gateway that specializes in managing APIs, providing advanced features like traffic routing, security, and rate limiting.
Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:
- GitHub (incl. GitHub Pages/Markdown for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
- Respectively Git as revision control system
- SourceTree as Git GUI
- Visual Studio Code as IDE
- CircleCI for continuous integration (automatize development process)
- Prettier / TSLint / ESLint as code linter
- SonarQube as quality gate
- Docker as container management (incl. Docker Compose for multi-container application management)
- VirtualBox for operating system simulation tests
- Kubernetes as cluster management for docker containers
- Heroku for deploying in test environments
- nginx as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
- SSLMate (using OpenSSL) for certificate management
- Amazon EC2 (incl. Amazon S3) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
- PostgreSQL as preferred database system
- Redis as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)
The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:
- Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
- Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
- Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
- Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
- Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
- Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.
Istio based on powerful Envoy whereas Kong based on Nginx. Istio is K8S native as well it's actively developed when k8s was successfully accepted with production-ready apps whereas Kong slowly migrated to start leveraging K8s. Istio has an inbuilt turn-keyIstio based on powerful Envoy whereas Kong based on Nginx. Istio is K8S native as well it's actively developed when k8s was successfully accepted with production-ready apps whereas Kong slowly migrated to start leveraging K8s. Istio has an inbuilt turn key solution with Rancher whereas Kong completely lacks here. Traffic distribution in Istio can be done via canary, a/b, shadowing, HTTP headers, ACL, whitelist whereas in Kong it's limited to canary, ACL, blue-green, proxy caching. Istio has amazing community support which is visible via Github stars or releases when comparing both.
Pros of Kong
- Easy to maintain37
- Easy to install32
- Flexible26
- Great performance21
- Api blueprint7
- Custom Plugins4
- Kubernetes-native3
- Security2
- Has a good plugin infrastructure2
- Agnostic2
- Load balancing1
- Documentation is clear1
- Very customizable1
Pros of Kubernetes
- Leading docker container management solution166
- Simple and powerful129
- Open source107
- Backed by google76
- The right abstractions58
- Scale services25
- Replication controller20
- Permission managment11
- Supports autoscaling9
- Simple8
- Cheap8
- Self-healing6
- Open, powerful, stable5
- Reliable5
- No cloud platform lock-in5
- Promotes modern/good infrascture practice5
- Scalable4
- Quick cloud setup4
- Custom and extensibility3
- Captain of Container Ship3
- Cloud Agnostic3
- Backed by Red Hat3
- Runs on azure3
- A self healing environment with rich metadata3
- Everything of CaaS2
- Gke2
- Golang2
- Easy setup2
- Expandable2
- Sfg2
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Cons of Kong
Cons of Kubernetes
- Steep learning curve16
- Poor workflow for development15
- Orchestrates only infrastructure8
- High resource requirements for on-prem clusters4
- Too heavy for simple systems2
- Additional vendor lock-in (Docker)1
- More moving parts to secure1
- Additional Technology Overhead1
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What is Kong?
What is Kubernetes?
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