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Kong vs Rancher: What are the differences?
Introduction:
Kong and Rancher are both popular tools used in the field of DevOps. While Kong is an open-source API gateway, Rancher is a container management platform. In this markdown, we will explore the key differences between these two tools in a concise manner.
Deployment and Scaling: One major difference between Kong and Rancher lies in their approach to deployment and scaling. Rancher provides a comprehensive platform for managing containerized applications, offering features like load balancing and automatic scaling. Kong, on the other hand, focuses specifically on API management and does not provide built-in deployment and scaling capabilities like Rancher does.
Functionality: Kong and Rancher have different areas of focus in terms of functionality. Kong excels in API gateway functionality, providing features like rate limiting, authentication, traffic routing, and logging. Rancher, on the other hand, focuses on container orchestration and management, providing features like container deployment, monitoring, and health checks.
Ease of Use: Rancher offers a user-friendly graphical interface that simplifies the management and deployment of containerized applications. This ease of use makes it accessible to users who may not have extensive experience in containerization and orchestration. Kong, on the other hand, requires more technical expertise to configure and manage, as it is primarily used by developers and DevOps professionals.
Community and Support: Another difference lies in the community and support for these tools. Kong has a thriving community and is backed by Kong Inc., providing users with access to community forums, documentation, and professional support. Rancher also has a growing community and offers support through its forums and documentation.
Integration with Cloud Providers: Rancher is designed to work seamlessly with popular cloud providers, allowing users to easily deploy and manage containerized applications across various cloud platforms. Kong, on the other hand, can be integrated with cloud providers, but its primary focus is on API management rather than cloud integration.
Cost: Cost is an important consideration when choosing between Kong and Rancher. Kong is an open-source tool and can be used free of charge. However, professional support and enterprise features are offered under paid plans. Rancher also offers free community editions but provides additional enterprise features under a paid subscription model.
In summary, Kong is primarily focused on API management, while Rancher is geared towards container orchestration and management, offering a broader range of tools and features. These differences range from their approach to deployment and scaling, functionality, ease of use, community and support, integration with cloud providers, and cost.
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 Rancher
- Easy to use103
- Open source and totally free79
- Multi-host docker-compose support63
- Load balancing and health check included58
- Simple58
- Rolling upgrades, green/blue upgrades feature44
- Dns and service discovery out-of-the-box42
- Only requires docker37
- Multitenant and permission management34
- Easy to use and feature rich29
- Cross cloud compatible11
- Does everything needed for a docker infrastructure11
- Simple and powerful8
- Next-gen platform8
- Very Docker-friendly7
- Support Kubernetes and Swarm6
- Application catalogs with stack templates (wizards)6
- Supports Apache Mesos, Docker Swarm, and Kubernetes6
- Rolling and blue/green upgrades deployments6
- High Availability service: keeps your app up 24/76
- Easy to use service catalog5
- Very intuitive UI4
- IaaS-vendor independent, supports hybrid/multi-cloud4
- Awesome support4
- Scalable3
- Requires less infrastructure requirements2
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Cons of Kong
Cons of Rancher
- Hosting Rancher can be complicated10
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