I'm working on my graduation project, developing a NestJS microservices application, and I'm in need of an API gateway to manage authentication. I initially opted for kgateway after seeing a comparison, but I'm finding it challenging to navigate, especially since I'm not familiar with Kubernetes—my experience is mostly with Docker and Docker Compose. The documentation isn't very beginner-friendly, and I'm feeling a bit stuck. I've heard some people suggest Kong, but the recent version dropped support for the OSS edition. What do you think is the best alternative for API authentication in this scenario?
4 Answers
What kind of authentication are you interested in? Are you looking for options like OIDC, API key, or basic username and password?
What specific issues are you facing with kgateway? Have you tried looking up any solutions or troubleshooting tips?
You might want to check out Envoy gateway—it has some solid authentication options and decent documentation. Just remember, you’ll need an auth provider unless you’re sticking with basic auth.
I definitely need the JWT auth feature.
Consider using Traefik as your ingress controller; it works well with JWT authentication middleware. There are various Kubernetes distributions that come with Traefik, but you can also install it separately or run it standalone.
Thanks for the tip! What’s your reason for recommending Traefik? Is it easier to learn than kgateway?
Just so you know, the JWT strategy isn’t free. You might want to check out their pricing page.
I'm focusing on JWT authentication right now, but I plan to add more advanced features later.