Has anyone successfully set up the Kubernetes Gateway API, including GatewayClass, Gateway, and HTTPRoute, from scratch using Kong? I'm currently working with Kong in an enterprise context where there's a split between the control plane and data plane. I'm trying to get a better grasp on practical setup patterns, particularly for handling external traffic entry into the Gateway, managing TLS termination, and how to align Gateway API resources with Kong's concepts. I'd love to hear any war stories or tips you can offer!
5 Answers
I've seen some confusion since Kong is primarily an API Gateway, which differs from being a full Ingress Controller. While Kong does have an Ingress controller that can read HTTPRoutes, it's worth noting that it's not listed as fully compliant with the Kubernetes Gateway API standards. Still, compliant controllers need to stick to the Kubernetes CRDs, so things like TLS termination and redirects must follow the standard requirements.
I have most of the setup complete, except for TLS and TCP routes. The operator isn't ready yet, so I'm currently using the Helm chart.
Initially, we were using Kong for managing external requests and routing them to web servers or Istio in Kubernetes. Recently, we switched to HAProxy because Kong's pricing was just too high.
We recently decided to move away from Kong’s ingress controller and are now using Konnect instead. It seems to fit our needs better.
We are still on GKE MCI because for some odd reason, Google doesn't support Cloud CDN for the Gateway API. This has been an ongoing issue for about four years, and it keeps getting delayed. The latest estimate is H1 2026 for a fix.
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