Consul Compared to Other API Gateways

Examples: Kong Gateway, Apigee, Mulesoft, Gravitee

The Consul API Gateway is an implementation of the Kubernetes Gateway API. Traditionally, API gateways are used for two things: client traffic management and API lifecycle management.

Client traffic management refers to an API gateway’s role in controlling the point of entry for public traffic into a given environment, also known as managing north-south traffic. The Consul API Gateway is deployed alongside Consul service mesh and is responsible for routing inbound client requests to the mesh based on defined routes. For a full list of supported traffic management features, refer to the Consul API Gateway documentation.

API lifecycle management refers to how application developers use an API gateway to deploy, iterate, and manage versions of an API. At this time, the Consul API Gateway does not support API lifecycle management.