--- title: I compared the Kubernetes Gateway APIs so you don't have to description: A comparison of major Kubernetes Gateway API controllers including Traefik, NGINX Fabric, Envoy Gateway, Istio, Cilium, and Linkerd. Covers licensing and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-compared-the-kubernetes-gateway-apis-so-you-don-t-have-to-jbyulyden twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I compared the Kubernetes Gateway APIs so you don't have to | daily.dev og:description: A comparison of major Kubernetes Gateway API controllers including Traefik, NGINX Fabric, Envoy Gateway, Istio, Cilium, and Linkerd. Covers licensing and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-compared-the-kubernetes-gateway-apis-so-you-don-t-have-to-jbyulyden og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/JbYuLyDEN.png og:image:alt: I compared the Kubernetes Gateway APIs so you don't have to og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I compared the Kubernetes Gateway APIs so you don't have to **[That DevOps Guy](https://daily.dev/sources/marcel-dempers)** · 19 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A comparison of major Kubernetes Gateway API controllers including Traefik, NGINX Fabric, Envoy Gateway, Istio, Cilium, and Linkerd. Covers licensing and support options, core API support (Gateway, GatewayClass, HTTPRoute, TCP/UDP/TLS), custom extension mechanisms for gap-closing, ingress migration paths, service mesh integration, and complexity vs. simplicity tradeoffs. Traefik is highlighted as the simplest with best docs, Envoy as the most complete CNCF solution, Cilium as the all-in-one CNI/mesh/gateway option, and Linkerd as mesh-only without north-south traffic support. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#envoy](https://daily.dev/tags/envoy), [#gateway-api](https://daily.dev/tags/gateway-api), [#kubernetes](https://daily.dev/tags/kubernetes), [#service-mesh](https://daily.dev/tags/service-mesh) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-compared-the-kubernetes-gateway-apis-so-you-don-t-have-to-jbyulyden) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I compared the Kubernetes Gateway APIs so you don't have to","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-compared-the-kubernetes-gateway-apis-so-you-don-t-have-to-jbyulyden","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-compared-the-kubernetes-gateway-apis-so-you-don-t-have-to-jbyulyden"},"datePublished":"2026-05-31T07:40:49.963Z","dateModified":"2026-06-04T02:13:41.574Z","description":"A comparison of major Kubernetes Gateway API controllers including Traefik, NGINX Fabric, Envoy Gateway, Istio, Cilium, and Linkerd. 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