Kong is getting hard to manage, what should I switch to?

If Kong is getting hard to manage, the “best” switch depends on what you’re using it for:

If you want a simpler API gateway / reverse proxy

Consider:

• Traefik — very easy to operate, great for Kubernetes and service discovery, good if you want dynamic routing with low ops overhead.
• Envoy Gateway — strong if you want a more modern, standards-based approach, especially around Kubernetes and Gateway API.
• NGINX Plus / NGINX OSS — solid, widely understood, but less “batteries included” than Kong for API management features.

If you need full API management

Consider:

• Apigee — enterprise-grade, powerful, but heavier and often more expensive.
• Azure API Management / AWS API Gateway / GCP API Gateway — good if you’re already deep in one cloud and want to offload operations.
• Tyk — often seen as a more manageable alternative to Kong for API management, with a friendlier operational profile for some teams.

If you mainly need ingress in Kubernetes

Consider:

• Traefik
• NGINX Ingress Controller
• HAProxy Ingress
• Envoy Gateway

Quick rule of thumb

• Need easiest ops: Traefik
• Need cloud-managed: AWS/Azure/GCP API Gateway
• Need strong API management: Tyk or Apigee
• Need modern Kubernetes-native gateway: Envoy Gateway

My practical recommendation

If Kong is too complex and you don’t need all its advanced features, Traefik is often the easiest “just works” replacement.
If you need more API-management features, Tyk is often the closest thing to “Kong, but easier.”

If you tell me:

1. Kubernetes or not,
2. whether you need auth/rate limiting/developer portal/analytics, and
3. your cloud provider,
   I can suggest the best fit more precisely.