What are the best API gateways?

“Best” depends on what you need: cloud, self-hosted, Kubernetes, security, developer experience, or cost. Here are the most widely used and respected API gateways, grouped by use case:

Top choices overall

1. Kong Gateway

• Best for: Flexibility, plugins, hybrid/cloud-native setups
• Pros: Mature, strong community, lots of plugins, good performance
• Cons: Can get complex to operate at scale
• Good fit: Teams that want a powerful, extensible gateway

2. Apigee (Google Cloud)

• Best for: Enterprise API management
• Pros: Excellent analytics, security, policies, developer portal
• Cons: Expensive, can be heavyweight
• Good fit: Large organizations with governance and monetization needs

3. AWS API Gateway

• Best for: Serverless and AWS-native architectures
• Pros: Deep AWS integration, easy for Lambda, managed service
• Cons: Can be pricey at high volume, less flexible than self-hosted options
• Good fit: AWS-first teams

4. Azure API Management

• Best for: Microsoft/Azure ecosystems
• Pros: Strong enterprise features, identity integration, developer portal
• Cons: Can be slower to configure and scale
• Good fit: Azure-heavy organizations

5. Tyk

• Best for: Open-source-friendly API management
• Pros: Good features, self-hosted options, lightweight compared to some enterprise tools
• Cons: Smaller ecosystem than Kong/Apigee
• Good fit: Teams wanting a modern gateway with self-hosting control

Strong open-source / Kubernetes-friendly options

6. KrakenD

• Best for: High-performance API aggregation/composition
• Pros: Very fast, great for microservices aggregation, low overhead
• Cons: Less of a full API management suite
• Good fit: Backend-for-frontend or microservice aggregation

7. Envoy Gateway / Envoy Proxy

• Best for: Cloud-native service proxying and advanced traffic control
• Pros: Powerful, common in modern infra, works well with service meshes
• Cons: Not a full API management product by itself
• Good fit: Platform teams and Kubernetes environments

8. Traefik

• Best for: Simplicity in Kubernetes and edge routing
• Pros: Easy to set up, nice UX, good ingress integration
• Cons: Less feature-rich for enterprise API management
• Good fit: Smaller teams and K8s-native apps

Best commercial enterprise alternatives

9. MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager

• Best for: Large enterprise integration ecosystems
• Pros: Strong integration and API lifecycle management
• Cons: Expensive, complex
• Good fit: Enterprises already using MuleSoft

10. IBM API Connect

• Best for: Large regulated enterprises
• Pros: Robust governance and security
• Cons: Heavier platform, slower adoption
• Good fit: Compliance-heavy organizations

Quick recommendations by scenario

• Need enterprise governance + analytics: Apigee
• Need AWS-native managed gateway: AWS API Gateway
• Need Azure-native managed gateway: Azure API Management
• Need open-source and extensible: Kong or Tyk
• Need ultra-fast API aggregation: KrakenD
• Need Kubernetes/infra routing: Envoy or Traefik

If you want a short shortlist

If I had to pick just 3:

1. Kong Gateway — best all-around
2. Apigee — best enterprise/API management
3. AWS API Gateway — best managed cloud-native option

If you tell me:

• your cloud provider,
• whether you need self-hosted vs managed,
• expected traffic,
• and whether you need auth, rate limiting, analytics, or a developer portal,

…I can recommend the best 2–3 options for your exact situation.