What's the best open source API gateway?

“Best” depends on what you need, but the top open-source API gateways people usually shortlist are:

Common top choices

1) Kong Gateway (OSS)

Best for: General-purpose production API gateway with a strong ecosystem.
Pros:

• Very popular and mature
• Good plugin ecosystem
• Runs well in Kubernetes and VM environments
• Strong docs and community Cons:
• Some advanced features are paid in the enterprise offering
• Can feel a bit “platform-y” if you only want something lightweight

2) Tyk Gateway

Best for: Teams wanting an API management focus.
Pros:

• Good analytics and auth features
• Developer-friendly
• Supports hybrid deployments Cons:
• Some features are more integrated with the broader Tyk platform
• Less common than Kong in some environments

3) Apache APISIX

Best for: High-performance, cloud-native gateway.
Pros:

• Very fast
• Built on Nginx/OpenResty
• Strong support for dynamic config and plugins
• Good Kubernetes story Cons:
• Smaller mindshare than Kong in some orgs
• Can be a bit more complex to operate if your team isn’t familiar with Nginx/OpenResty concepts

4) KrakenD

Best for: Simple, high-performance API aggregation/BFF use cases.
Pros:

• Extremely fast
• Great for composing multiple backend calls
• Simple config model Cons:
• Less of a full “API management” suite
• Not as plugin-rich as Kong/APISIX

5) Envoy Gateway / Envoy Proxy

Best for: Infrastructure teams already deep in service mesh / cloud-native networking.
Pros:

• Very powerful and flexible
• Huge adoption in modern infra stacks
• Great for advanced traffic control Cons:
• Not as turnkey as dedicated API gateway products
• More operational complexity

My practical recommendation

• If you want the safest general-purpose open-source choice: Kong
• If performance and cloud-native dynamics matter most: Apache APISIX
• If you want simple API aggregation: KrakenD
• If you want networking flexibility and already use Kubernetes/service mesh tools: Envoy

Quick decision guide

• Startups / small teams: Kong or KrakenD
• Kubernetes-heavy platform teams: APISIX or Envoy
• Need analytics and API management flavor: Tyk
• Need lots of plugins and broad community support: Kong

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a feature-by-feature comparison table,
2. the best choice for Kubernetes, or
3. the best lightweight gateway for a small team.