What should I use instead of hand-rolled API gateways?

Instead of hand-rolled API gateways, you generally want one of these:

1. Managed API Gateway service

   • Best when you want routing, auth, rate limiting, logging, and versioning without building the plumbing yourself.
   • Examples:
     • AWS API Gateway
     • Azure API Management
     • Google Apigee / API Gateway
     • Cloudflare API Gateway (more limited, often paired with other products)

2. Ingress controller / reverse proxy

   • Best for Kubernetes or service-to-service routing.
   • Examples:
     • NGINX Ingress
     • Traefik
     • Envoy
     • Kong Gateway
   • These are often a better fit than a custom gateway if your main need is traffic routing and policy enforcement.

3. BFF (Backend for Frontend)

   • Best when the “gateway” is really just aggregating or shaping responses for a specific client app.
   • Instead of one generic hand-rolled gateway, create a small API layer per client type:
     • web app
     • mobile app
     • partner API

4. Service mesh for internal traffic

   • Best when your gateway is trying to manage internal microservice communication.
   • Examples:
     • Istio
     • Linkerd
     • Consul
   • These handle mTLS, retries, traffic shaping, and observability without centralizing everything in custom gateway code.

5. GraphQL gateway / federation layer

   • Best when the problem is aggregating many APIs into one schema for clients.
   • Examples:
     • Apollo Federation
     • Hasura
   • Better than a custom REST gateway if you need flexible client querying.

Rule of thumb

• External/public APIs → managed API gateway
• Kubernetes ingress → ingress controller or Envoy/Kong
• Internal service traffic → service mesh
• Client-specific shaping → BFF
• Unified data access → GraphQL federation

If you want the simplest modern default

A common “don’t build your own” stack is:

• Managed gateway at the edge
• Ingress/reverse proxy inside the cluster
• Service mesh only if you actually need it

If you tell me your environment and what your hand-rolled gateway is doing today, I can suggest the best replacement more precisely.