A10 Thunder Kubernetes Connector vs Traefik Proxy
A10 Thunder Kubernetes Connector
documentation.a10networks.com
Traefik Proxy
traefik.ioSide by side
| Figure | A10 Thunder Kubernetes Connector | Traefik Proxy |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 4 |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Ingress Controllers | 7.7 (#11) | 8.2 (#6) |
| Deployment environments | Thunder ADC is available in physical, virtual, container, bare-metal, and cloud form factors for delivering container-based applications. | Traefik Proxy supports Docker Swarm, HashiCorp Nomad, Azure Service Fabric, Kubernetes distributions, virtual machines, and bare metal. |
| Founded | 2004 | 2016 |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California, United States | Lyon, France and San Francisco, USA |
| Integrations | A10 says the solution supports automation tools such as Terraform and Ansible for integration into CI/CD pipelines. | The project identifies Docker, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, Consul, Etcd, Rancher and Amazon ECS among its supported infrastructure integrations. |
| Purpose | Thunder Kubernetes Connector (TKC) helps provide external access to applications running in a Kubernetes cluster with Thunder ADC. | Traefik is an open-source reverse proxy and ingress controller for deploying services and APIs. |
| Service discovery | TKC discovers Kubernetes services and configures Thunder ADC to load-balance traffic for Kubernetes Pods as they start, stop, or move between nodes. | Services can be discovered automatically from infrastructure providers, with configuration updates applied in real time without restarts or connection interruptions. |
| Support | A10 provides product technical support and says its Technical Assistance Center uses a follow-the-sun support model to address issues at any time of day. | Traefik Labs offers commercial support with expert assistance available 24/7/365. |
Plans
Traefik Proxy
- Traefik ProxyFree
- Traefik Proxy Open SourceFree
- Traefik Hub API GatewayPriced on request
- Traefik Hub API ManagementPriced on request
In their own words
A10 Thunder Kubernetes Connector
A10 Thunder Kubernetes Connector (TKC) monitors Kubernetes application lifecycles and updates an external Thunder ADC load balancer to route traffic. Running inside a Kubernetes cluster, it identifies a web service’s NodePort and dynamically configures Thunder ADC to load-balance traffic to Kubernetes nodes, avoiding manual network-resource provisioning. A10 describes TKC for multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud deployments, where Thunder ADC can apply consistent security and business policies across public and private clouds. Centralized traffic routing provides operations teams with application traffic and analytics visibility for troubleshooting. TKC supports Terraform and Ansible for CI/CD integration and is listed as an automated Kubernetes service-discovery option. Related Thunder ADC capabilities include Layer 4–7 load balancing, customizable health checks, aFleX scripting, TLS/SSL offloading, rate limiting and a web application firewall. TKC v2.4.2 is documented for Linux, self-hosted deployments using the ingress API model.
Traefik Proxy
Traefik Proxy is a free, open-source reverse proxy and ingress controller for deploying services and APIs. It discovers services and adjusts routing dynamically, supporting HTTP, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, TCP, UDP, WebSockets, and gRPC. Traffic controls include Layer 4 and Layer 7 routing, mirroring, blue-green and canary deployments, stickiness, and active health checks. Security options include automatic HTTPS, Let’s Encrypt, custom certificates, authentication, and Web Application Firewall support. Integrations span Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm, Red Hat OpenShift, Rancher, Amazon ECS, Consul, and key-value stores. It supports deployment on environments including Kubernetes distributions, virtual machines, bare metal, Docker Swarm, and HashiCorp Nomad. Observability includes OpenTelemetry, a built-in dashboard, distributed tracing, and metrics integrations. WebAssembly plugins and a public plugin catalog provide extension options. Traefik Proxy is self-hosted and listed for Linux, macOS, and Windows. The plan is free; Traefik Labs also offers commercial support with expert assistance available 24/7/365.