F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services vs HAProxy Ingress
F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services
clouddocs.f5.com
HAProxy Ingress
haproxy-ingress.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services | HAProxy Ingress |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Ingress Controllers | 7.8 (#10) | 7.6 (#13) |
| Purpose | CIS integrates container orchestration environments with F5 BIG-IP to dynamically create L4/L7 services and load balance traffic as container applications change. | HAProxy Ingress configures HAProxy to route incoming requests from an external network to applications in a Kubernetes cluster. |
| Security | F5 documents securing CIS BIG-IP credentials by storing them in HashiCorp Vault and synchronizing them to a Kubernetes Secret with External Secrets Operator. | The getting-started guide says HAProxy Ingress uses TLS SNI and the Host header to associate requests with ingress hosts. |
Plans
F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services
- Open-source softwareFree
In their own words
F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services
F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services (CIS) connects Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift environments with F5 BIG-IP. It watches Kubernetes resources and adjusts BIG-IP configuration as applications change, while teams manage BIG-IP through Kubernetes or OpenShift command-line interfaces and APIs. CIS can send traffic from BIG-IP to clusters through NodePort or ClusterIP and supports F5 AS3 declarations. It provides HTTP and URI routing, load balancing, scaling, health monitoring, and Blue/Green or A/B traffic handling. F5 documents Ingress resources, OpenShift Routes, IngressLink coordination with NGINX Ingress Controller, and overlays including OpenShift SDN, Flannel, and Calico. BIG-IP data streams can export application and network statistics to tools such as Splunk. Installation is available through Helm or manual methods, with releases on Docker Hub and Red Hat Container Registry. The open-source plan is free, but requires a licensed BIG-IP system, a Kubernetes or OpenShift cluster, and AS3 installed on BIG-IP.
HAProxy Ingress
HAProxy Ingress is a free, self-hosted controller that configures HAProxy to route external requests to applications in a Kubernetes cluster. It applies changes made in the cluster to HAProxy without requiring a separate update process. The project supports Ingress and Gateway API resources and describes more than 200 configuration options. Gateway API support is partial: the documented implementation covers GatewayClass, Gateway, TCPRoute, and HTTPRoute, but not HTTPRoute filters or resource status updates. Installation uses a Helm chart and requires Helm 3, a running Kubernetes cluster, and administrative privileges in that cluster. Version 0.16 requires Kubernetes 1.21 or newer. Local cluster options named by the project include minikube, kind, k3s, k3d, and colima. It associates requests with ingress hosts using TLS SNI and the Host header. Metrics can be collected with Prometheus and Grafana using Prometheus Operator. The project uses the Apache-2.0 license and lists community channels including Slack, a users mailing list, and Stack Overflow.