F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services vs kgateway
F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services
clouddocs.f5.com
kgateway
kgateway.devSide by side
| Figure | F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services | kgateway |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | 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) | 7.0 (#22) |
| Purpose | CIS integrates container orchestration environments with F5 BIG-IP to dynamically create L4/L7 services and load balance traffic as container applications change. | Kgateway is a Kubernetes-native ingress controller and API gateway control plane that configures an Envoy data plane using the Kubernetes Gateway API. |
| 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. | Documented security features include TLS and mTLS, external authentication, API keys, JWT, OAuth2/OIDC, IP access control, and rate limiting. |
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.