Kusk Gateway vs Traefik Proxy
Kusk Gateway
kusk.io
Traefik Proxy
traefik.ioSide by side
| Figure | Kusk Gateway | Traefik Proxy |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 4 |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Ingress Controllers | 8.5 (#5) | 8.2 (#6) |
| Dashboard | The browser dashboard inspects APIs, Envoy Fleets and Static Routes and embeds Swagger UI for ad-hoc API requests. | The built-in dashboard displays active routes and obtains its data from Traefik's API. |
| Documentation depth | Documentation includes getting-started tutorials, CLI reference, dashboard reference, Kubernetes resources, guides and a detailed OpenAPI extension reference. | Documentation includes personas, core concepts, getting-started guides, provider configuration, API/dashboard reference and product comparison material. |
| Licence | Kusk is presented as 100% open source under the MIT License. | The Traefik source repository is distributed under the MIT License. |
| What it does | Kusk is a Kubernetes API gateway powered by Envoy with native OpenAPI support for configuring cluster ingress. | Traefik Proxy is an open-source application proxy that automatically discovers services and routes requests across cloud, on-premises and bare-metal environments. |
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
Kusk Gateway
Kusk Gateway is a Kubernetes API gateway powered by Envoy, with native OpenAPI support. It uses OpenAPI definitions to configure a cluster's Ingress Controller, making it relevant to teams following an OpenAPI-first workflow for REST APIs. It can mock API responses for prototyping and automatically validate requests and responses. Teams can set request timeouts and CORS without coding, and adjust headers, CORS, limits, and quality of service globally or for individual paths.
An open-source dashboard supports API deployment and management, specification editing and validation, and API testing. The maker says an API can be published by adding an annotation to a service deployment, without additional configuration or DevOps support. Kusk can be installed on Mac, Linux, or Windows and is self-hosted. The project is 100% open source under the MIT License, with rate limiting and authentication policies listed. The maker presents it for teams building modern REST APIs on Kubernetes.
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.