| Feature | API Gateway | Kubernetes Ingress | Service Mesh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Centralized entry point for clients to access microservices, provides abstraction and protection from direct client requests. | Provides routing for incoming connections to cluster services, enables exposing services to the internet. | Provides advanced traffic management features for microservices communication to improve reliability and performance. |
| Scalability | Typically horizontally scalable by adding instances, provides centralized management of access to microservices. | Horizontally scalable by adding ingress controllers, provides routing within the cluster. | Horizontally scalable by adding proxies, provides flexible and scalable traffic management within microservices. |
| Routing | URL-based routing, request transformations (header manipulation, request data mapping, payload compression, etc.). | Path-based routing within the cluster using ingress rules, no request transformation capabilities. | Advanced routing (load balancing, traffic shaping, circuit breaking, etc.), traffic flow control between services, sophisticated traffic management strategies (canary releases, blue-green deployments, A/B testing, etc.). |
| Security | Authentication, authorization, encryption, SSL termination. | SSL termination, basic security. | mTLS encryption, fine-grained security policies (certificate validation, peer identity verification, etc.). |
| Monitoring & Management | Request logging, performance monitoring, API management, health checks. | Limited monitoring and management capabilities. | Advanced traffic management features for microservices communication to improve reliability and performance. |
Compare API Gateway Kubernetes Ingress Service Mesh
Publish Date: Jan 30 '23
1 0