NGINX Ingress Controller vs Envoy Gateway

NGINX Ingress Controller9.2Visit Envoy Gateway8.6Visit

Higher score NGINX Ingress Controller #2 in Kubernetes Ingress Controllers 9.2/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 5 of 5 features Visit NGINX

vs

Envoy Gateway #8 in Kubernetes Ingress Controllers 8.6/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 0 of 5 features Visit Envoy Gateway

• NGINX Ingress Controller fits best

  Organizations standardizing on NGINX ingress

• Envoy Gateway fits best

  Gateway API-first Kubernetes teams

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Side by side

Feature	NGINX Ingress Controller 9.2/10 Visit ↗	Envoy Gateway 8.6/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.2	8.6
Ranking	#2 in Kubernetes Ingress Controllers	#8 in Kubernetes Ingress Controllers
Best for	Organizations standardizing on NGINX ingress	Gateway API-first Kubernetes teams
Pricing model	Free plan + paid	Free
Starting price	Free plan	Free plan
Free plan	✓	✓
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Support	Community, Docs	Community, Docs
Integrations	5 integrations	2 integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Mid-market, Enterprise
Features NGINX Ingress Controller 5/5 · Envoy Gateway 0/5
TLS automation	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Canary routing	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Rate limiting	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Web application firewall	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Auth policies	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Specs
Ingress API model	Ingress	Not checked yet
Deployment model	Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Our review
Pros	Free open-source controller for self-hosted Kubernetes deployments Supports routing, TLS, canary, blue-green, rate limiting, and auth policies Integrates with NGINX Plus, F5 WAF for NGINX, cert-manager, and Prometheus	Routes HTTP, gRPC, TLS, TCP, and UDP traffic Supports JWT, API key, Basic Auth, OIDC, and mutual TLS Combines rate limiting, transformations, retries, and traffic splitting
Cons	Requires a Kubernetes environment and operator-managed deployment NGINX Plus commercial features require a subscription Its verified ingress API model is centered on Ingress	Self-hosted deployment requires teams to manage the environment Its documented ecosystem centers on Kubernetes Gateway API and Envoy Proxy Configuration spans Gateway API resources and Envoy Gateway custom resources
Our verdict	NGINX Ingress Controller is a Kubernetes controller for NGINX and NGINX Plus, designed for platform teams and operators managing application traffic at the cluster edge. It runs inside a Kubernetes cluster and routes HTTP applications… Read the review →	Envoy Gateway is an open-source API gateway and reverse-proxy control plane for managing Envoy Proxy in Kubernetes or standalone gateway environments. It is aimed at platform teams and engineers responsible for APIs, ingress traffic,… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• NGINX Ingress Controller — where it wins

  • Free open-source controller for self-hosted Kubernetes deployments
  • Supports routing, TLS, canary, blue-green, rate limiting, and auth policies
  • Integrates with NGINX Plus, F5 WAF for NGINX, cert-manager, and Prometheus

  Where it doesn't

  • Requires a Kubernetes environment and operator-managed deployment
  • NGINX Plus commercial features require a subscription
  • Its verified ingress API model is centered on Ingress

• Envoy Gateway — where it wins

  • Routes HTTP, gRPC, TLS, TCP, and UDP traffic
  • Supports JWT, API key, Basic Auth, OIDC, and mutual TLS
  • Combines rate limiting, transformations, retries, and traffic splitting

  Where it doesn't

  • Self-hosted deployment requires teams to manage the environment
  • Its documented ecosystem centers on Kubernetes Gateway API and Envoy Proxy
  • Configuration spans Gateway API resources and Envoy Gateway custom resources

• NGINX Ingress Controller9.2/10 · Free plan

  A free, self-hosted controller for routing, TLS, traffic policies, and edge integrations.

  Visit NGINXFull verdict →
• Envoy Gateway8.6/10 · Free plan

  A broad, Gateway API-first control plane for self-hosted Kubernetes traffic management.

  Visit Envoy GatewayFull verdict →