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KrakenD vs nginx: What are the differences?

Introduction

KrakenD and nginx are both popular tools used for building and managing web applications. While they share some similarities, there are key differences between them that make each tool unique. Let's explore these differences in more detail:

  1. Architecture: KrakenD is designed as an API gateway, providing a unified interface for clients to access multiple back-end services. It acts as a proxy server, routing requests to the appropriate services. On the other hand, nginx is a general-purpose web server that is often used as a reverse proxy or load balancer. It can handle various protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, and UDP, making it versatile for different use cases.

  2. Configuration: KrakenD uses a declarative configuration approach, where the desired state of the API gateway is described in a configuration file. This allows for easier version control and reproducibility of the configuration. In contrast, nginx uses a procedural configuration approach, where directives are written in a hierarchical structure within the configuration file. This provides more flexibility but may require more manual management and can be prone to human errors.

  3. Performance: KrakenD is built with a focus on high-performance and efficiency. It achieves this by leveraging a highly optimized runtime engine, utilizing caching mechanisms, and implementing a high-throughput request routing system. Nginx, on the other hand, also offers excellent performance but may require additional configuration and fine-tuning to achieve optimal results for specific use cases.

  4. Extensibility: KrakenD provides a plugin system that allows developers to extend its functionality and add custom features. This enables the integration of additional authentication methods, rate limiting, and other advanced capabilities. In comparison, nginx has a rich ecosystem of third-party modules and plugins, offering a wide range of extensions. These modules can enhance nginx's functionality, such as adding support for specific protocols, caching mechanisms, or security features.

  5. Ease of Use: KrakenD aims to provide a simplified and streamlined experience for developers. It abstracts away much of the complexities involved in building an API gateway, making it easier to configure and manage. Nginx, while powerful, has a steeper learning curve and may require more in-depth knowledge of its configuration directives and modules to effectively utilize its full potential.

  6. Community and Support: KrakenD has a growing community and support resources, but it may not have the same level of adoption and maturity as nginx. Nginx, being a widely-used web server and proxy, has a large and active user base. This translates to a wealth of online resources, documentation, tutorials, and community support that can be beneficial for developers seeking assistance or troubleshooting.

In summary, KrakenD and nginx have distinct characteristics that set them apart. KrakenD focuses on being an API gateway with a simpler configuration approach, high-performance, and extensibility through plugins. On the other hand, nginx is a versatile web server and proxy with a larger ecosystem of modules, but with more complexity and a steeper learning curve. Choosing between the two depends on the specific requirements, use case, and level of expertise of the development team.

Advice on KrakenD and NGINX

I am diving into web development, both front and back end. I feel comfortable with administration, scripting and moderate coding in bash, Python and C++, but I am also a Windows fan (i love inner conflict). What are the votes on web servers? IIS is expensive and restrictive (has Windows adoption of open source changed this?) Apache has the history but seems to be at the root of most of my Infosec issues, and I know nothing about nginx (is it too new to rely on?). And no, I don't know what I want to do on the web explicitly, but hosting and data storage (both cloud and tape) are possibilities. Ready, aim fire!

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Replies (1)
Simon Aronsson
Developer Advocate at k6 / Load Impact · | 4 upvotes · 718.1K views
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I would pick nginx over both IIS and Apace HTTP Server any day. Combine it with docker, and as you grow maybe even traefik, and you'll have a really flexible solution for serving http content where you can take sites and projects up and down without effort, easily move it between systems and dont have to handle any dependencies on your actual local machine.

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From a StackShare Community member: "We are a LAMP shop currently focused on improving web performance for our customers. We have made many front-end optimizations and now we are considering replacing Apache with nginx. I was wondering if others saw a noticeable performance gain or any other benefits by switching."

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Replies (3)
Recommends
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I use nginx because it is very light weight. Where Apache tries to include everything in the web server, nginx opts to have external programs/facilities take care of that so the web server can focus on efficiently serving web pages. While this can seem inefficient, it limits the number of new bugs found in the web server, which is the element that faces the client most directly.

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Leandro Barral
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I use nginx because its more flexible and easy to configure

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Christian Cwienk
Software Developer at SAP · | 1 upvotes · 684.1K views
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I use Apache HTTP Server because it's intuitive, comprehensive, well-documented, and just works

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Pros of KrakenD
Pros of NGINX
  • 2
    Stateless
  • 2
    Documentation
  • 2
    Best performant
  • 1
    Easy to install
  • 1
    GitOps oriented
  • 1
    Easiest to install
  • 1.4K
    High-performance http server
  • 894
    Performance
  • 730
    Easy to configure
  • 607
    Open source
  • 530
    Load balancer
  • 289
    Free
  • 288
    Scalability
  • 226
    Web server
  • 175
    Simplicity
  • 136
    Easy setup
  • 30
    Content caching
  • 21
    Web Accelerator
  • 15
    Capability
  • 14
    Fast
  • 12
    High-latency
  • 12
    Predictability
  • 8
    Reverse Proxy
  • 7
    The best of them
  • 7
    Supports http/2
  • 5
    Great Community
  • 5
    Lots of Modules
  • 5
    Enterprise version
  • 4
    High perfomance proxy server
  • 3
    Embedded Lua scripting
  • 3
    Streaming media delivery
  • 3
    Streaming media
  • 3
    Reversy Proxy
  • 2
    Blash
  • 2
    GRPC-Web
  • 2
    Lightweight
  • 2
    Fast and easy to set up
  • 2
    Slim
  • 2
    saltstack
  • 1
    Virtual hosting
  • 1
    Narrow focus. Easy to configure. Fast
  • 1
    Along with Redis Cache its the Most superior
  • 1
    Ingress controller

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Cons of KrakenD
Cons of NGINX
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    • 10
      Advanced features require subscription

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    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is KrakenD?

    Its core functionality is to create an API that acts as an aggregator of many microservices into single endpoints, doing the heavy-lifting automatically for you: aggregate, transform, filter, decode, throttle, auth and more.

    What is NGINX?

    nginx [engine x] is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, as well as a mail proxy server, written by Igor Sysoev. According to Netcraft nginx served or proxied 30.46% of the top million busiest sites in Jan 2018.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use KrakenD?
    What companies use NGINX?
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    What tools integrate with KrakenD?
    What tools integrate with NGINX?

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    What are some alternatives to KrakenD and NGINX?
    Kong
    Kong is a scalable, open source API Layer (also known as an API Gateway, or API Middleware). Kong controls layer 4 and 7 traffic and is extended through Plugins, which provide extra functionality and services beyond the core platform.
    Traefik
    A modern HTTP reverse proxy and load balancer that makes deploying microservices easy. Traefik integrates with your existing infrastructure components and configures itself automatically and dynamically.
    Gravitee.io
    It is a flexible, lightweight and blazing-fast open source API Platform that helps your organization control finely who, when and how users access your APIs.
    Envoy
    Originally built at Lyft, Envoy is a high performance C++ distributed proxy designed for single services and applications, as well as a communication bus and “universal data plane” designed for large microservice “service mesh” architectures.
    HAProxy
    HAProxy (High Availability Proxy) is a free, very fast and reliable solution offering high availability, load balancing, and proxying for TCP and HTTP-based applications.
    See all alternatives