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With too many terms, concepts, and information, it is easy to get lost, especially in a constantly evolving ecosystem like the cloud native. Gateway API was first introduced as an alpha release in late 2020. As of 2024, Gateway API is in beta and is not included by default in the core Kubernetes distribution.
You need to install the Gateway API CRDs (Custom Resource Definitions) and a compatible controller (like Istio, Envoy Gateway, or others) to use it.
API Gateway and Gateway API in Kubernetes refer to different concepts:
API Gateway
An API Gateway is a service (often a standalone product like Kong, Ambassador, or AWS API Gateway) that acts as a reverse proxy, routing, securing, and managing API requests between clients and backend services.
It provides features like authentication, rate limiting, logging, and request transformation.
In Kubernetes, API Gateways are typically deployed as Ingress controllers or custom resources.
Gateway API
Gateway API is a Kubernetes-native API standard (under SIG-NETWORK) for defining networking resources like gateways, routes, and policies.
