KrakenD API Gateway - High-Performance Open Source API Management

KrakenD was created because existing API gateways fail when you need them most. You know the story: Kong crashes under load, AWS API Gateway charges you for breathing, and everything else requires a PhD in YAML to configure. KrakenD's creators got tired of babysitting finicky gateways and built something that actually works.

Stateless Architecture That Actually Means Something

Most "stateless" gateways still need Redis clusters, database connections, or magical configuration synchronization across nodes. KrakenD is genuinely stateless - no external dependencies, no coordination between instances, no shared state headaches. You can kill half your instances without anyone noticing. Try that with Kong. The official architecture documentation explains this in detail, and you can see the execution flow diagrams that show how requests are processed without any shared state.

This isn't theoretical. Hepsiburada runs 800+ KrakenD containers across multiple data centers handling millions of requests daily. We had Kong crash at 2 AM during their biggest sale because it couldn't handle the traffic spike. KrakenD just kept running. When containers die, traffic flows to others. No failover complexity, no master-slave nonsense.

Real Performance Numbers (Not Marketing BS)

While competitors throw around vague "high performance" claims, KrakenD provides actual benchmarks. Independent testing from the IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications and third-party performance comparisons show KrakenD consistently outperforming Kong, Tyk, and other "enterprise" solutions. Medium has tons of articles comparing these if you want more data. Check out detailed benchmarking results and AWS-specific performance tests for specific numbers.

On a basic AWS EC2 instance, KrakenD consistently hits 70,000+ requests per second in our testing. Kong struggles to hit 15,000-20,000 depending on your setup. Not even close. In production, this means way fewer servers and systems that don't shit the bed when you get featured on Reddit.

Configuration That Doesn't Make You Cry

Ever tried configuring Kong? You need plugins for plugins, database migrations, and three different admin APIs just to add a fucking rate limit. I've spent entire weekends debugging Kong's plugin interactions. KrakenD uses a single JSON configuration file. That's it. No database, no complex UI that breaks in Firefox, just a config file you version control like everything else.

{
  \"version\": 3,
  \"endpoints\": [{
    \"endpoint\": \"/users/{id}\",
    \"backend\": [{
      \"url_pattern\": \"/user/{id}\",
      \"host\": [\"http://user-service:8080\"]
    }]
  }]
}

Want to add authentication? Add one block. Rate limiting? One more block. Circuit breakers? Another block. No plugins to install, no external dependencies to manage. Check the configuration structure documentation and flexible configuration guide to see how simple this really is. The configuration designer even provides a GUI if you prefer point-and-click.

Unlike other "enterprise-ready" API gateways that require consultants to install, KrakenD works out of the box. Current version is 2.10-something - check the docs because they update frequently. Deploys in minutes, not weeks.

Installation That Doesn't Suck

Pick your poison:

## Docker (recommended - works everywhere that isn't Windows with weird corporate bullshit)
docker run -p 8080:8080 -v $PWD:/etc/krakend/ krakend:2.10.2

## Ubuntu/Debian (official installation method)
## Use the exact commands from official docs: https://www.krakend.io/docs/overview/installing/
apt install -y ca-certificates gnupg
apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv 5DE6FD698AD6FDD2
## Note: APT repository might be temporarily unavailable - check official docs
echo \"deb [APT REPO URL FROM DOCS] stable main\" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/krakend.list
## Use: repo.krakend.io/apt - see official installation docs
apt-get update && apt-get install -y krakend

## Alternative: Download from GitHub releases if APT repo has issues
## Visit github.com/krakend/krakend-ce/releases for latest .deb packages
## wget [download URL from GitHub releases page]
## dpkg -i [downloaded .deb file]

## MacOS (Homebrew does the magic)
brew install krakend

That's it. No databases to configure, no clusters to coordinate, no YAML hell to navigate. When this fails, it's usually permissions or Docker being Docker on Windows. Create a krakend.json config file and you're running.

Real-World Production Deployment

Companies like IBM, Oracle, and Universal run KrakenD in production because it actually works when the shit hits the fan. Check out the official case studies and training materials for more examples.

Here's what production deployment looks like:

Hepsiburada (Turkey's largest e-commerce): 800+ KrakenD containers across multiple data centers handling millions of requests daily. I've watched their dashboards during Black Friday - containers die, traffic flows to others. No manual intervention, no 3 AM pages to restart shit. See their full deployment architecture and scaling best practices documentation.

lastminute.com: Uses KrakenD to expose business capabilities to both internal teams and external partners. Cut API development time by 60% and eliminated the mess of per-team authentication implementations. Their engineers wrote about it and you can find similar stories in the community forums.

Enterprise Features That Actually Work

KrakenD Enterprise adds the stuff you need when lawyers and compliance teams get involved. Check the feature comparison matrix to see what's included:

• AI Gateway: Route AI requests across multiple LLM providers, handle token limits, cost tracking
• Advanced Security Policies: WAF rules, bot detection, IP filtering that doesn't kill legitimate traffic
• SSO Integration: Auth0, Keycloak, Active Directory - whatever your company uses
• Compliance: SOC 2 Type II certified, audit logs, security scanning
• Professional Support: Actual engineers who respond, not chatbots. Check their support channels

Configuration That Scales

Small config for simple API proxy (works great on Ubuntu 20+, might be weird on CentOS, and don't even try on Windows Server 2016). See the configuration documentation and supported formats guide for details:

{
  \"version\": 3,
  \"port\": 8080,
  \"endpoints\": [{
    \"endpoint\": \"/api/users/{id}\",
    \"backend\": [{
      \"url_pattern\": \"/user/{id}\",
      \"host\": [\"http://users-service:8080\"]
    }]
  }]
}

Production config with authentication, rate limiting, circuit breakers:

{
  \"version\": 3,
  \"port\": 8080,
  \"extra_config\": {
    \"auth/validator\": {
      \"alg\": \"RS256\",
      \"jwk_url\": \"https://your-auth.com/.well-known/jwks.json\"
    }
  },
  \"endpoints\": [{
    \"endpoint\": \"/api/users/{id}\",
    \"extra_config\": {
      \"qos/ratelimit/token-bucket\": {
        \"max_rate\": 100,
        \"capacity\": 100
      }
    },
    \"backend\": [{
      \"url_pattern\": \"/user/{id}\",
      \"host\": [\"http://users-service:8080\"],
      \"extra_config\": {
        \"qos/circuit-breaker\": {
          \"interval\": 60,
          \"max_errors\": 5
        }
      }
    }]
  }]
}

Same simple structure, just more blocks. No plugins to manage, no database schemas to migrate. If you see 'connection refused' errors, it's usually because you forgot the http:// in the host URL. Cost me 2 hours to figure that shit out. For troubleshooting, check the configuration validation guide and debugging documentation. The GitHub issues are also helpful for common problems.