Apache APISIX

Apache APISIX is a cloud-native API gateway built on NGINX for the data plane and etcd for dynamic configuration storage, under Apache Software Foundation governance. Unlike gateways that require a reload to pick up configuration changes, APISIX's etcd-backed design lets routes, upstreams, and plugins update dynamically without restarting or dropping traffic.

It handles the usual API gateway responsibilities - load balancing, authentication, rate limiting, circuit breaking, canary releases - for both traditional north-south traffic and east-west traffic between services, can run as a Kubernetes ingress controller, and has added AI Gateway capabilities for routing and managing traffic to LLM providers.

APISIX is a fit for teams evaluating API gateways who want an Apache-governed, etcd-based alternative with dynamic configuration, complementing the Kong entry already in this catalog - both solve the same core problem with different architectures and governance models, and teams commonly compare the two directly.