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‎blog/en/blog/2025/02/17/cloud-vs-open-source-vs-commercial-api-gateways.md

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---
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title: "Cloud vs Open Source vs Commercial API Gateways: Which One Fits Your Needs?"
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authors:
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- name: Ming Wen
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title: Author
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url: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ming-wen-api7/
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image_url: https://github.com/moonming.png
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- name: Yilia Lin
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title: Technical Writer
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url: https://github.com/Yilialinn
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image_url: https://github.com/Yilialinn.png
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keywords:
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- API Gateway
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- Cloud API Gateway
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- Open Source API Gateway
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- Commercial API Gateway
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- API Management
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- Hybrid Cloud
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- Vendor Lock-in
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- API Strategy
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description: This article explores the differences between cloud-managed, open-source, and commercial API gateways.
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tags: [Ecosystem]
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image: https://static.api7.ai/uploads/2025/02/17/gWz2QJYq_api-gateway-comparison.png
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---
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This article explores the differences between cloud-managed, open-source, and commercial API gateways. It highlights key pros and cons, pricing risks, and strategic recommendations for businesses that anticipate API growth and hybrid cloud adoption.
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<!--truncate-->
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## Introduction
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API gateways have become essential components in modern cloud architectures. They provide security, traffic management, observability, and service orchestration—critical for handling APIs at scale. However, with multiple API gateway solutions available, choosing the right one can be challenging.
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Broadly, API gateways fall into three categories:
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- **Cloud API Gateways** (e.g., <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/api-gateway/" rel="nofollow">Amazon API Gateway</a>, <a href="https://cloud.google.com/apigee" rel="nofollow">Google Apigee</a>)
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- **Open Source API Gateways** (e.g., [Apache APISIX](https://apisix.apache.org/), Kong Gateway, Tyk)
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- **Commercial API Gateways** (e.g., <a href="https://www.mulesoft.com/" rel="nofollow">MuleSoft</a>, <a href="https://boomi.com/" rel="nofollow">Boomi</a>)
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Each option has its advantages and trade-offs. This article provides a deep dive into their differences, hidden risks, and a **strategic recommendation** for companies looking to scale API usage and adopt hybrid cloud architectures.
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## Cloud API Gateways: Convenience vs. Lock-in
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### Pros:
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✅ Fully managed, reducing operational burden
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✅ Deep integration with cloud provider services (IAM, logging, monitoring)
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✅ High availability and auto-scaling out of the box
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### Cons:
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❌ **Vendor Lock-in**: API definitions, policies, and configurations are tied to the cloud provider
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❌ **No Customization**: Cloud API gateways are closed-source, limiting the ability to add custom plugins or functionality
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❌ **No Hybrid Cloud Support**: Cloud-managed API gateways cannot be deployed on-premise or across multi-cloud environments
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### Use Case:
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Cloud API gateways are ideal for **startups and small teams** that need a quick, managed solution without worrying about infrastructure maintenance. However, as API traffic grows or hybrid cloud requirements arise, their limitations become apparent.
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🔹 **Example**: Amazon API Gateway is a popular choice for cloud-native applications but lacks flexibility for on-premises deployments.
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## Open Source API Gateways: Control and Flexibility
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### Pros:
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✅ Fully customizable, allowing teams to extend functionality as needed
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✅ No licensing fees, reducing costs in the long run
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✅ Can be deployed anywhere—**on-prem, multi-cloud, hybrid cloud**
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### Cons:
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❌ **Operational Overhead**: Requires self-hosting, upgrades, and security management
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❌ **Governance Risks**: Some open-source projects are controlled by a single vendor, which may later change licensing terms (e.g., Redis, ELK Stack)
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❌ **Scalability Complexity**: Running an open-source API gateway at enterprise scale requires expertise in deployment and maintenance
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## Key Consideration: Choosing a Foundation-Owned Open Source Project
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Some open-source API gateways are **vendor-controlled**, meaning the company behind them can change licensing terms. For example, Redis and Elasticsearch modified their open-source licenses to prevent cloud providers from offering managed services.
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To **avoid future licensing risks**, it's safer to choose an API gateway governed by a **neutral open-source foundation**, such as:
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- [Apache APISIX (Apache Software Foundation)](https://apisix.apache.org/)
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- <a href="https://www.envoyproxy.io/" rel="nofollow">Envoy Proxy (Cloud Native Computing Foundation)</a>
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## Commercial API Gateways: Enterprise Features with Pricing Risks
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### Pros:
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✅ **Enterprise-grade security**
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✅ **SLA-backed support** with 24/7 assistance
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✅ **Monetization and API analytics** for businesses offering APIs as a service
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### Cons:
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❌ **High Licensing Costs**: Typically charged per API call, which can become expensive
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❌ **Potential Pricing Changes**: Many vendors modify pricing models over time, significantly increasing costs (e.g., Apigee, Kong Enterprise)
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❌ **Limited Deployment Flexibility**: Some solutions require vendor-managed infrastructure, reducing control
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### Use Case:
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Best suited for **large enterprises** with strict security, compliance, and SLA requirements. However, pricing unpredictability is a concern—many companies have faced sudden cost increases.
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## Strategic Recommendation: A Hybrid Approach for Growth
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If your API traffic is **growing rapidly** and **hybrid cloud** is part of your strategy, the best approach is:
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**1. Start with an Open Source API Gateway**
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- Avoid vendor lock-in
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- Maintain control over deployment and customization
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- Lower costs by eliminating per-call fees
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**2. Upgrade to a Commercial Version When Needed**
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- When security requirements increase
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- When managing multi-cluster deployments
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- When enterprise support and SLAs become necessary
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By following this approach, you get the best of both worlds: flexibility, cost control, and enterprise-grade features when needed.
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🔹 **Example Strategy**: A company starts with Apache APISIX (open source) and later upgrades to [API7 Enterprise](https://api7.ai/) when requiring advanced security and SLA support.
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## FAQ: Common Questions About API Gateway Selection
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**1. Why not start with a cloud API gateway and switch later?**
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Switching API gateways is complex due to differences in configurations, rate-limiting rules, authentication methods, and monitoring setups. If hybrid cloud or multi-cloud is part of your strategy, starting with an open-source gateway ensures long-term flexibility.
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**2. How do I avoid open-source licensing risks?**
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Choose projects governed by neutral software foundations (e.g., Apache Software Foundation, CNCF). Avoid projects fully controlled by a single company, as they may change their licensing model.
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**3. What is the best API gateway for hybrid cloud?**
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Open-source gateways like Apache APISIX and Envoy Proxy offer full deployment flexibility, making them ideal for hybrid and multi-cloud architectures.
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## Conclusion: Making the Right Choice
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Choosing the right API gateway depends on your **scalability, budget, and cloud strategy**:
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| Criteria | Cloud API Gateway | Open Source API Gateway | Commercial API Gateway |
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|---------------------------|----------------------------|----------------------------|----------------------------|
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| **Cost** | High (Pay per API call) | Low (Free) | High (License fees) |
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| **Customization** | Limited | Full control | Limited |
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| **Deployment Flexibility** | Cloud-only | Anywhere (Hybrid, Multi-cloud) | Varies |
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| **Enterprise Features** | Basic | Requires customization | Advanced (Security, Compliance) |
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| **Support** | Cloud provider support | Community-driven | SLA-backed |
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If **API traffic is growing rapidly** and **hybrid cloud adoption is planned**, a **hybrid approach**—starting with **open source** and upgrading to a **commercial enterprise solution** when needed—offers the best flexibility and cost efficiency.

‎blog/en/blog/2025/02/21/why-reinvent-api-gateways.md

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---
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title: "Why We Are Reinventing API Gateways: The Story Behind Apache APISIX"
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authors:
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- name: Ming Wen
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title: Author
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url: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ming-wen-api7/
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image_url: https://github.com/moonming.png
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- name: Yilia Lin
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title: Technical Writer
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url: https://github.com/Yilialinn
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image_url: https://github.com/Yilialinn.png
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keywords:
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- API Gateway
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- Cloud API Gateway
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- Open Source API Gateway
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description: Discover the journey of Apache APISIX, from a small windowless office to a global open-source success. Learn why we created APISIX, its rapid growth, and how it addresses modern API gateway needs.
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tags: [Community]
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image: https://static.api7.ai/uploads/2025/03/07/uwv68gCg_story-behind-apache-pisix.webp
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---
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<head>
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<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-reinventing-api-gateways-story-behind-apache-apisix-ming-wen-h3yqc/" />
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</head>
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>Apache APISIX has quickly become a leading API gateway, with over 460 contributors and 15K+ GitHub stars. This article explores its journey from a small project to a widely-used, open-source solution, addressing key challenges in modern API management.
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In just over five years, Apache APISIX has grown from a new open-source project to one of the most widely used API gateways in the world. Today, APISIX is an Apache Software Foundation (ASF) Top-Level Project, with over 460 contributors, 15K+ GitHub stars, and 100+ plugins. It is deployed across industries like telecommunications, automotive, financial services, and retail, with some of the largest known users running APISIX on over 10,000 CPU cores.
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But how did this all start?
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To answer that, we need to go back to early 2019, when two engineers, working in a small windowless office, started building an API gateway from scratch. This article tells the story of why we created APISIX, and why we open-sourced it and donated to the Apache Software Foundation.
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## The Beginning: From a Windowless Room to a Global Open-Source Project
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Back in 2019, existing API gateways had already been around for years. However, as cloud-native technologies and microservices architectures gained momentum, we saw a growing gap between the available API gateways and the new requirements emerging in modern infrastructures.
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After months of research, we identified several critical pain points that existing solutions like NGINX and Kong API Gateway failed to address:
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- **Configuration synchronization**: Needed real-time, incremental config updates across distributed API gateways.
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- **Immediate configuration application**: Changes should take effect in milliseconds, not minutes.
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- **High scalability**: Should handle 100K+ routes efficiently without performance degradation.
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- **Hot reloading**: Plugin updates and configuration changes shouldn't require process restarts.
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Determined to solve these problems, we spent several months designing and developing an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). We made three key architectural choices that still differentiate APISIX today:
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1. **Using etcd for configuration storage and synchronization**, ensuring real-time updates across distributed nodes.
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2. **Adopting a prefix tree (Trie) for route matching**, enabling ultra-fast lookups even with thousands of routes.
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3. **Leveraging Lua for plugin execution**, allowing hot-reloading of plugins without restarting the gateway.
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By mid-2019, we open-sourced our work and released APISIX on GitHub.
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## Becoming an Apache Top-Level Project
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In October 2019, we decided to donate APISIX to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). By July 2020, just nine months later, APISIX graduated as an Apache Top-Level Project—one of the fastest-growing open-source projects in ASF history.
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Throughout this journey, we worked without external funding, no VC backing, and no income for over a year. It was purely driven by our belief that the world needed a modern, high-performance, and open API gateway.
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## Why Did We Create APISIX?
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Many API gateways already existed—so why reinvent the wheel?
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We saw an opportunity to fundamentally improve API management by addressing the following key technical gaps:
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![API Gateway Feature Gap](https://static.api7.ai/uploads/2025/02/21/1rsgP5ka_api-gateway-feature-gap.jpeg)
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If your API gateway requirements include:
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✅ Real-time, millisecond-level config synchronization
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✅ Handling thousands of routes without latency spikes
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✅ Ultra-low latency (under 5ms) for API processing
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✅ Hot plugin reloading without restarting the gateway
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Then Apache APISIX is your best choice.
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## Why Did We Donated APISIX to the Apache Software Foundation?
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Many open-source projects are controlled by a single vendor, which can lead to licensing changes (as seen with Redis and ELK). Our goal wasn't just to build a successful product at API7 but to ensure that APISIX remains a truly open project for the global community.
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By donating APISIX to the Apache Software Foundation, we ensured:
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- **Vendor neutrality**: No single company controls APISIX.
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- **Long-term sustainability**: The project follows Apache governance, protecting its open-source nature.
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- **Global adoption**: Apache projects are trusted by enterprises worldwide.
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This decision wasn't made lightly—building a successful commercial company (API7.ai) while simultaneously donating its core technology was an unconventional path. However, we believed this was the best way to maximize APISIX's impact.
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## A New Path for Open Source and Business
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Most companies either:
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1. Start open-source projects as side projects while building their business first.
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2. Keep key technologies closed-source to maintain a competitive edge.
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We did the opposite:
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- **2019**: Built APISIX from scratch.
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- **2019**: Open-sourced APISIX on GitHub.
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- **2019**: Donated it to Apache Software Foundation.
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- **2020**: APISIX became an Apache Top-Level Project.
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- **2021**: Expanded API7 from a two-person team into a company offering enterprise solutions based on APISIX.
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This unique journey means that APISIX is engineer-led, community-driven, and deeply committed to open-source principles—something rare in today's software landscape.
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## Conclusion: Reinventing API Gateways with an Open Future
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Our mission with APISIX was never just about building a product—it was about reshaping API management for the cloud-native era.
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With a thriving global community, rapid innovation, and enterprise adoption, Apache APISIX is set to become the de facto API gateway for modern applications.
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Whether you're a startup, enterprise, or open-source enthusiast, if you're looking for a high-performance, cloud-native API gateway, we invite you to explore APISIX.

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