Last updated June 5th 2024

Ambassador Edge Stack vs KrakenD for API Gateway in 2025

Ambassador Edge Stack and KrakenD are sometimes compared for numerous use cases in API Gateway. We have a detailed features table below. You can also customize your requirements and get expert ratings comparing these two solutions against hundreds of data points across Security, Lifecycle, Pricing, Use Case Fit, Attack Protection, Access Controls, Integration, Observability, Traffic Management, Policy Management, Service Orchestration, Compliance, Authentication and Performance.

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Ambassador Edge Stack logo

Ambassador Edge Stack

Ambassador Edge Stack is a cloud native API gateway and a Kubernetes native microservices management platform. Ambassador uses the Envoy proxy as its core proxy. At its core, Ambassador is designed to serve as an ingress controller for Kubernetes. In this capacity, it acts as the entry point for external traffic into the Kubernetes environment.

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KrakenD logo

KrakenD

KrakenD serves as a stateless, distributed, high-performance API Gateway that supports organizations in their journey towards adopting microservices. KrakenD embraces backend for frontend and micro-frontend patterns, effectively isolating the client in microservices communications, and thereby ensuring robust client-server decoupling. This approach enhances scalability and resilience, which are two vital elements in a microservices architecture. Another noteworthy feature of KrakenD is its configuration-as-code approach, which resonates with developers by facilitating easy setup and maintenance, leading to increased efficiency in software development processes.

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Feature Comparison

Customize these feature priorities in Taloflow and get expert ratings for your exact use case.

Feature Dimensions Description Ambassador KrakenD
Platform Access Revocation
  • Observability
  • Security
  • Compliance
  • Access Controls
Administrators can block or suspend consumers, revoke developer access, and block all related applications. Poor OK
Policy Bundling
  • Compliance
  • Policy Management
Bundle multiple policies. Poor OK
Policy Deployment
  • Compliance
  • Policy Management
Live configuration deployment of policies without any downtime. Poor OK
Policy Design
  • Compliance
  • Policy Management
Combine service tiers, security policies, mediators, and monetization schemes into a pre-built 'plan' that may be attached to an API definition. Poor OK
Policy Enforcement
  • Compliance
  • Policy Management
Enforce API runtime policies and API lifecycle policies. Poor OK
Policy Tagging
  • Compliance
  • Policy Management
Specify rules that are only applicable to resources when they are tagged. Poor OK
Policy Versioning
  • Compliance
  • Policy Management
Manage multiple versions of a policy. OK OK
API Composition
  • Service Orchestration
  • Lifecycle
Aggregate results from multiple service interfaces into a single result. OK OK
GraphQL
  • Service Orchestration
  • Lifecycle
Support for GraphQL with Rest APIs to extract data from multiple underlying APIs. NA OK
OData
  • Service Orchestration
  • Lifecycle
Support for Open Data Protocol (OData) for defining and consuming the APIs. Poor Poor
RAML
  • Service Orchestration
  • Lifecycle
Support for Restful API Modelling Language (RAML) which uses YAML for describing the APIs. OK OK
gRPC
  • Service Orchestration
  • Lifecycle
Support for Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) APIs that are sent over HTTP 2.0. OK Poor
Malformed Message
  • Security
  • Attack Protection
Protects the API from malformed packet and message attacks. Poor Poor
Malicious Scripting
  • Security
  • Attack Protection
Detects cross-site scripting attacks. Poor Poor
Malware Detection
  • Security
  • Attack Protection
Detects malware embedded in attachments. Poor OK
Message Depth Limit
  • Security
  • Attack Protection
Detects and prevents excessive XML/JSON depth and breadth attacks. Poor Poor
Message Injection
  • Security
  • Attack Protection
Monitors for SQL, JavaScript, and Xpath/Query injection attacks. Poor OK
Parameter Inspection
  • Security
  • Attack Protection
Protects against parameter attacks that exploit the data sent into an API. OK OK
System Overload
  • Security
  • Attack Protection
Throttles throughput based on values you configure to protect downstream systems. OK Poor
API Abuse Detection
  • Compliance
  • Access Controls
Detect abnormal use of API for methods that are outside of the intended or acceptable use cases OK OK
API Revocation
  • Security
  • Compliance
  • Access Controls
Ability to block an API subscription and completely restrict an application. OK OK
Anonymous Platform Access
  • Security
  • Compliance
  • Access Controls
Expose unrestricted information to anyone, without tracking API usage, consumer applications, or the user's identity. Poor OK
Custom Authentication Methods
  • Access Controls
Define custom authentication methods for allowing access to the services. OK Poor
Domain Policies
  • Access Controls
Enforce access control across multiple developer communities. OK OK
Fine-grained Access
  • Security
  • Compliance
  • Access Controls
Limit access to API operations by API consumer or restrict consumption access to specific API operations. NA OK
IP White/Blacklisting
  • Access Controls
Block or allow requests from an IP address without checking whether the requests are malicious. OK OK
Platform Access Levels
  • Security
  • Compliance
  • Access Controls
Define what information different users on the account can access and edit. Poor OK
RBAC
  • Security
  • Compliance
  • Access Controls
Define custom user roles and associated permissions. Administrators, publishers and consumers can have role-based access controls defined by API endpoint. Great OK
Akamai
  • Integration
Support integration with Akamai. Poor Poor
Amazon CloudFront
  • Integration
Support integration with Amazon CloudFront. Poor OK
Authorization Service
  • Integration
  • Security
Integrate an external OAuth resource server, external right repositories and authorization services. Poor OK
Azure CDN
  • Integration
Support integration with Azure CDN. Poor OK
CacheFly
  • Integration
Support integration with CacheFly. Poor Poor
CloudFlare
  • Integration
Support integration with CloudFlare. OK Poor
Cyber Ark
  • Integration
Support integration with Cyber Ark. Good Poor
Directory Service
  • Integration
  • Security
Integrate with existing directory services (e.g. internal LDAP, Microsoft Active Directory). Poor OK
Fastly
  • Integration
Support integration with Fastly. NA Poor
ForgeRock
  • Integration
Support integration with ForgeRock. NA Poor
Google Cloud CDN
  • Integration
Support integration with Google Cloud CDN. Great Poor
IBM Security Verify
  • Integration
Support integration with IBM Security Verify. OK NA
Identity Management
  • Integration
  • Security
  • Authentication
Provides an identity management solution or allows you to work with your pre-existing identity management solution. Poor OK
Key Management
  • Integration
  • Security
  • Authentication
Integrate with external secure token services. Poor OK
Micro Focus
  • Integration
Support integration with Micro Focus. Poor Poor
Microsoft Active Directory
  • Integration
Support integration with Microsoft Active Directory. OK OK
Okta
  • Integration
Support integration with Okta. OK OK
OneLogin
  • Integration
Support integration with OneLogin. OK Poor
Ping Identity
  • Integration
Support integration with Ping Identity. Poor Poor
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
  • Integration
  • Security
  • Authentication
Integrate with external Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). Poor OK
Single Sign-on (SSO)
  • Integration
  • Security
  • Authentication
Configure Single Sign-On (SSO) using SAML 2.0 for easy integration with existing web applications. Great OK
StackPath
  • Integration
Support integration with StackPath. OK Poor
Basic Authentication
  • Security
  • Compliance
  • Authentication
A simple authentication scheme that is built into the HTTP protocol. Poor OK
CCPA
  • Compliance
Regulation on data protection and privacy of the data tied to residents of California. OK NA
Digest Access Authentication
  • Compliance
  • Authentication
Method of authentication wherein a request from a potential user is received by a network server and then sent to a domain controller. Poor Poor
FedRamp
  • Compliance
Ensures that the government security requirements outlined in NIST 800-53 are met and supplemented by the PMO of FedRAMP. NA NA
GDPR
  • Compliance
Regulation on data protection and data privacy tied to EU residents. NA Great
HIPAA
  • Compliance
Demonstrates security and compliance with standards of the healthcare industry. OK NA
HITRUST
  • Compliance
Demonstrates compliance with HITRUST CSF which is an industry-agnostic certifiable framework for regulatory compliance and risk management. This framework, developed by the not-for-profit organization HITRUST, contains a set of prescriptive controls that relate to the organizational processes and technical controls for processing, storing, and transmitting sensitive data. Poor NA
OAuth
  • Compliance
  • Authentication
Open standard authorization framework. Poor OK
OpenID
  • Compliance
  • Authentication
Support for pen standard and decentralized authentication protocol OpenID. OK OK
PCI
  • Compliance
Standard that ensures security guidelines are met for all entities that store, process, or transmit cardholder data and/or sensitive authentication data. OK NA
PSD2
  • Compliance
Demonstrates compliance with European regulations related to the Payment Services Directive. Poor NA
SAML Support
  • Security
  • Compliance
  • Authentication
Support for SAML, an XML based open standard for transferring data between two parties. NA OK
SOC
  • Compliance
Standard promoted by the American Institute of CPAs that ensures the integrity and privacy of customer data. OK NA
SSL/TLS
  • Security
  • Compliance
Secure server communication using SSL/TLS. OK OK
Token-based Authentication
  • Compliance
  • Authentication
Support for generating application tokens and authenticating using tokens. NA OK
Traffic Prioritization
  • Traffic Management
  • Compliance
Balance and prioritize traffic based on the urgency of the API calls. OK OK
WS-Security
  • Security
  • Compliance
  • Authentication
Support for WS-Security, an extension of SOAP for more secure web services. OK Poor
Caching
  • Traffic Management
API caching reduces the number of calls made to your endpoint. Poor OK
Content-based Routing
  • Traffic Management
Route the requests based on the content. OK OK
Quota Management
  • Traffic Management
Provide API administrators the ability to assign specific API call limits based on classes of users. Poor OK
Rate Limiting
  • Traffic Management
Limits the number of requests an API can accept within a time window. Poor OK
Throttling
  • Traffic Management
Limits the number of API requests a user can make within a time window. OK OK
Low-Cost Pricing Per API Call
  • Pricing
Pricing model is economical for medium to high amounts of API calls (3M+ calls a month). Poor OK
Low-Cost Pricing for API Gateways
  • Pricing
Pricing model is economical for API Gateways. Poor NA
Low-Cost Pricing for High Egress
  • Pricing
Pricing model is economical for high amounts of egress or data transfer. Poor NA
Low-Cost Pricing for Low API Call Volume
  • Pricing
Pricing model is economical for a low API call volume (<1M calls a month). OK OK
API Request Auditability
  • Service Orchestration
Run reports to see requests were made. OK OK
API Versioning
  • Service Orchestration
Virtual API versioning within the API gateway. OK OK
API Virtualization
  • Service Orchestration
Support for creating a virtual copy of your API. OK Poor
Asia-Pacific Region
  • Service Orchestration
Data center available in the Asia-Pacific region. Poor Great
AsyncAPI
  • Service Orchestration
Support for the API specification format that uses asynchronous messaging and event-based communication patterns. OK Poor
EU Region
  • Service Orchestration
Data center available in the European Union region. Great Great
JSON to SOAP Conversion
  • Service Orchestration
Support for converting SOAP to JSON, or JSON to XML. OK Poor
JSON to XML Conversion
  • Service Orchestration
Support for converting SOAP to JSON, or JSON to XML. Good Poor
North America Region
  • Service Orchestration
Data center available in the North America region. Poor Great
OAS/Swagger
  • Service Orchestration
Support for the Open API Standard (OAS) used when designing Restful APIs. Poor Poor
SOAP to JSON Conversion
  • Service Orchestration
Support for converting SOAP to JSON, or JSON to XML. NA Poor
South America Region
  • Service Orchestration
Data center available in the South America region. OK Great
XML to JSON Conversion
  • Service Orchestration
Support for converting SOAP to JSON, or JSON to XML. OK Poor
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