Apache APISIX

Judgement

What it is

Building block

What it does

An API gateway on nginx and LuaJIT with dynamic routing, load balancing, authentication, canary releases and plugins, configured live through etcd and an admin API.

Adopt it when

You want a fully open-source API gateway whose routes and plugins change at runtime without reloads.

Watch out

It depends on etcd for configuration, and most of the community and commercial support comes from China-based API7.

Ready for

Production-ready

Runs as

Self-hosted server

Built with

Lua, OpenResty, nginx and etcd

How established

Established: started 7 years ago, latest release 3.19.0.

What the license allows

You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.

Judged on 2026-11-06 from the project's README and GitHub data. The license and age lines are worked out directly.

Built from

Follow it down: Apache APISIX → Lua → GCC → LLVM project → runs on a microchip

How compilers were built, back to punched paper tape

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