corednsvsKong Gateway
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| coredns | Kong Gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76/100 | 82/100 |
| Rank in category | #5 of 41 in DNS | #1 of 39 in API Gateway |
| GitHub stars | 14 399 | 44 319 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +56 | +129 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 10 | 3 |
| Latest release | v1.15.0 · 21 Oct 2026 | 3.9.4 · 12 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | No |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Go | Lua |
Which one should you pick?
Kong Gateway scores 82/100 against 76/100 for coredns, so it is the safer default.
coredns ships more often: 10 stable releases in the past year, against 3 for Kong Gateway.
Kong Gateway is growing faster right now (+129 stars in 30 days).
coredns details →Kong Gateway details →
Swap a project
Keep coredns, compare it with
Keep Kong Gateway, compare it with