Kong GatewayvsNakama
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Kong Gateway | Nakama | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 82/100 | 76/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 39 in API Gateway | #3 of 62 in Game Servers |
| GitHub stars | 44 314 | 13 604 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +128 | +62 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 3 | 9 |
| Latest release | 3.9.4 · 12 Oct 2026 | v3.41.0 · 18 Sept 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Lua | Go |
Which one should you pick?
Kong Gateway scores 82/100 against 76/100 for Nakama, so it is the safer default.
Nakama ships more often: 9 stable releases in the past year, against 3 for Kong Gateway.
Kong Gateway is growing faster right now (+128 stars in 30 days).
Kong Gateway details →Nakama details →