Kong Gatewayvspolar
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Kong Gateway | polar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 82/100 | 71/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 39 in API Gateway | #1 of 13 in Billing |
| GitHub stars | 44 321 | 10 436 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +131 | +157 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 3 | 1 |
| Latest release | 3.9.4 · 12 Oct 2026 | @polar-sh/cli@3.0.0 · 16 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Advanced |
| Official Docker image | No | No |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Lua | Python |
Which one should you pick?
Kong Gateway scores 82/100 against 71/100 for polar, so it is the safer default.
Kong Gateway ships more often: 3 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for polar.
If you want the quickest setup, Kong Gateway is easier to run; polar needs more configuration.
Kong Gateway details →polar details →