Kong GatewayvsRabbitMQ
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Kong Gateway | RabbitMQ | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 82/100 | 77/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 39 in API Gateway | #3 of 12 in Message Broker |
| GitHub stars | 44 317 | 13 949 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +131 | +78 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 3 | 14 |
| Latest release | 3.9.4 · 12 Oct 2026 | v4.3.7 · 20 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Other |
| Main language | Lua | JavaScript |
Which one should you pick?
Kong Gateway scores 82/100 against 77/100 for RabbitMQ, so it is the safer default.
RabbitMQ ships more often: 14 stable releases in the past year, against 3 for Kong Gateway.
Kong Gateway details →RabbitMQ details →