Introduction to API Gateway
API Gateway with Traefik Hub
Traefik Hub API Gateway is a drop-in replacement for Traefik Proxy, it can do everything Traefik Proxy does, with additional capabilities and support out of the box.
For more information, see the feature comparison matrix below.
Getting Started
- Quick Start guide: Step-by-step guide to deploy and configure your Traefik Hub API Gateway.
- Installation guide: Detailed instructions on how to install Traefik Hub API Gateway on Kubernetes, Dockers, or your preferred platform.
- Upgrade guide: Upgrade from Traefik Proxy to Traefik Hub API Gateway in less than a minute.
Key Capabilities
- Reduce Complexity and Increase Extensibility: Traefik Hub API Gateway centralizes access control and traffic management to simplify teams’ workflows while making it easy to add advanced capabilities (rate limiting, distributed Let’s Encrypt, etc.) through turnkey middlewares, custom plugins, and third-party integrations.
- Boost Productivity with Cloud Native Automation: Dynamic configuration, automated service discovery and routing, flexible rate limiting, and high availability features enable application teams to deploy quickly with zero downtime and ensure peak performance and availability.
- Adapt to Your Evolving Infrastructure: Because Traefik Hub API Gateway is compatible with any environment—whether cloud, legacy, or hybrid—DevOps and Platform teams can adopt new technologies and services quickly.
- Ensure Consistency, Repeatability, and Scalability: By automating tedious manual configurations and keeping your ecosystem up-to-date with your GitOps repository, Traefik Hub API Gateway saves teams time, increases consistency, and allows them to be more productive.
- Protect Your SLAs and SLOs: Clearly understand the flow of traffic, service dependencies, and where to prioritize team efforts to troubleshoot issues and protect your SLAs and SLOs.
Features Matrix
| Feature | Traefik Proxy | Traefik Hub API Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Services Auto-Discovery | ✓ | ✓ |
| Graceful Configuration Reload | ✓ | ✓ |
| Websockets, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, TCP, UDP, GRPC ready | ✓ | ✓ |
| Real-time Metrics & Distributed Tracing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Canary Deployments | ✓ | ✓ |
| Let's Encrypt | ✓ | ✓ |
| Plugin Support (Go, WASM) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hybrid cloud, multi-cloud & on-prem compatible | ✓ | ✓ |
| GitOps-native declarative configuration | ✓ | ✓ |
| Per-cluster dashboard | ✓ | ✓ |
| JWT Authentication | ✓ | |
| OAuth 2.0 Token Introspection Authentication | ✓ | |
| OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials Authentication | ✓ | |
| OpenID Connect Authentication | ✓ | |
| Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) | ✓ | |
| API Key Authentication | ✓ | |
| Open Policy Agent | ✓ | |
| Native Coraza Web Application Firewall (WAF) | ✓ | |
| HashiCorp Vault Integration | ✓ | |
| Distributed Let's Encrypt | ✓ | |
| Distributed Rate Limit | ✓ | |
| HTTP Caching | ✓ | |
| FIPS 140-2 Compliance | ✓ | |
| Built-In Commercial Support | ✓ | ✓ |
Supported Protocols
Traefik Hub supports multiple protocols and offers various middlewares to shape and secure traffic. This section details which protocols are supported and which middlewares typically apply.
| Protocol | Description | Applicable Middlewares |
|---|---|---|
| HTTP/1,2,3 | Standard protocols for web traffic. Offers advanced routing, TLS termination, and layer 7 features. | HTTP-specific middlewares, such as distributed rate limit and advanced authentication like OIDC. See the Middleware overview page for a comprehensive list of HTTP supported middlewares |
| TCP | Raw TCP traffic. Used for applications that don’t rely on the HTTP protocol. | Middlewares that work at the TCP level, such as IPAllowList and InflightConn. HTTP-focused middlewares do not apply. |
| UDP | Raw UDP traffic. Common for real-time communications and streaming. | No specific middleware targets UDP traffic as of now. |
| gRPC | High-performance RPC framework built on HTTP/2. Uses HTTP semantics for streaming and message framing. | Any middleware compatible with HTTP/2, such as authentication, grpcWeb, etc. See the Middleware overview page for a comprehensive list of HTTP supported middlewares |
| WebSockets | Real-time, two-way communication over HTTP. Often used in live updates, chat apps, and similar scenarios. | WebSocket upgrades do not require a dedicated middleware in Traefik Hub. Once you set up an HTTP entrypoint and point it to a service using WebSockets, the upgrade handshake happens automatically. If you want to secure or shape WebSocket traffic (for example, requiring authentication or limiting requests), you can use the same HTTP middlewares you would apply to any HTTP service. See the Middleware overview page for a comprehensive list of HTTP supported middlewares. |
Troubleshooting & Support
- Common Issues: Find solutions to the most common challenges encountered with Traefik Hub API Gateway.
- Support: Traefik Hub API Gateway comes with built-in commercial support: Get help by contacting our team of engineers at support.traefik.io.
Release Notes
Stay up-to-date with the latest changes and features added to Traefik Hub API Gateway.
Sales
If you’re considering using Traefik Hub API Gateway, contact our team for pricing and licensing options.
Related Content
- If you want to learn more about Traefik Hub API Gateway concepts, please visit the Concepts section.
- If you are interested in getting started with Traefik Hub Api Gateway right away, please have a look at the "Getting Started" page.
- You might also want to check the other sections on Installing, Operating, and Securing API using Traefik Hub API Gateway, or contact support.