head to head · open source
kong vs homelab
kong has 44,148 GitHub stars, 5,210 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. homelab has 9,608 stars, 884 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. kong leads on adoption by 359% (44,148 vs 9,608 stars). kong is written in Lua under Apache-2.0; homelab is written in Python under GPL-3.0. kong has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, homelab 9%. homelab was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (devops, kubernetes), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| kong | homelab | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 44K | ★ 9.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Lua | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-07 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 884 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kong if
- You weight community size — 44K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick homelab if
- You want the homelab feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and homelab fits your workflow better
About kong
Kong (also known as Kong Gateway) is an open source, cloud native, platform agnostic API, LLM, and MCP gateway, licensed under Apache 2.0, built for platform, DevOps, and AI engineering teams that need a single high performance layer to route, secure, and observe both conventional API traffic and agentic LLM traffic.
About homelab
homelab is an Infrastructure as Code and GitOps framework written in Python and released under GPL 3.0 that takes a homelab from an empty disk to running self hosted services with a single command, built for self hosters, home operations practitioners, and anyone who wants to run their own services on Kubernetes.
read the full homelab overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kong or homelab more popular?
kong has 44,148 GitHub stars and homelab has 9,608. kong has the larger community by that measure.
Are kong and homelab free?
Both are open source. kong is licensed under Apache-2.0 and homelab under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kong and homelab?
kong is written in Lua and homelab in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, kong or homelab?
Choose kong if you want the larger community (44,148 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose homelab if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.