head to head · open source
kong vs pyinfra
kong has 44,147 GitHub stars, 5,210 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. pyinfra has 6,000 stars, 547 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. kong leads on adoption by 636% (44,147 vs 6,000 stars). kong is written in Lua under Apache-2.0; pyinfra is written in Python under MIT. kong has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, pyinfra 9%. pyinfra was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| kong | pyinfra | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 44K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Lua | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-07 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 547 |
| 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 pyinfra if
- You want the pyinfra feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pyinfra 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 pyinfra
pyinfra is a Python based infrastructure automation tool that turns Python code into shell commands and runs those commands on remote servers. It lives in the configuration management and cloud infrastructure management space, and it targets SSH servers, the local machine, and Docker containers through a connector system. The project is written in Python, licensed under MIT, and has been developed for roughly twelve years. Its own description frames it as "ansible but Python instead of YAML."
read the full pyinfra overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Cloud Infrastructure Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Cloud Infrastructure Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is kong or pyinfra more popular?
kong has 44,147 GitHub stars and pyinfra has 6,000. kong has the larger community by that measure.
Are kong and pyinfra free?
Both are open source. kong is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pyinfra under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kong and pyinfra?
kong is written in Lua and pyinfra 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 pyinfra?
Choose kong if you want the larger community (44,147 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pyinfra if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.