head to head · open source
kong vs pytest-testinfra
kong has 44,147 GitHub stars, 5,210 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. pytest-testinfra has 2,476 stars, 358 forks, 147 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. kong leads on adoption by 1,683% (44,147 vs 2,476 stars). kong is written in Lua under Apache-2.0; pytest-testinfra is written in Python under Apache-2.0. kong has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, pytest-testinfra 14%. kong 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 | pytest-testinfra | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 44K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Lua | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-07 | 2026-07-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 358 |
| 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 pytest-testinfra if
- You want the pytest-testinfra feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pytest-testinfra 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 pytest-testinfra
Testinfra is Python tool. It is pytest plugin. It tests actual state of servers. Servers configured by management tools like Salt, Ansible, Puppet, Chef. It lives in Python and pytest ecosystem for infrastructure testing, DevOps, and infrastructure as code work.
read the full pytest-testinfra overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kong or pytest-testinfra more popular?
kong has 44,147 GitHub stars and pytest-testinfra has 2,476. kong has the larger community by that measure.
Are kong and pytest-testinfra free?
Both are open source. kong is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pytest-testinfra under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kong and pytest-testinfra?
kong is written in Lua and pytest-testinfra 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 pytest-testinfra?
Choose kong if you want the larger community (44,147 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pytest-testinfra if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.