Announcing Gateway API Support for DigitalOcean Kubernetes

Announcing Gateway API Support for DigitalOcean Kubernetes | DigitalOcean

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Dark mode is coming soon. Product updates Announcing Gateway API Support for DigitalOcean Kubernetes

By Kang Xie

Senior Product Manager

Published: September 9, 2025 3 min read

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Managing traffic into a DigitalOcean Kubernetes cluster has long been the domain of the Ingress. While functional, it comes with limitations in flexibility, role separation, and advanced routing. Today, we’re excited to change that.

We are thrilled to announce that the Kubernetes Gateway API, as a managed service, is pre-installed in all DigitalOcean Kubernetes (DOKS) clusters and ready to use at no additional cost.

This next-generation traffic management solution is more expressive, extensible, and powerful than Ingress. Best of all, it’s powered by Cilium’s high-performance eBPF implementation, offering superior performance and advanced routing capabilities without the overhead of traditional proxy-based solutions.

Key Benefits

Zero Configuration Required : Gateway API support comes pre-installed via Cilium in all DOKS clusters

Advanced Traffic Management : Support for header-based routing, traffic splitting, and canary deployments

Superior Performance : Cilium’s eBPF implementation operates in kernel space, eliminating proxy overhead

Native Load Balancer Integration : Seamless integration with DigitalOcean Network Load Balancers

Multi-tenant Ready : Built-in support for cross-namespace resource sharing with secure RBAC

Future-Proof API : Active development and standardization by the Kubernetes community

Why Move Beyond Ingress? The Gateway API Advantage

The Gateway API was designed by the Kubernetes community to address the fundamental limitations of the Ingress API. It achieves this through a role-oriented resource model that separates infrastructure concerns from application routing.

Cluster Operators manage Gateway resources, defining where and how traffic enters the cluster (e.g., provisioning a DigitalOcean Load Balancer).

Application Developers manage Route resources (like HTTPRoute), defining how traffic is routed to their specific applications.

This separation provides clearer responsibilities and prevents teams from stepping on each other’s toes.

Aspect Ingress Gateway API

Resource Model Single monolithic resource Separated Gateway + Route resources

Team Workflows All teams edit the same resource Clear infrastructure/app separation

Routing Features Basic path/host matching Headers, methods, weights, redirects

Routing Features HTTP/HTTPS only HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, UDP, gRPC

Extensibility Annotation-based Native API fields + custom policies

The DigitalOcean Difference: Performance Powered by Cilium and eBPF

Our Gateway API implementation isn’t just about better structure; it’s about raw performance. By leveraging Cilium, we process traffic directly in the Linux kernel using eBPF , completely bypassing the overhead of traditional proxy-based implementations like NGINX or HAProxy.

What does this mean for your applications?

Lower Latency: No user-space proxy traversal

Higher Throughput: Zero-copy packet processing

Less CPU Usage: Kernel-native operations

Minimal memory footprint : No proxy pods or sidecars

You get advanced routing capabilities without sacrificing performance or running extra proxy pods.

Pricing

Gateway API support is included at no additional cost with DOKS. You only pay for:

DigitalOcean Load Balancers created by Gateway resources

Standard DOKS cluster pricing

Try the Gateway API on DOKS

We’re here to help you. Please take a look at our in-depth tutorial on getting started with Managed Gateway API for Kubernetes . Additionally, take a look at our product documentation and Release Notes. for further resources.

About the author

Kang Xie Author

Senior Product Manager

See author profile Senior Product Manager of DigitalOcean Kubernetes

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