Contour
5.7#14 in kubernetes ingress controllersFree planFree planSelf-hosted
VisitContour vs Higress
What both publish
| Fact | Contour | Higress |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Contour can be deployed as a Kubernetes deployment or daemonset. | A Docker all-in-one deployment exposes the console on port 8001, HTTP gateway on 8080 and HTTPS gateway on 8443. |
| Observability | Contour and Envoy expose metrics that can be scraped with Prometheus. | The AI statistics plugin records token counts, first-token latency, total request latency and logs across gateway, route, service and model dimensions. |
| Support | The project provides community support through its GitHub project page and invites users to file issues or ask questions there. | The community edition includes community support and documentation; the dedicated commercial edition lists ticket, DingTalk group, and offline support. |
Contour plans
- ContourFree
Higress plans
- Alibaba Cloud AI Gateway Serverless StandardPriced on request
- Higress CommunityFree
- Higress Community EditionFree
- Alibaba Cloud AI Gateway Serverless EnterprisePriced on request
- Feitian Exclusive EditionPriced on request
Pick Contour if…
Contour suits Kubernetes cluster administrators and application developers who need ingress management in a self-hosted environment. It supports multiple ingress configuration types for clusters shared across teams.
Pick Higress if…
Higress suits teams that need a self-hosted gateway for AI services and cloud-native traffic. It may also fit those needing MCP, Kubernetes gateway, or API lifecycle capabilities.