DB-less mode is the preferred choice for controller-managed Kong and Kong Enterprise clusters. However, not all plugins are available in DB-less mode. Review the table below to check if a plugin you wish to use requires a database.
Note that some DB-less compatible plugins have some limitations or require non-default configuration for compatibility.
| Plugin | Kong | Kong (DB-less) |
|---|---|---|
| acl | ✅ | ✅ |
| aws-lambda | ✅ | ✅ |
| azure-functions | ✅ | ✅ |
| basic-auth | ✅ | ✅ |
| bot-detection | ✅ | ✅ |
| correlation-id | ✅ | ✅ |
| cors | ✅ | ✅ |
| datadog | ✅ | ✅ |
| file-log | ✅ | ✅ |
| hmac-auth | ✅ | ✅ |
| http-log | ✅ | ✅ |
| ip-restriction | ✅ | ✅ |
| jwt | ✅ | ✅ |
| key-auth | ✅ | ✅ |
| oauth2 | ✅ | ❌ |
| post-function | ✅ | ✅ |
| pre-function | ✅ | ✅ |
| prometheus | ✅ | ✅ |
| proxy-cache | ✅ | ✅ |
| rate-limiting | ✅ | ✅ |
| request-termination | ✅ | ✅ |
| request-transformer | ✅ | ✅ |
| response-ratelimiting | ✅ | ✅ |
| response-transformer | ✅ | ✅ |
| syslog | ✅ | ✅ |
| tcp-log | ✅ | ✅ |
| udp-log | ✅ | ✅ |
| zipkin | ✅ | ✅ |
There are two distributions of Kong Enterprise,
kong-enterprise-k8s (used with Kong for Kubernetes Enterprise) and
kong-enterprise-edition (used with Kong for Kubernetes with Kong Enterprise).
| Plugin | Kong for Kubernetes with Kong Enterprise | Kong for Kubernetes Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
| acl | ✅ | ✅ |
| aws-lambda | ✅ | ✅ |
| azure-functions | ✅ | ✅ |
| basic-auth | ✅ | ✅ |
| bot-detection | ✅ | ✅ |
| correlation-id | ✅ | ✅ |
| cors | ✅ | ✅ |
| datadog | ✅ | ✅ |
| file-log | ✅ | ✅ |
| hmac-auth | ✅ | ✅ |
| http-log | ✅ | ✅ |
| ip-restriction | ✅ | ✅ |
| jwt | ✅ | ✅ |
| key-auth | ✅ | ✅ |
| oauth2 | ✅ | ❌ |
| post-function | ✅ | ✅ |
| pre-function | ✅ | ✅ |
| prometheus | ✅ | ✅ |
| proxy-cache | ✅ | ✅ |
| rate-limiting | ✅ | ✅ |
| request-termination | ✅ | ✅ |
| request-transformer | ✅ | ✅ |
| response-ratelimiting | ✅ | ✅ |
| response-transformer | ✅ | ✅ |
| syslog | ✅ | ✅ |
| tcp-log | ✅ | ✅ |
| udp-log | ✅ | ✅ |
| zipkin | ✅ | ✅ |
| application-registration | ✅ | ❌1 |
| canary release | ✅ | ✅ |
| collector | ✅ | ✅ |
| degraphql | ✅ | ✅ |
| exit-transformer | ✅ | ❌ |
| forward-proxy | ✅ | ✅ |
| graphql-proxy-cache-advanced | ✅ | ✅ |
| graphql-rate-limiting-advanced | ✅ | ✅ |
| jwt-signer | ✅ | ✅ |
| kafka-log | ✅ | ✅ |
| kafka-upstream | ✅ | ✅ |
| key-auth-enc | ✅ | ❌ |
| ldap-auth-advanced | ✅ | ✅ |
| mtls-auth | ✅ | ✅ |
| oauth2-introspection | ✅ | ✅ |
| openid-connect | ✅ | ✅ |
| proxy-cache-advanced | ✅ | ✅ |
| rate-limiting-advanced | ✅ | ✅ |
| request-transformer-advanced | ✅ | ❌2 |
| request-validator | ✅ | ✅ |
| response-transformer-advanced | ✅ | ✅ |
| route-transformer-advanced | ✅ | ❌ |
| statsd-advanced | ✅ | ❌3 |
| vault-auth | ✅ | ✅ |
1 Only used with Dev Portal
2 request-transformer now has feature parity with request-transformer-advanced. request-transformer-advanced remains only for compatibility with existing configurations.
3 Only used with Vitals