Announcing Gateway API Support for DigitalOcean Kubernetes

Announcing Gateway API Support for DigitalOcean Kubernetes Key Benefits Why Move Beyond Ingress? The Gateway API Advantage The DigitalOcean Difference: Performance Powered by Cilium and eBPF Pricing Try the Gateway API on DOKS About the author Try DigitalOcean for free Related Articles What's New on DigitalOcean App Platform Single Sign-On is Now Available, Strengthening Security and Simplifying Authentication Announcing OpenAI gpt-oss Models on the DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI Platform By Kang Xie Senior Product Manager Published: September 9, 2025 3 min read 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. Zero Configuration Required : Gateway API support comes pre-installed via Cilium in all DOKS clusters 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 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 Superior Performance : Cilium’s eBPF implementation operates in kernel space, eliminating proxy overhead Native Load Balancer Integration : Seamless integration with DigitalOcean Network Load Balancers 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 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 Future-Proof API : Active development and standardization by the Kubernetes community 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.