Ingress NGINX Controller Is Dead — Should You Move to Gateway API?

Now What? Understanding the Impact of the Ingress NGINX Deprecation A Fork in the Road: Choosing Your Path Beyond Ingress NGINX Key Benefits Summary: Choosing Your Path Forward: Ingress or Gateway API? The Easy Path to Gateway API Ingress NGINX Controller, the trusty staple of countless platform engineering toolkits, is about to be put out to pasture. This news was announced by the Kubernetes community recently, and very quickly circulated throughout the cloud-native space. It’s big news for any platform team that currently uses the NGINX Controller because, as of March 26, 2026, there will be no more bug fixes, no more critical vulnerability patches and no more enhancements when Kubernetes continues to release new versions. If you’re feeling ambushed, you’re not alone. For many teams, this isn’t just an inconvenient roadmap update, its unexpected news that now puts long-term traffic management decisions front and center. You know you need to migrate yesterday but the best path forward can be a confusing labyrinth of platforms and unfamiliar tools. Questions you might ask yourself: ❓Do you find a quick drop-in Ingress replacement? ❓Does moving to Gateway API make sense and can you commit enough resources to do a full migration? ❓If you decide on Gateway API then what is the best option for a smooth transition? With Ingress NGINX on the way out, platform teams are standing at a familiar but uncomfortable moment: deciding whether to stick with what works today or invest in what will carry them forward tomorrow. Ingress API continues to serve as a solid and reliable solution for straightforward routing needs. Gateway API builds on that foundation with a more expressive, extensible, and standardized model suited for modern production environments. To understand what’s really at stake, it helps to look beyond the headlines and compare what Ingress and Gateway API actually offer in practice. The chart below shows how the two compare across key features. Ingress API (Basic): Ideal for simpler, smaller applications or teams that don’t need advanced traffic management or cross-namespace operations.