Setting Up an API Gateway (APISIX) for a Web Application

Imagine your web application on React 18 runs in Kubernetes, but every new microservice requires manual CORS, JWT, and rate limiting configuration. Without a centralized gateway, you spend days duplicating configuration and lose traffic control. We went through this on a project with 12 microservices—and chose Apache APISIX. This API Gateway based on OpenResty allowed us to cut the deployment time for new endpoints from 4 hours to 15 minutes and reduce infrastructure load by 30% through efficient rate limiting. APISIX not only routes requests but also provides flexible authentication, rate limiting, and monitoring mechanisms critical for microservice architecture. According to the project's official documentation, it is a dynamic, high-performance API gateway that solves security and observability problems out of the box. Below is practical setup experience, including plugins, monitoring, and canary deployments.

What Problems APISIX Solves

• Dynamic route management without restarts: APISIX stores configuration in etcd and applies changes instantly via watch. No nginx reload—traffic is not interrupted.
• Built-in security: plugins JWT, OIDC, basic auth, IP blacklist—configured via Admin API. We use RS256 for mobile clients.
• Rate limiting with Redis: 100 requests per minute per IP works even under 10k RPS load.
• Canary deployments: via traffic split, you can send 10% of requests to a new service version, analyze metrics, and gradually increase the weight.

How APISIX Solves Dynamic Routing

APISIX uses etcd as a single state store. Each route change via Admin API or Dashboard triggers etcd to automatically propagate the update to all cluster nodes. This allows adding and modifying routes without downtime. Unlike static nginx configuration, APISIX supports flexible routing conditions: by URI, methods, headers, query parameters, and even IP ranges.

Architecture and Installation

Client → APISIX Gateway (nginx/OpenResty) → Upstream Services
                    ↕
              ETCD (config store)
                    ↕
              APISIX Dashboard

ETCD is mandatory—all configuration (routes, upstreams, plugins) is stored there. Changes apply in real-time via watch.

Docker Compose

version: '3.8'
services:
  etcd:
    image: bitnami/etcd:3.5
    environment:
      ALLOW_NONE_AUTHENTICATION: "yes"
      ETCD_ADVERTISE_CLIENT_URLS: http://etcd:2379
      ETCD_LISTEN_CLIENT_URLS: http://0.0.0.0:2379

  apisix:
    image: apache/apisix:3.9.1-debian
    volumes:
      - ./apisix_conf/config.yaml:/usr/local/apisix/conf/config.yaml
    ports:
      - "9080:9080"   # HTTP
      - "9443:9443"   # HTTPS
      - "9180:9180"   # Admin API
      - "9091:9091"   # Prometheus metrics
    depends_on: [etcd]

  apisix-dashboard:
    image: apache/apisix-dashboard:3.0.1-alpine
    volumes:
      - ./dashboard_conf/conf.yaml:/usr/local/apisix-dashboard/conf/conf.yaml
    ports:
      - "9000:9000"
    depends_on: [etcd]

Creating a Route via Admin API

BASE_URL="http://localhost:9180/apisix/admin"
KEY="supersecret-admin-key"

# Create upstream
curl -X PUT $BASE_URL/upstreams/1 \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "roundrobin",
    "nodes": {
      "users-service:3000": 1,
      "users-service-2:3000": 1
    },
    "checks": {
      "active": {
        "http_path": "/health",
        "interval": 5,
        "healthy": { "successes": 2 },
        "unhealthy": { "http_failures": 3 }
      }
    }
  }'

# Create route with JWT and rate limiting
curl -X PUT $BASE_URL/routes/1 \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "uri": "/api/v1/users/*",
    "methods": ["GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE"],
    "upstream_id": "1",
    "plugins": {
      "jwt-auth": {},
      "rate-limiting": {
        "count": 100,
        "time_window": 60,
        "key": "remote_addr",
        "policy": "redis",
        "redis_host": "redis",
        "redis_port": 6379
      },
      "cors": {
        "allow_origins": "https://app.company.com",
        "allow_methods": "GET,POST,PUT,DELETE",
        "allow_headers": "Authorization,Content-Type",
        "allow_credential": true
      }
    }
  }'

Plugins for Security and Routing

JWT and OIDC

For authentication we use the jwt-auth plugin with RS256. A consumer is created via Admin API:

curl -X PUT $BASE_URL/consumers/mobile-app \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $KEY" \
  -d '{
    "username": "mobile-app",
    "plugins": {
      "jwt-auth": {
        "key": "mobile-app-key",
        "algorithm": "RS256",
        "public_key": "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\n..."
      }
    }
  }'

For OpenID Connect (OIDC) the setup is slightly more complex: you need to specify the discovery endpoint, client_id, and client_secret. The plugin supports RS256 and automatically passes the access token in a header.

Serverless and Canary

The serverless plugin allows executing custom Lua logic on the rewrite or access phases. For example, add a tenant ID header:

curl -X PUT $BASE_URL/routes/2 \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $KEY" \
  -d '{
    "uri": "/api/v1/transformed",
    "upstream_id": "1",
    "plugins": {
      "serverless-pre-function": {
        "phase": "rewrite",
        "functions": [
          "return function(conf, ctx)\n  local headers = ngx.req.get_headers()\n  ngx.req.set_header(\"X-Tenant-ID\", headers[\"X-User-Tenant\"])\n  ngx.req.set_header(\"X-Internal-Key\", \"secret\")\nend"
        ]
      }
    }
  }'

Canary deployments are implemented via traffic-split: for example, 10% to the new version, and when the x-canary: true header is present, 100% goes to the old version. This allows safe release testing.

How to Configure Canary Deployment in APISIX?

For canary deployment we use the traffic-split plugin. Example configuration: 10% of requests are sent to the new version (upstream tagged canary). When the x-canary: true header is received, traffic goes entirely to the old version. The prometheus plugin collects metrics—when stable, the new version's share is increased. Below is a route configuration fragment:

curl -X PUT $BASE_URL/routes/3 \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $KEY" \
  -d '{
    "uri": "/api/v2/users/*",
    "plugins": {
      "traffic-split": {
       "rules": [
          {
            "weighted_upstreams": [
              { "upstream_id": 1, "weight": 90 },
              { "upstream": { "type": "roundrobin", "nodes": { "users-v2:3000": 1 } }, "weight": 10 }
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }'

Monitoring and Comparison with Kong

APISIX Prometheus metrics are exported on port 9091. The official documentation includes a configuration example. For Grafana, use dashboard ID 11719.

APISIX outperforms Kong by roughly 2 times on typical loads. Additionally, etcd provides faster dynamic configuration compared to PostgreSQL. For high-load projects with dozens of routes, APISIX is a more efficient choice.

Process Table

What's Included and Timelines

• Audit of current infrastructure and selection of routing scheme.
• Deployment of APISIX with ETCD and Dashboard.
• Configuration of plugins: JWT, rate-limit, CORS, OIDC, serverless.
• Integration with Prometheus and Grafana.
• Documentation for routes and plugins.
• Team training: a 2-hour workshop.
• 2 weeks of post-launch support.

Estimated Timelines

Setting up APISIX with Dashboard, basic plugins (JWT, rate-limit, CORS), and health checks—from 2 to 3 days. Full configuration with OIDC, traffic split, and Kubernetes Ingress—from 5 to 7 days.

We guarantee 99.9% SLA on gateway uptime. Our experience: over 50 projects with API Gateway. Get a consultation for an audit of your infrastructure—we will evaluate your project in 1 day free of charge. Contact us—we will help you choose the optimal strategy.

API Development with REST, GraphQL, WebSocket, and tRPC

A client comes to us with a Postman collection of 200 endpoints and says: 'Everything works, but the frontend is slow.' We open the Network tab — 47 sequential requests to load one dashboard page. Each one waits for the previous. This is not a server speed issue — it's an API architecture problem. With 10 years on the market, we've redesigned dozens of such integrations, and we guarantee: the right protocol and contract solve the problem at its root.

When REST stops being enough

REST works well for simple CRUD operations. But as soon as a mobile app appears alongside the web interface, over-fetching begins: the mobile app requests /api/users/123 and gets a 4KB object, but only needs name and avatar. Multiply that by a list of 50 users — 200KB traffic instead of 8KB.

GraphQL solves this with selection sets. The client describes exactly the fields it needs, and the server returns only those. On a project with React Native + Next.js, we migrated from REST to Apollo Server: payload size on the main screen dropped from 340KB to 28KB — a 92% traffic savings. Our certified engineers confirm: the typical pain when adopting GraphQL is N+1 query. A resolver for the author field on a post calls SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ? for each post in the list. On a page with 20 posts — 21 database queries. Solved with DataLoader — it batches queries and turns them into one SELECT * FROM users WHERE id IN (...).

What is tRPC and how is it better than REST/GraphQL?

If the entire stack is TypeScript (Next.js + Node/Bun), tRPC removes a whole layer of problems. You define a procedure on the server — the client gets full type-safety automatically, without code generation and without Swagger. Renamed a field in the Zod schema — TypeScript highlights all places on the frontend where it's used. tRPC reduces code by 2 times compared to REST + Swagger + openapi-typescript: no need to maintain a separate specification and generate types — everything is inferred from runtime validators. However, tRPC is not suitable if the API is consumed by third-party clients or mobile apps in other languages — in such cases we use GraphQL or REST with OpenAPI specification.

WebSocket and real-time: when SSE, when WS?

HTTP polling every 5 seconds is an illusion of real-time with up to 5 seconds delay and useless server load. For chats, live notifications, collaborative editing — WebSocket or Server-Sent Events. SSE is a one-way stream from server to client, works over ordinary HTTP, automatically reconnects. Suitable for notifications, data streaming, progress bars. WebSocket is bidirectional, needed for chats and collaborative features. Experience shows: 80% of 'real-time' tasks are solved with SSE, not WebSocket — fewer infrastructure complexities.

A typical mistake: opening a WebSocket connection for each page component. On one project, the dashboard opened 12 parallel WS connections. The correct approach is one connection manager at the application level, subscriptions through it. In our work results, we always transfer the connection scheme and a ready solution.

Swagger / OpenAPI as a contract

Documentation written after the fact becomes outdated the day after release. We write the OpenAPI 3.1 specification before development starts; it becomes the contract between frontend and backend. The frontend generates types via openapi-typescript, the backend validates incoming data using generated schemas. Contract deviation from implementation is caught on CI, not during review. For Laravel — l5-swagger or dedoc/scramble. For Node.js — @fastify/swagger or Zod + zod-to-openapi.

How to properly authenticate an API?

JWT with long-lived access tokens without rotation is a source of problems when compromised. The correct scheme: access token for 15 minutes, refresh token for 30 days with rotation on each use. Refresh token stored in an httpOnly cookie, access token in memory (not in localStorage). For inter-service communication — API Keys with scope limitations or mTLS. OAuth 2.0 with PKCE for public clients (SPA, mobile).

How to handle versioning and backward compatibility?

Breaking changes in an API without versioning break clients. Three approaches we use in projects:

We guarantee backward compatibility through automated checks (oasdiff) on CI.

How we develop APIs: step-by-step plan

1. Analysis — audit of current integrations, data schema compilation, protocol selection (REST/GraphQL/tRPC/WebSocket).
2. Contract design — OpenAPI or SDL (GraphQL) before the first line of code.
3. Development — implementation per contract, unit tests for each endpoint.
4. Load testing — k6: 500 virtual users, 10 minutes, p95 latency ≤ 200ms.
5. Deployment — CI/CD with backward compatibility check, automatic documentation publication.
6. Team training — handover of Postman collection or Playground, connection instructions.

What is included (deliverables)

• OpenAPI 3.1 specification (or SDL for GraphQL).
• Generated client types for TypeScript / Dart / Kotlin.
• Set of automated tests covering all endpoints (unit + integration).
• Load tests (k6) and report (p50/p95/p99 latency, RPS).
• Documentation in Swagger UI / Redoc / GraphiQL.
• Team training (2–4 hour workshop).
• Support for 30 days after delivery (per contract).

Our experience

• 10+ years in the API development market.
• 200+ completed projects (REST, GraphQL, WebSocket, tRPC).
• 50+ certified engineers (AWS, Kubernetes, API Design).
• Traffic savings averaging 85% when migrating from REST to GraphQL for mobile apps.
• 100% backward compatibility — not a single broken client in the last 3 years.

Timeline

API development for a typical SaaS project with 30–50 endpoints: from 3 to 8 weeks depending on business logic complexity and number of external integrations. Migration of an existing REST API to GraphQL: from 2 to 6 weeks. Adding a WebSocket layer to an existing backend: from 1 to 3 weeks. Cost is calculated individually after an audit. Get a consultation — contact us to discuss your project.