KrakenD is an elegant and powerful API gateway that’s enabled us to build an industry-changing API-first platform that we know our customers can rely on.
Building a modern legal technology platform requires more than feature-rich software. Legal organizations handle sensitive client data and operate under strict confidentiality requirements, making security and auditability non-negotiable. For Neostella, this meant the API gateway would be a foundational component, not just for performance, but for trust.
Designing an API-first platform without compromise
Neostella needed an API gateway that could keep pace with its ambitions. The requirements were clear:
- High performance and low latency
- Strong, centralized security controls
- Flexible deployment with minimal operational friction
- Scalability to support growing workloads and diverse customer traffic
Traditional managed gateways offered tight cloud integrations, but often lacked the flexibility and feature depth needed for a truly API-first product.
KrakenD as the single API gateway across the Neostella platform
KrakenD now sits at the core of the platform, handling all inbound API traffic and acting as the single control point for security, traffic management, and observability. The team leverages KrakenD’s Extended Flexible Configuration (EFC) to dynamically generate gateway configurations, which are validated, documented, and deployed automatically as part of their CI/CD pipeline.
The deployment flow includes:
- Configuration generation using Extended Flexible Configuration (EFC)
- Configuration validation during build time
- Automatic OpenAPI specification generation
- API documentation exposure using Redocly
- Containerized deployment via Docker
- Runtime operation in an AWS ECS cluster behind a load balancer
Security and observability for a regulated industry
With KrakenD in place, Neostella enforces critical API concerns consistently across all services:
- JWT validation on every endpoint
- Stateful, tiered rate limiting using Redis
- WebSocket support for real-time communication
- Datadog integration for monitoring and observability
These capabilities allow Neostella to support different customer profiles, traffic patterns, and service-level requirements—all without modifying backend services.
In a sector where data confidentiality and access control are paramount, having a single enforcement point for authentication and traffic policies simplifies compliance and reduces attack surface.
Tangible results and ongoing gains
By adopting KrakenD, Neostella unlocked a level of flexibility that wasn’t possible with their previous setup.
Compared to AWS API Gateway, KrakenD delivered:
- More advanced and configurable rate-limiting capabilities
- Greater architectural freedom without vendor lock-in
- A richer feature set aligned with API-first design
The team continues to discover and adopt new KrakenD features over time, steadily enhancing the platform as requirements evolve.
Why Neostella chose KrakenD
For Neostella, KrakenD stood out as an API gateway built with engineers in mind.
- Elegant and powerful design
- Feature depth without unnecessary complexity
- Cost-effective pricing
- Responsive and knowledgeable support
KrakenD provided enterprise-grade capabilities while remaining flexible, transparent, and enjoyable to work with.
