NGINX Ingress Controller End of Maintenance by March 2026
Blog post from Qovery
The ingress-nginx controller, a widely adopted entry point for Kubernetes clusters, is set to reach its end-of-life by March 2026, prompting organizations to transition to the Gateway API for a more modern and extensible traffic management model. This change arises due to the evolving complexity of maintaining ingress-nginx across different versions and the fragmentation of routing technologies, as companies now utilize a mix of NGINX, Envoy-based gateways, and cloud-native controllers. Enterprises relying on ingress-nginx face potential security risks, compatibility issues, and operational challenges, leading to recommendations for migrating to Gateway API-based controllers. For Qovery-managed Kubernetes clusters, the transition will occur seamlessly in Q1 2026, while self-managed clusters are advised to consult with Qovery for migration support. Qovery aims to eliminate infrastructure complexity by automating routing configurations and maintenance, allowing engineering teams to focus on delivering value rather than managing Kubernetes networking internals.