Cloud · head to head
Nomad vs Spring Cloud Gateway

Spring Cloud Gateway
APIs
API gateway built on Project Reactor for building microservices
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Nomad nomad 1.7.0 and later is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 with IBM Corporation as licensor, not an OSI open source licence; Spring Cloud Gateway released under the Apache 2.0 license, free and open source with no commercial tier
- They diverge on capability: Nomad covers Container orchestration, Spring Cloud Gateway covers Routing.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Nomad and Spring Cloud Gateway actually diverge.
| Attribute | Nomad | Spring Cloud Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Linux, Windows, Mac, Cloud | Java, Spring Boot |
| Category | Cloud | APIs |
| Founded | 2015 | 1998 |
Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (open-source), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Nomad
- Container orchestration
- Job scheduling
- Multi-cloud support
- Auto-scaling
- Service discovery
- Rolling deployments
- Monitoring integration
- High availability
Only in Spring Cloud Gateway
- Routing
- Path Rewriting
- Circuit Breaker
- Spring Boot
- Spring Security
- Spring Cloud
- Java support
- Spring Boot support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Nomad
- Container and workload orchestration across infrastructurenot Spring Cloud Gateway
- Multi-region application deploymentnot Spring Cloud Gateway
- Flexible scheduling for batch jobs and servicesnot Spring Cloud Gateway
Spring Cloud Gateway
- API Developmentnot Nomad
- API Gatewaynot Nomad
- API Testingnot Nomad
- API Documentationnot Nomad
- Microservicesnot Nomad
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Nomad
- Nomad 1.7.0 and later is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 with IBM Corporation as licensor, not an OSI open source licence
- The Additional Use Grant forbids offering Nomad to third parties on a hosted or embedded basis in a paid product that competes with IBM's paid versions
- Each version converts to MPL 2.0 only four years after that version is published
- Resource quotas, Sentinel policies and audit logging sit in a Governance and Policy add-on module that is separate from the Enterprise base platform package
- Multi-region deployments, multiple Vault namespaces and Nomad Autopilot advanced server management require Nomad Enterprise
Spring Cloud Gateway
- Released under the Apache 2.0 license, free and open source with no commercial tier
Pricing, plan by plan
Nomad
Free- Open SourceFree
- Workload orchestration
- Multi-cloud
- Flexible scheduling
Spring Cloud Gateway
Free- Open SourceFree
- Core Spring Cloud Gateway
- Community support
Which should you pick?
Choose Nomad if
- You need container orchestration.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Cloud.
- You also want job scheduling.
Choose Spring Cloud Gateway if
- You need routing.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Java, Spring Boot.
- You also want path rewriting.
Questions people ask
- Is Nomad or Spring Cloud Gateway better?
- Neither clearly leads. Nomad starts at Free and Spring Cloud Gateway at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Nomad or Spring Cloud Gateway?
- Nomad starts at Free and Spring Cloud Gateway at Free.
- Does Nomad or Spring Cloud Gateway run on more platforms?
- Nomad runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Cloud. Spring Cloud Gateway runs on Java, Spring Boot.
- Can I use Nomad for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Nomad best used for?
- Nomad is most often used for container and workload orchestration across infrastructure, multi-region application deployment, flexible scheduling for batch jobs and services. Of those, container and workload orchestration across infrastructure and multi-region application deployment are not what Spring Cloud Gateway is typically brought in for.
- What can Nomad do that Spring Cloud Gateway cannot?
- Nomad covers Container orchestration, Job scheduling, Multi-cloud support, Auto-scaling. Spring Cloud Gateway covers Routing, Path Rewriting, Circuit Breaker, Spring Boot.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Nomad: Is HashiCorp Nomad free?
HashiCorp Nomad is open source and free to use. Commercial enterprise support and hosting options may be available through HashiCorp, but the core product is free.
SourceSpring Cloud Gateway: Is Spring Cloud Gateway free?
Yes, Spring Cloud Gateway is free and open-source software. It is part of the Spring ecosystem and available through GitHub repositories with open-source dependencies like spring-cloud-starter-gateway-server-webflux and spring-cloud-starter-gateway-server-webmvc.
SourceNomad: Does HashiCorp Nomad have a pricing model?
Nomad is open source software with no published pricing tiers. HashiCorp offers commercial hosting and support for their products on a usage-based or custom pricing model, but Nomad itself is free to download and deploy.
SourceSpring Cloud Gateway: What enterprise support is available for Spring Cloud Gateway?
Tanzu Spring provides optional enterprise support including Day 0 access to security patches for organizations requiring guaranteed support, but specific pricing is not published on the Spring Cloud Gateway project page.
SourceNomad: What is HashiCorp's pricing model for enterprise Nomad?
HashiCorp offers flexible pricing for enterprise Nomad support including pay-as-you-go (PAYG) billing with no long-term commitment, flex plans with preferred pricing, and enterprise self-managed plans. Contact HashiCorp sales for custom quotes.
SourceRelated pages
More on Spring Cloud Gateway
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- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Terragrunt
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- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Zeabur
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Hetzner Cloud
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Linode
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- Spring Cloud Gateway vs minikube
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs OpenTelemetry
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Appwrite
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Hasura
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs PocketBase
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Sanity
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Kong Gateway
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Tyk
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Janus Gateway
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Convoy
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs WSO2 API Manager
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Gravitee
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs KeystoneJS
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Strapi
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Swagger/OpenAPI
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Thredd
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Thunder Client
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Toqio
- Spring Cloud Gateway vs Kong

