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APIs · head to head

Spring Cloud Gateway vs Zeplo

Spring Cloud Gateway logo

Spring Cloud Gateway

APIs

API gateway built on Project Reactor for building microservices

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Zeplo logo

Zeplo

APIs

Message queue as a URL prefix, adding retries and delays to any HTTP request

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Spring Cloud Gateway released under the Apache 2.0 license, free and open source with no commercial tier; Zeplo zeplo sits directly in the execution path of your background work, so an outage at a very small vendor means your jobs do not run at all, and there is no published SLA below Enterprise.
  • They diverge on capability: Spring Cloud Gateway covers Routing, Zeplo covers URL prefix interface.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Spring Cloud Gateway and Zeplo actually diverge.

Attributes where Spring Cloud Gateway and Zeplo differ
AttributeSpring Cloud GatewayZeplo
Pricing modelopen-sourcePer month by request count
PlatformsJava, Spring BootWeb, Cloud
Founded1998Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (APIs).

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 Spring Cloud Gateway

  • Routing
  • Path Rewriting
  • Circuit Breaker
  • Spring Boot
  • Spring Security
  • Spring Cloud
  • Java support
  • Spring Boot support

Only in Zeplo

  • URL prefix interface
  • Retries with backoff
  • Delayed delivery
  • Cron scheduling
  • Concurrency limits
  • Deduplication keys
  • Request logs
  • Team workspaces

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Spring Cloud Gateway

  • API Developmentnot Zeplo
  • API Gatewaynot Zeplo
  • API Testingnot Zeplo
  • API Documentationnot Zeplo
  • Microservicesnot Zeplo

Zeplo

  • A Vercel or Cloudflare Workers application that needs retried background jobs without deploying a separate always-on workernot Spring Cloud Gateway
  • A team that wants a webhook receiver protected by a concurrency limit so a burst does not overwhelm a downstream APInot Spring Cloud Gateway
  • A small product needing cron jobs against HTTP endpoints without adding a scheduler to its infrastructurenot Spring Cloud Gateway
  • A developer adding idempotent retries to an unreliable third-party API call with a one-line URL changenot Spring Cloud Gateway

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Spring Cloud Gateway

  • Released under the Apache 2.0 license, free and open source with no commercial tier

Zeplo

  • Zeplo sits directly in the execution path of your background work, so an outage at a very small vendor means your jobs do not run at all, and there is no published SLA below Enterprise.
  • The free Developer tier includes only 500 requests a month and one team member, so it is a demonstration allowance rather than a usable free plan for anything real.
  • Overage on the Developer tier is 20 US dollars per 100,000 requests, two hundred times the marginal rate on the Company tier, so exceeding the free allowance without upgrading is expensive.
  • Team members cost 15 US dollars each beyond the plan allowance, which is an odd charge on an infrastructure product billed by request volume.
  • Log retention is 30 days on both published tiers, so anything requiring longer audit trails on job execution has to be logged separately.

Pricing, plan by plan

Spring Cloud Gateway

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • Core Spring Cloud Gateway
    • Community support

Zeplo

Free
  • DeveloperFree
    • 500 requests a month included
    • $20 per additional 100,000 requests
    • 1 team member
  • Company$39/month
    • 1,000,000 requests a month included
    • $10 per additional million requests
    • Up to 3 team members
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Volume discounts
    • Custom team size
    • Support with SLA

Which should you pick?

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.
Spring Cloud Gateway review

Choose Zeplo if

  • You need url prefix interface.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Cloud.
  • You also want retries with backoff.
Zeplo review

Questions people ask

Is Spring Cloud Gateway or Zeplo better?
Neither clearly leads. Spring Cloud Gateway starts at Free and Zeplo at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Spring Cloud Gateway or Zeplo?
Spring Cloud Gateway starts at Free and Zeplo at Free.
Does Spring Cloud Gateway or Zeplo run on more platforms?
Spring Cloud Gateway runs on Java, Spring Boot. Zeplo runs on Web, Cloud.
Can I use Spring Cloud Gateway for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Spring Cloud Gateway best used for?
Spring Cloud Gateway is most often used for api development, api gateway, api testing, api documentation. Of those, api development and api gateway are not what Zeplo is typically brought in for.
What can Spring Cloud Gateway do that Zeplo cannot?
Spring Cloud Gateway covers Routing, Path Rewriting, Circuit Breaker, Spring Boot. Zeplo covers URL prefix interface, Retries with backoff, Delayed delivery, Cron scheduling.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Spring 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.

Source
Zeplo: How does Zeplo work?

You prefix your endpoint URL with zeplo.to and add query parameters for retries, delay, cron or concurrency. No SDK or broker is needed.

Spring 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.

Source
Zeplo: What does it cost?

Free for 500 requests a month; 39 US dollars a month for a million requests, then 10 dollars per additional million.

Zeplo: Is it suitable for critical jobs?

It is a small vendor in your execution path with no published SLA below Enterprise, so weigh that against the convenience.

Zeplo: Does it work with serverless platforms?

Yes, that is its main use, covering Vercel, Cloudflare Workers, Netlify and similar environments that lack long-running workers.

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