User: APIgateway_Doubt
Subject: Do I need API gateway for microservices?
Building application with microservices architecture. Do I really need API gateway or can frontend directly call different microservices? Seems like API gateway adds extra layer and complexity. When is it actually necessary?

Reply by: MicroservicesArchitect
API gateway is not mandatory but highly recommended. Without gateway, your frontend needs to know about all microservices, handle authentication with each service separately, deal with different protocols/formats. API gateway provides single entry point, handles authentication, rate limiting, request routing, protocol translation. It decouples frontend from backend services. For production system definitely use API gateway.

Reply by: CloudArchitect_AWS
Common API gateways are Kong, AWS API Gateway, Azure API Management, or Nginx. They also provide monitoring, logging, caching out of the box. Yes it adds one more component to manage but benefits outweigh the complexity. Start simple though - if you have only 2-3 microservices, can delay API gateway initially. But plan for it as your architecture grows.