---
title: Apache Knox Reviews
meta_title: 'Apache Knox Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2'
meta_description: Filter 21 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to
  find out how Apache Knox works for a business like yours.
aggregate_rating:
  rating_value: 4.6
  review_count: 21
  scale: '5'
date_modified: '2026-06-14'
parent_category:
  name: Development
  url: https://www.g2.com/categories/development
---

# Apache Knox Reviews
**Vendor:** The Apache Software Foundation  
**Category:** [API Management Tools](https://www.g2.com/categories/api-management)  
**Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0  
**Total Reviews:** 21
## About Apache Knox
Apache Knox Gateway is an application gateway for interacting with the REST APIs and UIs of Apache Hadoop deployments.




## Apache Knox Reviews
  ### 1. Apache Knox simplifies and secures access to Hadoop clusters

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Raghav C. | Expert Data Scientist, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 13, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Apache Knox is an easy-to-set-up tool that simplifies access control and enables management of access to Hadoop clusters through a central gateway. It supports multiple authentication mechanisms and SSL encryption, ensuring secure communications between clients and the cluster.

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

While the documentation for Apache Knox is excellent, there is still a bit of a learning curve involved in getting started with the product. It was a bit overwhelming for new users like me

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

With Apache Knox, I have been able to easily manage access to my Hadoop cluster and ensure that only authorized users can access it. This has helped me to improve the security of my Hadoop environment, while also making it easier to manage access control policies. Additionally, the support for multiple authentication mechanisms and SSL encryption ensures that communications between clients and the cluster are secure, further enhancing the security of my Hadoop environment.

  ### 2. Mr Kashif

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Kashif A. | Senior Software Engineer (.NET), Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 04, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Some of the best features of Apache Knox which i likes are:
Secure Access, Centralized Access Control, Scalability, and Easy to use

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

While Apache Knox has many advantages, there are also some limitations to consider:

Performance: Apache Knox may introduce additional latency and overhead to API requests due to the additional security mechanisms and processing required by the gateway. This can impact the overall performance of the Hadoop cluster.

Complexity: Apache Knox can be complex to set up and configure, particularly for organizations with multiple Hadoop clusters or complex security requirements. This may require significant time and expertise to implement and maintain.

Limited protocol support: Apache Knox primarily supports REST and HTTP protocols, which may not be sufficient for some use cases that require support for other protocols such as JDBC, ODBC, or FTP.

Limited tooling and documentation: While Apache Knox has a web-based interface for managing the gateway configuration, the tooling and documentation for the gateway can be limited compared to other Hadoop ecosystem projects.

Resource requirements: Apache Knox requires additional compute resources to run, which can increase the overall cost of the Hadoop cluster deployment.

Overall, while Apache Knox provides many benefits for managing access to Hadoop cluster resources, it's important to carefully consider the potential drawbacks before implementing it in your organization.

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Apache Knox solves several business problems related to managing and securing Hadoop cluster resources, including:

Security Compliance: Many organizations are required to comply with security regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR, or PCI DSS. Apache Knox helps organizations to meet these compliance requirements by providing a secure access point to Hadoop cluster resources and implementing various security mechanisms such as authentication, authorization, and audit logging.

Data Security: Apache Knox provides a layer of security between external users and Hadoop cluster resources, helping to prevent unauthorized access and protect sensitive data. This is particularly important for organizations that handle sensitive data such as financial information or personal health information.

Access Control Management: Managing access control for multiple Hadoop clusters can be complex and time-consuming. Apache Knox provides a centralized access control point for managing access to Hadoop cluster resources, allowing administrators to enforce consistent policies across all the clusters.

Integration: Many organizations use a range of tools to access Hadoop cluster resources, including REST and HTTP APIs, as well as JDBC and ODBC protocols. Apache Knox supports a range of protocols and can translate between these protocols, simplifying integration with other tools.

Simplified Administration: Apache Knox provides a user-friendly web-based interface for managing the gateway configuration and policies, simplifying the administration of the gateway and reducing the need for specialized expertise.

Overall, Apache Knox benefits organizations by providing a secure, centralized access point for Hadoop cluster resources that simplifies access control management, reduces the risk of policy inconsistencies, and allows for integration with other Hadoop ecosystem projects.

  ### 3. Assess the security features of Apache G2

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Binay R. | Cloud/Platform Engineer, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 08, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Some commonly appreciated features of Apache Knox include its role as a secure gateway for accessing Hadoop clusters or web services, robust authentication and authorization mechanisms, support for federation of identities, customization options, comprehensive logging and auditing capabilities, active community support, and enterprise-grade security features.

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

Some potential limitations of Apache Knox may include its complexity for new users, the configuration process, deployment and maintenance challenges, potential lack of advanced features, and compatibility limitations with certain environments.

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Apache Knox solves the problem of securing access to Hadoop clusters or web services by providing a secure gateway with authentication, authorization, federation, customization, logging, and auditing capabilities. It helps protect against unauthorized access, simplifies authentication, and enhances security monitoring in a distributed big data environment.

  ### 4. Apache Knox Review

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Balaji A. | Data Engineering Analyst, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** February 14, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Knox gateway simplifies the Hadoop security policies for Hadoop Users. It facilitates access, a single gateway for all the auditing and authorization, centralized controls,  enterprise integration and custom solutions.

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

When using Apache Knox SSO prior to 1.6.1, a request could be crafted to redirect a user to a malicious page due to improper URL parsing. A request that included a specially crafted request parameter could be used to redirect the user to a page controlled by an attacker. This URL would need to be presented to the user outside the normal request flow through a XSS or phishing campaign

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

The user relies solely on the Apache Knox certificate, so we centralize the certificates of the different services on the Apache Knox servers and not on all the clients. Very useful when revoking and creating a new certificate.

  ### 5. Secure your Hadoop cluster with Apache Knox

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 04, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

The best thing about Apache Knox is its ability to provide a secure gateway through which users can access REST and HTTP services in a Hadoop cluster. It simplifies security configuration and provides centralized management of access control policies, making it easier to comply with security standards. Additionally, it offers flexible authentication mechanisms and supports integration with external identity providers.

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

One downside of using Apache Knox is that it requires additional configuration and setup, which may be challenging for some users who are not familiar with the Hadoop ecosystem or security protocols. Also, it could cause latency issues due to the extra layer of security.

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I use Apache Knox primarily for providing secure access to REST and HTTP services in my Hadoop cluster.

Apache Knox is helping me solve security-related issues by acting as a single point of authentication and access for Hadoop services through a reverse proxy server. This simplifies security configuration, offers centralized management of access control policies, and makes it easier to comply with security standards. Additionally, it provides flexibility in configuring different authentication mechanisms and supports integration with external identity providers.

  ### 6. Best Proxy and security solutions to Hadoop services

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Abhinav S. | Associate, Technology Level 2, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 07, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

It provides proxy and securities service to HDFS, YARN and even MapReduce.
There are a few more alternatives but not basically that good for MapReduce. I would count this as its best impact

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

Configuring the firewalls sometimes become tedious and one should know the authentication provider working mechanism.
Another thing which i don't like it doesn't provide user interface.

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I have used it for its  gateway interface and security services.

Integrated with HDFS and MapReduce framework, where i have directed all cleint request based on the nature of the request.

  ### 7. Apache Knox Gateway is a system that provides secure access point for Apache Hadoop services

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Barış D. | network and system administrator, Education Management, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 18, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Enhanced security
Enterprise integration
Centralized control
Simplified access
Kerberos encapsulation

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

do not answer latelate response and excessive resource consumption

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

“Pig” can be used to filter multiple visited web pages. We can think of Hive as a subset of SQL. Therefore, we can perform operations such as “selects”, “join”, “group by”, “sum”, “count” on the data. You can use Spark to implement machine learning algorithms. With “Spark”, you can segment customers according to their purchasing behavior. According to the profit margin, you can segment the product. You can build a model that predicts product sales based on season, environmental factors.

  ### 8. A secure and robust application for API interaction

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Arun kumar T. | Supply Chain Analyst, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 18, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Apache Knox has the capability to communicate with an assortment of validation techniques, which has permitted us to change our security methods to meet our special prerequisites.

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

Apache Knox is the most advanced version API gateway and it requires technical expertise to implement and it will be a time consuming process for newbie to learn about this tool.
Configuration, deployment are slightly tough for new users.

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Majorly Apache Knox addressing the security related while Integrating the APIs. 
Besides that, Authorization and authentication made it extremely secure. It does provide me the access of multiple APIs management.

  ### 9. Password Security for Hadoop Clusters

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Aastha M. | Engineer - Platform Team (Developer Experience), Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 07, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

It acting like Security gateway making worry free of xss/csrf, simplified access management for authentication & authorization plus it's easy integration & Apis

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

Additional complexity & hence trouble shooting issues, not encompassing complete security or gdpr/masking etc. What if it could be backwards compatible to all Hadoop versions & with more adoption & free tier promotion, get wide community support around it?

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Simplified & fasten api creation process & time by making devs worry less about security, plus it's scalable so no need to think of future alternatives or possible issues

  ### 10. Knox is easy to install but a little tricky to manage multiple services

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Magdum S. | Big Data Devops Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 17, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

It is easy to install. But troubleshooting is quite tricky

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

troubleshooting is quite tricky. Managing multiple services becomes a problem.

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

It is a gateway for multiple hadoop services

  ### 11. Incredible Apache

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Sadanand P. | Associate Software Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 16, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

The working process and the smoothness of the tech spaces are very comfortable for any tech freek.

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

Not at all..imfact I didn't found aby difficulties during the use.

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Giving me the service of api management is one of the best feagure for me.

  ### 12. Apache Knox Review

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Arkit S. | Data Scientist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** March 18, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Ease of use
Troubleshooting and configuring is hassle-free
Knox homepage is a single point of control
multiple authentications are supported

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

High volume transfer of data is a challenge sometimes

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

SSO and password-based authenticated login
easy to collaborate when the team is set up and connected from different locations

  ### 13. Great Gateway tool

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Vikas  S. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 12, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Very consistent and secure way to use as gateway tool

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

Sometimes unable to get proper product support

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We are using this as API gateway and to ensure proper security

  ### 14. Achieve Security using Apache knox

**Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Sambit M. | Lead Software Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 12, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Gateway security is the best part which is significantly achievable using knox.

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

Cdh5.3 doesn't have clear api. Need improvements in api.

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Achieved shiftleft with cluster security.

  ### 15. Its an excellent product

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Harsh P. | SDE2, Information Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 11, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Its security feature to access data is awesome

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

Nothing. it already has all the amazing features

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Managing access of apis and data

  ### 16. Short review for knox

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Banking | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 17, 2023

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Provides multi support and provides a single gateway to many services in your Hadoop cluster.

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

Nothing as per Knox but only drawback being that in some cases it is slow

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Security is best provided by Knox and is very secure

  ### 17. Using Knox from quite a long time and it easy to configure

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 18, 2022

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Configurations and troubleshooting is easy

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

Nothing to dislike sometimes error finding is difficult.

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Using knox we are using SSO.

  ### 18. Perimeter security for Hadoop cluster

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 22, 2021

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

1. Supports Multiple authentication providers
2. Proxies most of the services, few them has community supports
3. Knox Homepage, From single you can access all the services.

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

1. Writing rules in xml for custom  in-house service

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

1. You dont need to share actual service hostname or port to access the service
2. Integrate with multiple SSO providers

  ### 19. A gateway for Hadoop Cluster

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2021

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Kerberos Encapsulation. Hides the entity to which the end-user is trying to reach.

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

Not a good application for a High volume of data transfer.

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

1. Security - Authentication 
2. Authorization
3. Single point of entry to Cluster

  ### 20. An Essential Gateway to every hadoop cluster

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 21, 2021

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Various auth mechanisms are supported and satisfies nearly every requirement for browser based authentication in hadoop.

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

The syntax for rewrite rules is pretty complex and requires expert knowledge for any customization.

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

SSO and password-based authentication can be set up very easily for any organization's Hadoop cluster.

  ### 21. Apache Knox

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Paul G. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** June 12, 2018

**What do you like best about Apache Knox?**

Easy to use single point of authentication and access.

**What do you dislike about Apache Knox?**

Sometimes takes longer to connect or autenticate.

**What problems is Apache Knox solving and how is that benefiting you?**

having employees working on different location, it is very convenience 


## Apache Knox Discussions
  - [How do I restart Knox?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-i-restart-knox) - 1 comment
  - [What is Knox SSO?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-knox-sso) - 1 comment

- [View Apache Knox pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/apache-knox/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-30+03%3A26%3A13+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=19eefe56-3e32-49e3-b8a0-a8886b7f1ef4&secure%5Btoken%5D=e2f8b9921bcd1f01b312cd491e23e7e870c5caf1ea9b1225a6567315c29dd1bd&format=llm_user)

## Apache Knox Features
**API Construction**
- API Testing
- Data Security
- Orchestration
- Scalability

**API Management**
- Traffic Control
- Logs/Documentation
- API Monitoring
- Monetization
- Gateway

**Data Integration**
- App Integration
- Data Transformation
- Plugins

## Top Apache Knox Alternatives
  - [Kong Konnect](https://www.g2.com/products/kong-inc-kong-konnect/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (320 reviews)
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