Gateways vs Netlify
The short version: Netlify runs your application on infrastructure Netlify owns and manages. Gateways provisions and operates infrastructure inside your own AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud account, with no Kubernetes to run and no Terraform to write.
What Netlify is good at
Netlify is strong for deploying modern web experiences: static sites, frontend frameworks, serverless functions, forms, edge features, and Git-based workflows on Netlify’s platform.
What Gateways is good at
Gateways is for teams whose infrastructure must live in their own AWS, Azure, or GCP accounts. It gives those teams a visual operations layer for servers, scalable servers, databases, DNS, storage, functions, connections, environments, activity, SSH access, and APIs.
At a glance
| Decision area | Gateways | Netlify |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure boundary | Your cloud accounts | Netlify-managed platform |
| Primary workflow | Operate cloud resources and environments | Build and deploy web projects from Git |
| Best fit | Platform teams, owned cloud estates, compliance, multi-cloud operations | Frontend teams shipping web apps and sites quickly |
| Control model | Native cloud resources, provider access, SSH, and APIs | Netlify abstractions, integrations, and edge platform |
Choose Netlify when
- Your product is primarily a web app, marketing site, docs site, or composable frontend.
- You want fast Git-to-deploy workflows with Netlify-managed build, hosting, edge, and functions.
- You prefer platform-managed infrastructure over direct ownership of cloud resources.
Choose Gateways when
- Your workloads, data, networking, and billing must remain in AWS, Azure, or GCP accounts your organization owns.
- Your system includes more than frontend delivery: servers, databases, DNS, storage, functions, runtime configuration, and cross-resource connections.
- You want the speed of a product UI without losing direct access to the underlying cloud resources, SSH, provider consoles, and billing.
- You need an operational fallback: if Gateways is unavailable, the resources still exist in your cloud account and can be inspected or operated directly.
Bottom line
Netlify is a strong fit when the web delivery platform is the center of the architecture. Gateways is the better fit when the website or app is one part of a broader cloud estate that your team needs to own, see, automate, SSH into, and operate directly.
Other comparisons
See the full capability matrix or read the documentation.