# Aeraki Mesh vs Consul

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Consul

| Attribute | Aeraki Mesh | Consul |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 37 (26% (low)) | 58.6 (75% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 0 | 30 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 67,699 |
| adoption.github_stars | 11 | 30,091 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Aeraki Mesh is an open-source project for managing layer-7 protocols in a service mesh, supporting Dubbo, Thrift, Redis, Kafka, ZooKeeper, and custom protocols through the MetaProtocol framework. It is indexed under Service Mesh.","source":"https://aeraki.net/","question":"What is Aeraki Mesh?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Aeraki Mesh is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://aeraki.net/","question":"Is Aeraki Mesh free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Aeraki Mesh supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://aeraki.net/","question":"What platforms does Aeraki Mesh support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Aeraki Mesh can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://aeraki.net/","question":"Can Aeraki Mesh be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 6 integrations for Aeraki Mesh, including Istio, Dubbo, Thrift, Redis, Kafka and ZooKeeper. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://aeraki.net/","question":"What does Aeraki Mesh integrate with?","confidence":0.6}]` | `[{"answer":"Consul provides service mesh, service discovery, API gateway, health checking, and dynamic configuration management for applications across distributed infrastructure. Available in open-source and enterprise editions. It is indexed under Service Mesh.","source":"https://www.consul.io","question":"What is Consul?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Consul supports Windows, macOS, Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.consul.io","question":"What platforms does Consul support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Consul can be deployed on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.consul.io","question":"Can Consul be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and ISO 27001 for Consul. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Consul not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.consul.io/security","question":"What security certifications does Consul have?","confidence":0.7}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Aeraki Mesh is an open-source project for managing layer-7 protocols in a service mesh, supporting Dubbo, Thrift, Redis, Kafka, ZooKeeper, and custom protocols through the MetaProtocol framework. | A platform that enables service discovery, configuration management, and secure service-to-service communication with automatic encryption and identity-based access control across distributed infrastructure. |
| features.capabilities | `{"proxy":"envoy","data_plane":"sidecar","cncf_maturity":"sandbox","automatic_mtls":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"commercial_support":false,"built_in_observability":true}` | `{"proxy":"envoy","data_plane":"sidecar","vm_support":true,"multicluster":true,"automatic_mtls":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"commercial_support":true,"wasm_extensibility":true,"gateway_api_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` |
| integrations.count | 6 | 1 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Istio"},{"name":"Dubbo"},{"name":"Thrift"},{"name":"Redis"},{"name":"Kafka"},{"name":"ZooKeeper"}]` | `[{"name":"Kubernetes","native":true}]` |
| language.primary | JavaScript | Go |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Open source, free","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://aeraki.net/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T18:18:59.357Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.consul.io","retrievedAt":"2026-10-05T10:05:51.911Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | - |
| release.cadence_days | - | 15 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.1.0-rc1","date":"2026-09-29T05:22:27Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.1.0-rc1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.4","date":"2026-09-10T06:12:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.3","date":"2026-08-07T17:25:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.2","date":"2026-07-08T10:39:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.1","date":"2026-06-19T07:23:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.0","date":"2026-05-24T05:55:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.0-rc2","date":"2026-05-15T11:56:11Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.0.0-rc2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.0-rc1","date":"2026-04-29T17:34:24Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.0.0-rc1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v1.22.7","date":"2026-04-25T07:38:41Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.22.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v1.22.6","date":"2026-03-26T10:44:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.22.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v1.22.5","date":"2026-02-27T07:18:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.22.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v1.22.4","date":"2026-02-19T05:41:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.22.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v1.22.3","date":"2026-01-23T04:32:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.22.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v1.22.2","date":"2025-12-17T11:57:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.22.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/ent-changelog-1.22.0","date":"2025-12-02T02:25:41Z","type":"stable","version":"ent-changelog-1.22.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/ent-changelog-1.20.9","date":"2025-12-02T02:25:20Z","type":"stable","version":"ent-changelog-1.20.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/ent-changelog-1.20.8","date":"2025-12-02T02:25:17Z","type":"stable","version":"ent-changelog-1.20.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/ent-changelog-1.20.13","date":"2025-12-02T02:25:37Z","type":"stable","version":"ent-changelog-1.20.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/ent-changelog-1.20.12","date":"2025-12-02T02:25:33Z","type":"stable","version":"ent-changelog-1.20.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/ent-changelog-1.20.11","date":"2025-12-02T02:25:29Z","type":"stable","version":"ent-changelog-1.20.11"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | - | 7.5 |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fhashicorp%2Fconsul%2Fapi&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Service Mesh)

| Capability | Aeraki Mesh | Consul |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| Data plane | Sidecar | Sidecar |
| Proxy | Envoy | Envoy |
| **Security** |  |  |
| Automatic mutual TLS | ✓ | ✓ |
| SPIFFE / SPIRE identity | - | - |
| **Traffic** |  |  |
| Traffic splitting / canary | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fault injection / resilience | - | - |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Multi-cluster federation | - | ✓ |
| **Portability** |  |  |
| VM support (beyond Kubernetes) | - | ✓ |
| **Observability** |  |  |
| Built-in observability | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Standards** |  |  |
| Gateway API / GAMMA support | - | ✓ |
| **Extensibility** |  |  |
| WASM extensibility | - | ✓ |
| **Compliance** |  |  |
| FIPS mode | - | - |
| **Ecosystem** |  |  |
| CNCF maturity | Sandbox | - |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Commercial support / enterprise edition | ✗ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:02:47.771Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*