# AWS App Mesh vs Cilium

| Attribute | AWS App Mesh | Cilium |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 60.4 (69% (medium)) | 55.8 (54% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 103 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 25,603 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"AWS App Mesh is an application networking service that provides consistent visibility and network traffic controls for microservices. It uses sidecar proxies to manage service communication, observability, and security without requiring application code changes. It is indexed under Service Mesh.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_pr","question":"What is AWS App Mesh?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"AWS App Mesh offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_pr","question":"Is AWS App Mesh free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for AWS App Mesh, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_pr","question":"Can AWS App Mesh be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR for AWS App Mesh. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as AWS App Mesh not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/trust-center/?nc1=f_cc","question":"What security certifications does AWS App Mesh have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"AWS App Mesh is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_pr","question":"Where is AWS App Mesh available?","confidence":0.5}]` | `[{"answer":"A cloud-native networking and security platform that uses eBPF to provide networking, observability, and security capabilities. Built for Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure with integrated observability via Hubble. It is indexed under Service Mesh.","source":"https://cilium.io","question":"What is Cilium?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Cilium is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://cilium.io","question":"Is Cilium free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Cilium supports Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://cilium.io","question":"What platforms does Cilium support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Cilium can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://cilium.io","question":"Can Cilium be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 3 integrations for Cilium, including SPIRE, Envoy and Prometheus. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://cilium.io","question":"What does Cilium integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Cilium is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium","question":"Is Cilium open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | AWS App Mesh is an application networking service that provides consistent visibility and network traffic controls for microservices. It uses sidecar proxies to manage service communication, observability, and security without requiring application code changes. | Cilium is an open-source networking layer for Kubernetes that uses eBPF to provide container-to-container communication, load balancing, network policies, multi-cluster connectivity, and deep observability across single or multiple clusters. |
| features.capabilities | `{"proxy":"envoy","data_plane":"sidecar","cncf_maturity":"none","automatic_mtls":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"commercial_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` | `{"proxy":"envoy","data_plane":"sidecarless_ebpf","multicluster":true,"cncf_maturity":"graduated","spiffe_identity":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"gateway_api_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` |
| integrations.count | 5 | 3 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"AWS CloudWatch","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"AWS X-Ray","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Datadog","native":false,"category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Alcide","native":false},{"name":"Aqua","native":false}]` | `[{"name":"SPIRE","native":false,"category":"identity","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Envoy","native":false,"category":"proxy"},{"name":"Prometheus","native":false,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"}]` |
| language.primary | - | Go |
| license.spdx | - | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","summary":"Pay-as-you-go usage-based pricing; specific pricing rates not disclosed on provided pages","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_pr","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T16:50:07.963Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://cilium.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T09:27:47.184Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.transparent | no | yes |
| release.cadence_days | - | 5 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.21.0-pre.3","date":"2026-10-02T19:04:57Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.21.0-pre.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.20.2","date":"2026-09-16T01:53:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.20.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.19.8","date":"2026-09-16T01:53:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.19.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.18.14","date":"2026-09-16T01:53:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.18.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.21.0-pre.2","date":"2026-09-09T11:50:23Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.21.0-pre.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.20.1","date":"2026-08-18T10:36:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.20.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.19.7","date":"2026-08-18T10:35:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.19.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.18.13","date":"2026-08-18T10:35:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.18.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.21.0-pre.0","date":"2026-08-03T19:58:45Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.21.0-pre.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.20.0","date":"2026-07-29T15:00:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.20.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.20.0-rc.1","date":"2026-07-21T23:28:11Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.20.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.19.6","date":"2026-07-16T22:52:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.19.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.18.12","date":"2026-07-16T22:47:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.18.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.17.18","date":"2026-07-16T22:47:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.17.18"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.20.0-rc.0","date":"2026-07-14T02:52:53Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.20.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.20.0-pre.4","date":"2026-07-03T20:50:44Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.20.0-pre.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.19.5","date":"2026-06-16T12:25:41Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.19.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.18.11","date":"2026-06-16T12:22:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.18.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.17.17","date":"2026-06-16T12:22:05Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.17.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.20.0-pre.3","date":"2026-06-02T00:41:32Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.20.0-pre.3"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.iso27001 | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | - | 5.8 |
| security.soc2 | yes | - |
| security.trust_center | https://aws.amazon.com/security/?nc1=f_cc | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":39,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fcilium%2Fcilium&per_page=100","last_12m":8,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` |

## Capabilities (Service Mesh)

| Capability | AWS App Mesh | Cilium |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| Data plane | Sidecar | Sidecarless (eBPF) |
| 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 | None | Graduated |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Commercial support / enterprise edition | ✓ | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T19:05:24.410Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*