Comparison

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd vs Kuma

On the evidence we track, Kuma leads this comparison with a composite score of 53/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd full profile →Kuma full profile →

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Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd39

★Kuma53

Attribute comparison across 2 tools
Attribute	Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd	KumaLeader
Vioscale score	39 / 100low · 42%	53 / 100low · 36%
Pricing
Free tierpricing.free_tier	✓	✓
Modelpricing.model	quote	commercial
Price levelpricing.price_level	low	free
Transparentpricing.transparent	✗	✗
Integrations
Countintegrations.count	3	4
Security
Disclosure policysecurity.disclosure_policy	-	✓
Fedrampsecurity.fedramp	✓	-
Gdprsecurity.gdpr	✓	✓
Hipaasecurity.hipaa	✓	-
Scorecardsecurity.scorecard	-	8.3
Vulnerabilitiessecurity.vulnerabilities	-	Count: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fkumahq%2Fkuma%2Fpkg%2Ftransparentproxy%2Fistio&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0
Adoption
Dependent reposadoption.dependent_repos	-	8
Github starsadoption.github_stars	-	3,995
Activity
Commits last 30dactivity.commits_last_30d	-	100
Release
Historyrelease.history	-	20 items
License
Spdxlicense.spdx	-	Apache-2.0
Language
Primarylanguage.primary	-	Go
Market
Availabilitymarket.availability	Available worldwide · Popular in US · HQ US	Available worldwide · HQ US

Score

Vioscale score

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd39 / 100low · 42%

Kuma53 / 100low · 36%

Pricing

Free tier

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

Model

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerdquote

Kumacommercial

Price level

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerdlow

Kumafree

Transparent

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✗

Kuma✗

Integrations

Count

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd3

Kuma4

Security

Disclosure policy

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd–

Kuma✓

Fedramp

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma–

Gdpr

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

Hipaa

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma–

Scorecard

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd–

Kuma8.3

Vulnerabilities

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd–

KumaCount: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fkumahq%2Fkuma%2Fpkg%2Ftransparentproxy%2Fistio&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0

Adoption

Dependent repos

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd–

Kuma8

Github stars

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd–

Kuma3,995

Activity

Commits last 30d

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd–

Kuma100

Release

History

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd–

Kuma20 items

License

Spdx

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd–

KumaApache-2.0

Language

Primary

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd–

KumaGo

Market

Availability

Buoyant Enterprise for LinkerdAvailable worldwide · Popular in US · HQ US

KumaAvailable worldwide · HQ US

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for service mesh. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Capability comparison for Service Mesh
Capability	Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd	Kuma
Architecture
Data plane	Sidecar	Sidecar
Proxy	linkerd2-proxy	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	Graduated	Sandbox
Ops
Commercial support / enterprise edition	✓	✓

Architecture

Data plane

Buoyant Enterprise for LinkerdSidecar

KumaSidecar

Proxy

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerdlinkerd2-proxy

KumaEnvoy

Security

Automatic mutual TLS

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

SPIFFE / SPIRE identity

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd-

Kuma-

Traffic

Traffic splitting / canary

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

Fault injection / resilience

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

Scale

Multi-cluster federation

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

Portability

VM support (beyond Kubernetes)

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

Observability

Built-in observability

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

Standards

Gateway API / GAMMA support

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

Extensibility

WASM extensibility

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd-

Kuma-

Compliance

FIPS mode

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma-

Ecosystem

CNCF maturity

Buoyant Enterprise for LinkerdGraduated

KumaSandbox

Ops

Commercial support / enterprise edition

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd

An enterprise service mesh that automatically manages and secures communication between containerized workloads in Kubernetes clusters through zero-configuration mutual TLS, traffic optimization, and observability—without code changes or complex setup.

Independently observed

Kuma

Leader

Open-source control plane for service mesh delivering security, observability, routing and more. Built on Envoy with support for Kubernetes, VMs, and multi-cluster deployments.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd

Quote-basedFree tier

Free tier for companies under 50 employees; Premium and Strategic tiers available by quote

Open sourceFree
- Zero-config encryption and authentication of all meshed traffic
- Cryptographic workload identities, not IP addresses
- Secure-by-default Rust data plane
- Zero-trust granular authorization policies
- Latency-based load balancing
- +15 more
PremiumContact sales
- Stable release artifacts
- Automated installs and upgrades
- SLAs on CVE remediation
- Mutual TLS and basic service mesh featureset
- Multi-cluster communication
- +9 more
StrategicContact sales
- Everything in Premium, plus:
- Hotpatch releases and SBOMs
- High Availability Zone-aware Load Balancing (HAZL)
- FIPS 140-3 and 140-2 validated cryptography (optional)
- Enterprise support with 24x7 SLAs
- +1 more

as of 2026-08-16verify ↗

Kuma

Leader

Open sourceFree tier

Open-source with enterprise offerings available (demo on request)

as of 2026-08-13verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platform and deployment support comparison
Supports	Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd	Kuma
WebPlatforms	✓	✓
CLIPlatforms	✓	✓
Cloud / SaaSDeployment	✓	✓
Self-hostedDeployment	✓	✓
On-premiseDeployment	✓	✓
HybridDeployment	✓	✓

Platforms

Web

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

CLI

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

Deployment

Cloud / SaaS

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

Self-hosted

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

On-premise

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

Hybrid

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd✓

Kuma✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (3)

Datadog
Prometheus
OpenTelemetry

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd

5 total - 2 not shared

Microsoft Teams
PagerDuty

Independently observed

Kuma

Leader

4 total - 1 not shared

Grafana

Independently observed

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.