# Cilium vs Flomesh Service Mesh

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Cilium

| Attribute | Cilium | Flomesh Service Mesh |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 55.8 (54% (medium)) | 39.7 (35% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 103 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 25,603 | 799 |
| content.faq | `[{"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}]` | `[{"answer":"Flomesh Service Mesh (FSM) is a cloud-native service mesh solution that manages traffic between services while automatically encrypting their communication channels. It provides fine-grained access control policies to regulate which services can communicate with each other. It is indexed under Service Mesh.","source":"https://flomesh.io/","question":"What is Flomesh Service Mesh?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Flomesh Service Mesh, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://flomesh.io/","question":"Can Flomesh Service Mesh be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Flomesh Service Mesh 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/flomesh-io/ztm","question":"Is Flomesh Service Mesh open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | 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. | An open-source tool that establishes encrypted point-to-point connections between computers and servers, allowing them to communicate securely as if on the same private network regardless of location. |
| features.capabilities | `{"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}` | `{"proxy":"other","vm_support":true,"automatic_mtls":true}` |
| integrations.count | 3 | 2 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"SPIRE","native":false,"category":"identity","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Envoy","native":false,"category":"proxy"},{"name":"Prometheus","native":false,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"}]` | `[{"name":"OpenClaw","native":true,"direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Slack","native":false,"category":"chat","direction":"bidirectional"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | JavaScript |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"linux":true}` | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"android":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://cilium.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T09:27:47.184Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Free and open source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://flomesh.io/","retrievedAt":"2026-10-05T10:08:51.798Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 5 | 19 |
| 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"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v2.0.0","date":"2026-02-13T06:07:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v1.0.4","date":"2026-01-30T15:15:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v1.0.4-rc4","date":"2025-09-15T05:14:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.4-rc4"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc3","date":"2025-09-04T12:29:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0-rc3"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v1.0.3-mcp-remote","date":"2025-08-22T01:30:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.3-mcp-remote"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v1.0.2-mcp-remote","date":"2025-08-06T13:25:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.2-mcp-remote"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v1.0.1-mcp-remote","date":"2025-07-17T11:07:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.1-mcp-remote"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v1.0.0-mcp-remote","date":"2025-06-28T14:42:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0-mcp-remote"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc2","date":"2025-03-28T08:37:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0-rc2"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc1","date":"2024-11-29T15:39:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0-rc1"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v0.9.0","date":"2024-11-15T10:13:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v0.3.1","date":"2024-10-21T06:46:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v0.3.0","date":"2024-09-26T12:39:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v0.2.0","date":"2024-08-09T09:55:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v0.1.0","date":"2024-07-26T07:40:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v0.0.4","date":"2024-06-20T06:55:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.0.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v0.0.3","date":"2024-05-24T16:56:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.0.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v0.0.2","date":"2024-05-11T10:35:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.0.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/flomesh-io/ztm/releases/tag/v0.0.1","date":"2024-05-08T14:05:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.0.1"}]` |
| security.scorecard | 5.8 | - |
| 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 | Cilium | Flomesh Service Mesh |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| Data plane | Sidecarless (eBPF) | - |
| Proxy | Envoy | Other |
| **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 | - |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Commercial support / enterprise edition | - | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T18:33:41.368Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*