Comparison

Cilium vs Gloo Mesh

On the evidence we track, Cilium leads this comparison with a composite score of 56/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
★Cilium56
Gloo Mesh42
Score
vioscaleAI score
Cilium56 / 100medium · 54%
Gloo Mesh42 / 100low · 33%
Pricing
Free tier
Cilium✓
Gloo Mesh✗
Model
Gloo Meshquote
Price level
Ciliumfree
Gloo Meshunknown
Transparent
Cilium✓
Gloo Mesh✗
Integrations
Count
Cilium3
Gloo Mesh3
Adoption
Dependent repos
Cilium103
Gloo Mesh–
Github stars
Cilium25,603
Gloo Mesh–
Activity
Commits last 30d
Cilium100
Gloo Mesh–
Release
Cadence days
Cilium5
Gloo Mesh–
History
Cilium20 items
Gloo Mesh–
License
Spdx
Gloo Mesh–
Language
Primary
CiliumGo
Gloo Mesh–
Market
Availability
Content
Faq
Cilium6 items
Gloo Mesh6 items

Capabilities

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

Architecture
Data plane
CiliumSidecarless (eBPF)
Gloo MeshAmbient
Proxy
CiliumEnvoy
Gloo MeshEnvoy
Security
Automatic mutual TLS
Cilium-
Gloo Mesh✓
SPIFFE / SPIRE identity
Cilium✓
Gloo Mesh-
Traffic
Traffic splitting / canary
Cilium✓
Gloo Mesh✓
Fault injection / resilience
Cilium-
Gloo Mesh-
Scale
Multi-cluster federation
Cilium✓
Gloo Mesh✓
Portability
VM support (beyond Kubernetes)
Cilium-
Gloo Mesh-
Observability
Built-in observability
Cilium✓
Gloo Mesh✓
Standards
Gateway API / GAMMA support
Cilium✓
Gloo Mesh✓
Extensibility
WASM extensibility
Cilium-
Gloo Mesh-
Compliance
FIPS mode
Cilium-
Gloo Mesh✓
Ecosystem
CNCF maturity
CiliumGraduated
Gloo Mesh-
Ops
Commercial support / enterprise edition
Cilium-
Gloo Mesh✓

What each one is

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

Cilium

Leader

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.

Independently observed

Gloo Mesh

Gloo Mesh enables centralized control over traffic routing and security policies across multiple Kubernetes clusters with built-in observability. It provides unified management for distributed microservices architectures with support for secure-by-default communication patterns.

Independently observed

Pricing

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

Cilium

Leader
Open sourceFree tier
as of verify ↗

Gloo Mesh

Quote-based

Custom pricing based on deployment environment and scale; contact sales for estimate

as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platforms
Linux
Cilium✓
Gloo Mesh–
CLI
Cilium✓
Gloo Mesh–
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Cilium✓
Gloo Mesh✓
Self-hosted
Cilium✓
Gloo Mesh✓
Hybrid
Cilium✓
Gloo Mesh✓

Integrations

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

In common (1)
  • Envoy

Cilium

Leader
3 total - 2 not shared
  • SPIRE
  • Prometheus
Independently observed

Gloo Mesh

5 total - 4 not shared
  • Istio
  • Kubernetes
  • OpenTelemetry
  • AWS Marketplace
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Cilium or Gloo Mesh: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

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