Comparison

Cilium vs Google Cloud Service Mesh

On the evidence we track, Google Cloud Service Mesh leads this comparison with a composite score of 63/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Cilium full profile →Google Cloud Service Mesh full profile →

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Cilium56

★Google Cloud Service Mesh63

Attribute comparison across 2 tools
Attribute	Cilium	Google Cloud Service MeshLeader
vioscaleAI score	56 / 100medium · 54%	63 / 100low · 40%
Pricing
Free tierpricing.free_tier	✓	✓
Modelpricing.model	open_source	freemium
Price levelpricing.price_level	free	low
Transparentpricing.transparent	✓	✓
Integrations
Countintegrations.count	3	-
Security
Scorecardsecurity.scorecard	5.8	-
Vulnerabilitiessecurity.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	-
Reliability
Status pagereliability.status_page	-	✓
Adoption
Dependent reposadoption.dependent_repos	103	-
Github starsadoption.github_stars	25,603	-
Activity
Commits last 30dactivity.commits_last_30d	100	-
Release
Cadence daysrelease.cadence_days	5	-
Historyrelease.history	20 items	-
License
Spdxlicense.spdx	Apache-2.0	-
Language
Primarylanguage.primary	Go	-
Content
Faqcontent.faq	6 items	4 items

Score

vioscaleAI score

Cilium56 / 100medium · 54%

Google Cloud Service Mesh63 / 100low · 40%

Pricing

Free tier

Cilium✓

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

Model

Ciliumopen_source

Google Cloud Service Meshfreemium

Price level

Ciliumfree

Google Cloud Service Meshlow

Transparent

Cilium✓

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

Integrations

Count

Cilium3

Google Cloud Service Mesh–

Security

Scorecard

Cilium5.8

Google Cloud Service Mesh–

Vulnerabilities

CiliumCount: 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

Google Cloud Service Mesh–

Reliability

Status page

Cilium–

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

Adoption

Dependent repos

Cilium103

Google Cloud Service Mesh–

Github stars

Cilium25,603

Google Cloud Service Mesh–

Activity

Commits last 30d

Cilium100

Google Cloud Service Mesh–

Release

Cadence days

Cilium5

Google Cloud Service Mesh–

History

Cilium20 items

Google Cloud Service Mesh–

License

Spdx

CiliumApache-2.0

Google Cloud Service Mesh–

Language

Primary

CiliumGo

Google Cloud Service Mesh–

Content

Faq

Cilium6 items

Google Cloud Service Mesh4 items

Capabilities

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

Capability comparison for Service Mesh
Capability	Cilium	Google Cloud Service Mesh
Architecture
Data plane	Sidecarless (eBPF)	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	Graduated	-
Ops
Commercial support / enterprise edition	-	✓

Architecture

Data plane

CiliumSidecarless (eBPF)

Google Cloud Service MeshSidecar

Proxy

CiliumEnvoy

Google Cloud Service MeshEnvoy

Security

Automatic mutual TLS

Cilium-

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

SPIFFE / SPIRE identity

Cilium✓

Google Cloud Service Mesh-

Traffic

Traffic splitting / canary

Cilium✓

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

Fault injection / resilience

Cilium-

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

Scale

Multi-cluster federation

Cilium✓

Google Cloud Service Mesh-

Portability

VM support (beyond Kubernetes)

Cilium-

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

Observability

Built-in observability

Cilium✓

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

Standards

Gateway API / GAMMA support

Cilium✓

Google Cloud Service Mesh-

Extensibility

WASM extensibility

Cilium-

Google Cloud Service Mesh-

Compliance

FIPS mode

Cilium-

Google Cloud Service Mesh-

Ecosystem

CNCF maturity

CiliumGraduated

Google Cloud Service Mesh-

Ops

Commercial support / enterprise edition

Cilium-

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

What each one is

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

Cilium

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

Google Cloud Service Mesh

Leader

A Google-managed service mesh that enables secure communication between services across hybrid and multicloud environments, automating encryption, authentication, and authorization between workloads.

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

Open sourceFree tier

as of 2026-08-13verify ↗

Google Cloud Service Mesh

Leader

from $0.00/moUsage-basedFree tier

From $0.50/client/month. Free trial available.

Pay-as-you-go$0.50/client/month (~$0.0006945/hour)
- Telemetry dashboards
- Cloud Service Mesh standard metrics
- Managed control plane
- Mesh CA (managed certificate authority)

as of 2026-08-03verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platform and deployment support comparison
Supports	Cilium	Google Cloud Service Mesh
WebPlatforms	✗	✓
LinuxPlatforms	✓	✗
CLIPlatforms	✓	✗
Cloud / SaaSDeployment	✓	✓
Self-hostedDeployment	✓	✗
On-premiseDeployment	✗	✓
HybridDeployment	✓	✓

Platforms

Web

Cilium✗

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

Linux

Cilium✓

Google Cloud Service Mesh✗

CLI

Cilium✓

Google Cloud Service Mesh✗

Deployment

Cloud / SaaS

Cilium✓

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

Self-hosted

Cilium✓

Google Cloud Service Mesh✗

On-premise

Cilium✗

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

Hybrid

Cilium✓

Google Cloud Service Mesh✓

Integrations

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

Cilium

3 total

SPIRE
Envoy
Prometheus

Independently observed

Google Cloud Service Mesh

Leader

Not documented yet.

Still deciding?

Cilium or Google Cloud Service 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.