Comparison

Cilium vs Kuma

On the evidence we track, Cilium 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 →Kuma full profile →

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★Cilium63

Kuma53

Attribute comparison across 2 tools
Attribute	CiliumLeader	Kuma
Vioscale score	63 / 100low · 42%	53 / 100low · 36%
Pricing
Free tierpricing.free_tier	✓	✓
Modelpricing.model	open_source	commercial
Price levelpricing.price_level	free	free
Transparentpricing.transparent	✓	✗
Integrations
Countintegrations.count	-	4
Security
Disclosure policysecurity.disclosure_policy	-	✓
Gdprsecurity.gdpr	-	✓
Scorecardsecurity.scorecard	5.8	8.3
Vulnerabilitiessecurity.vulnerabilities	Count: 37 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fcilium%2Fcilium&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 6 · Max severity: CRITICAL	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	103	8
Github starsadoption.github_stars	25,013	3,995
Activity
Commits last 30dactivity.commits_last_30d	100	100
Release
Cadence daysrelease.cadence_days	5	-
Historyrelease.history	20 items	20 items
License
Spdxlicense.spdx	Apache-2.0	Apache-2.0
Language
Primarylanguage.primary	Go	Go
Market
Availabilitymarket.availability	-	Available worldwide · HQ US

Score

Vioscale score

Cilium63 / 100low · 42%

Kuma53 / 100low · 36%

Pricing

Free tier

Cilium✓

Kuma✓

Model

Ciliumopen_source

Kumacommercial

Price level

Ciliumfree

Kumafree

Transparent

Cilium✓

Kuma✗

Integrations

Count

Cilium–

Kuma4

Security

Disclosure policy

Cilium–

Kuma✓

Gdpr

Cilium–

Kuma✓

Scorecard

Cilium5.8

Kuma8.3

Vulnerabilities

CiliumCount: 37 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fcilium%2Fcilium&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 6 · Max severity: CRITICAL

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

Cilium103

Kuma8

Github stars

Cilium25,013

Kuma3,995

Activity

Commits last 30d

Cilium100

Kuma100

Release

Cadence days

Cilium5

Kuma–

History

Cilium20 items

Kuma20 items

License

Spdx

CiliumApache-2.0

KumaApache-2.0

Language

Primary

CiliumGo

KumaGo

Market

Availability

Cilium–

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	Cilium	Kuma
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	-	Sandbox
Ops
Commercial support / enterprise edition	-	✓

Architecture

Data plane

CiliumSidecarless (eBPF)

KumaSidecar

Proxy

CiliumEnvoy

KumaEnvoy

Security

Automatic mutual TLS

Cilium-

Kuma✓

SPIFFE / SPIRE identity

Cilium-

Kuma-

Traffic

Traffic splitting / canary

Cilium-

Kuma✓

Fault injection / resilience

Cilium-

Kuma✓

Scale

Multi-cluster federation

Cilium✓

Kuma✓

Portability

VM support (beyond Kubernetes)

Cilium-

Kuma✓

Observability

Built-in observability

Cilium✓

Kuma✓

Standards

Gateway API / GAMMA support

Cilium✓

Kuma✓

Extensibility

WASM extensibility

Cilium-

Kuma-

Compliance

FIPS mode

Cilium-

Kuma-

Ecosystem

CNCF maturity

Cilium-

KumaSandbox

Ops

Commercial support / enterprise edition

Cilium-

Kuma✓

What each one is

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

Cilium

Leader

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.

Independently observed

Kuma

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.

Cilium

Leader

Open sourceFree tier

as of 2026-08-13verify ↗

Kuma

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	Cilium	Kuma
WebPlatforms	✗	✓
LinuxPlatforms	✓	✗
CLIPlatforms	✓	✓
Cloud / SaaSDeployment	✓	✓
Self-hostedDeployment	✓	✓
On-premiseDeployment	✗	✓
HybridDeployment	✗	✓

Platforms

Web

Cilium✗

Kuma✓

Linux

Cilium✓

Kuma✗

CLI

Cilium✓

Kuma✓

Deployment

Cloud / SaaS

Cilium✓

Kuma✓

Self-hosted

Cilium✓

Kuma✓

On-premise

Cilium✗

Kuma✓

Hybrid

Cilium✗

Kuma✓

Integrations

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

Cilium

Leader

Not documented yet.

Kuma

4 total

Prometheus
Grafana
Datadog
OpenTelemetry

Independently observed

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