# Cilium vs MOSN

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Cilium

| Attribute | Cilium | MOSN |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 55.8 (54% (medium)) | 37.4 (54% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 103 | 22 |
| adoption.github_stars | 25,603 | 4,508 |
| 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":"A cloud-native network proxy platform written in Go, open-sourced by Ant Group and production-verified at scale. Supports multi-protocol communication and can integrate with Istio for Service Mesh or operate independently as a load balancer, API gateway, or Ingress controller. It is indexed under Service Mesh.","source":"https://mosn.io/","question":"What is MOSN?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"MOSN 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://mosn.io/","question":"Is MOSN free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"MOSN supports Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://mosn.io/","question":"What platforms does MOSN support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. MOSN can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://mosn.io/","question":"Can MOSN be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 6 integrations for MOSN, including Istio, Envoy, Jaeger, Skywalking, Prometheus and Holmes. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://mosn.io/","question":"What does MOSN integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. MOSN 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/mosn/mosn","question":"Is MOSN 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. | A Go-based, open-source network proxy that integrates with Istio to create service meshes and functions as a standalone load balancer, API gateway, and ingress controller. |
| 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":"envoy","data_plane":"sidecar","vm_support":true,"multicluster":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"wasm_extensibility":true,"built_in_observability":true}` |
| integrations.count | 3 | 3 |
| 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":"Istio"},{"name":"Envoy"},{"name":"Jaeger"},{"name":"Skywalking"},{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Holmes"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"linux":true}` | `{"cli":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://cilium.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T09:27:47.184Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://mosn.io/","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T22:34:36.592Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | - |
| release.cadence_days | 5 | 62 |
| 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/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v1.6.1","date":"2024-08-01T03:04:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v1.6.0","date":"2023-08-17T07:30:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v1.5.0","date":"2023-04-25T11:13:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v1.4.0","date":"2023-02-28T09:54:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v1.3.0","date":"2022-12-01T06:40:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v1.2.0","date":"2022-10-28T04:32:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v1.1.0","date":"2022-08-23T08:44:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v1.0.1","date":"2022-05-11T07:58:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v1.0.0","date":"2022-04-15T09:17:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v0.27.0","date":"2022-04-06T06:49:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.27.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v0.26.0","date":"2021-12-29T01:22:51Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.26.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v0.25.0","date":"2021-10-12T06:28:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.25.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v0.24.0","date":"2021-08-05T13:12:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.24.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v0.23.0","date":"2021-06-04T09:56:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.23.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v0.22.0","date":"2021-04-02T09:43:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.22.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v0.21.0","date":"2021-02-02T03:38:05Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.21.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v0.20.0","date":"2021-01-05T03:29:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.20.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v0.19.0","date":"2020-12-01T12:22:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.19.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v0.18.0","date":"2020-11-03T05:55:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.18.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/mosn/mosn/releases/tag/v0.17.0","date":"2020-09-30T07:15:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.0"}]` |
| security.scorecard | 5.8 | 3.3 |
| 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"}` | `{"count":1,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=mosn.io%2Fmosn&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` |

## Capabilities (Service Mesh)

| Capability | Cilium | MOSN |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **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 | - | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:41:34.208Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*