Comparison

Cilium vs Open Service Mesh

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 →Open Service Mesh full profile →

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★Cilium63

Open Service Mesh39

Attribute comparison across 2 tools
Attribute	CiliumLeader	Open Service Mesh
Vioscale score	63 / 100low · 42%	39 / 100medium · 54%
Pricing
Free tierpricing.free_tier	✓	✓
Modelpricing.model	open_source	open_source
Price levelpricing.price_level	free	free
Transparentpricing.transparent	✓	-
Integrations
Countintegrations.count	-	8
Security
Scorecardsecurity.scorecard	5.8	4.8
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%2Fopenservicemesh%2Fosm&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0
Adoption
Dependent reposadoption.dependent_repos	103	15
Github starsadoption.github_stars	25,013	2,551
Activity
Commits last 30dactivity.commits_last_30d	100	0
Release
Cadence daysrelease.cadence_days	5	12
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

Score

Vioscale score

Cilium63 / 100low · 42%

Open Service Mesh39 / 100medium · 54%

Pricing

Free tier

Cilium✓

Open Service Mesh✓

Model

Ciliumopen_source

Open Service Meshopen_source

Price level

Ciliumfree

Open Service Meshfree

Transparent

Cilium✓

Open Service Mesh–

Integrations

Count

Cilium–

Open Service Mesh8

Security

Scorecard

Cilium5.8

Open Service Mesh4.8

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

Open Service MeshCount: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fopenservicemesh%2Fosm&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0

Adoption

Dependent repos

Cilium103

Open Service Mesh15

Github stars

Cilium25,013

Open Service Mesh2,551

Activity

Commits last 30d

Cilium100

Open Service Mesh0

Release

Cadence days

Cilium5

Open Service Mesh12

History

Cilium20 items

Open Service Mesh20 items

License

Spdx

CiliumApache-2.0

Open Service MeshApache-2.0

Language

Primary

CiliumGo

Open Service MeshGo

Market

Availability

Cilium–

Open Service MeshAvailable worldwide

Capabilities

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

Capability comparison for Service Mesh
Capability	Cilium	Open 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	-	-
Ops
Commercial support / enterprise edition	-	-

Architecture

Data plane

CiliumSidecarless (eBPF)

Open Service MeshSidecar

Proxy

CiliumEnvoy

Open Service MeshEnvoy

Security

Automatic mutual TLS

Cilium-

Open Service Mesh✓

SPIFFE / SPIRE identity

Cilium-

Open Service Mesh-

Traffic

Traffic splitting / canary

Cilium-

Open Service Mesh✓

Fault injection / resilience

Cilium-

Open Service Mesh-

Scale

Multi-cluster federation

Cilium✓

Open Service Mesh-

Portability

VM support (beyond Kubernetes)

Cilium-

Open Service Mesh-

Observability

Built-in observability

Cilium✓

Open Service Mesh✓

Standards

Gateway API / GAMMA support

Cilium✓

Open Service Mesh-

Extensibility

WASM extensibility

Cilium-

Open Service Mesh-

Compliance

FIPS mode

Cilium-

Open Service Mesh✓

Ecosystem

CNCF maturity

Cilium-

Open Service Mesh-

Ops

Commercial support / enterprise edition

Cilium-

Open Service Mesh-

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

Open Service Mesh

Manages traffic, enforces access policies, and provides operational visibility for microservices running in Kubernetes clusters. Emphasizes simplicity in installation and maintenance through standardized configuration interfaces.

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 ↗

Open Service Mesh

Open source

as of 2026-08-16verify ↗

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	Open Service Mesh
LinuxPlatforms	✓	✓
CLIPlatforms	✓	✓
Cloud / SaaSDeployment	✓	✗
Self-hostedDeployment	✓	✓

Platforms

Linux

Cilium✓

Open Service Mesh✓

CLI

Cilium✓

Open Service Mesh✓

Deployment

Cloud / SaaS

Cilium✓

Open Service Mesh✗

Self-hosted

Cilium✓

Open Service Mesh✓

Integrations

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

Cilium

Leader

Not documented yet.

Open Service Mesh

8 total

Envoy
Linkerd
Istio
Consul
Kuma
Helm
SMI specification
external certificate management systems

Independently observed

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