# Consul vs Kuma

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Consul

| Attribute | Consul | Kuma |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 58.6 (75% (high)) | 51.5 (43% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 30 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 67,699 | 8 |
| adoption.github_stars | 30,091 | 4,012 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Consul provides service mesh, service discovery, API gateway, health checking, and dynamic configuration management for applications across distributed infrastructure. Available in open-source and enterprise editions. It is indexed under Service Mesh.","source":"https://www.consul.io","question":"What is Consul?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Consul supports Windows, macOS, Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.consul.io","question":"What platforms does Consul support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Consul can be deployed on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.consul.io","question":"Can Consul be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and ISO 27001 for Consul. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Consul not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.consul.io/security","question":"What security certifications does Consul have?","confidence":0.7}]` | `[{"answer":"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. It is indexed under Service Mesh.","source":"https://kuma.io","question":"What is Kuma?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Kuma 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://kuma.io","question":"Is Kuma free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Kuma supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://kuma.io","question":"What platforms does Kuma support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Kuma can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid, on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://kuma.io","question":"Can Kuma be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 4 integrations for Kuma, including Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog and OpenTelemetry. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://kuma.io","question":"What does Kuma integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed GDPR for Kuma. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Kuma not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://kuma.io/privacy/","question":"What security certifications does Kuma have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Yes. Kuma 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/kumahq/kuma","question":"Is Kuma open source?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"Kuma is available worldwide. The vendor is headquartered in the United States.","source":"https://kuma.io","question":"Where is Kuma available?","confidence":0.75}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A platform that enables service discovery, configuration management, and secure service-to-service communication with automatic encryption and identity-based access control across distributed infrastructure. | 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. |
| features.capabilities | `{"proxy":"envoy","data_plane":"sidecar","vm_support":true,"multicluster":true,"automatic_mtls":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"commercial_support":true,"wasm_extensibility":true,"gateway_api_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` | `{"proxy":"envoy","data_plane":"sidecar","vm_support":true,"multicluster":true,"cncf_maturity":"sandbox","automatic_mtls":true,"fault_injection":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"commercial_support":true,"gateway_api_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` |
| integrations.count | 1 | 2 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Kubernetes","native":true}]` | `[{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"Datadog"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | Go |
| license.spdx | - | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | - | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"hybrid","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.consul.io","retrievedAt":"2026-10-05T10:05:51.911Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://kuma.io","retrievedAt":"2026-09-10T16:04:49.974Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | no |
| release.cadence_days | 15 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.1.0-rc1","date":"2026-09-29T05:22:27Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.1.0-rc1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.4","date":"2026-09-10T06:12:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.3","date":"2026-08-07T17:25:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.2","date":"2026-07-08T10:39:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.1","date":"2026-06-19T07:23:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.0","date":"2026-05-24T05:55:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.0-rc2","date":"2026-05-15T11:56:11Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.0.0-rc2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v2.0.0-rc1","date":"2026-04-29T17:34:24Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.0.0-rc1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v1.22.7","date":"2026-04-25T07:38:41Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.22.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v1.22.6","date":"2026-03-26T10:44:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.22.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v1.22.5","date":"2026-02-27T07:18:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.22.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v1.22.4","date":"2026-02-19T05:41:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.22.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v1.22.3","date":"2026-01-23T04:32:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.22.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/v1.22.2","date":"2025-12-17T11:57:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.22.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/ent-changelog-1.22.0","date":"2025-12-02T02:25:41Z","type":"stable","version":"ent-changelog-1.22.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/ent-changelog-1.20.9","date":"2025-12-02T02:25:20Z","type":"stable","version":"ent-changelog-1.20.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/ent-changelog-1.20.8","date":"2025-12-02T02:25:17Z","type":"stable","version":"ent-changelog-1.20.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/ent-changelog-1.20.13","date":"2025-12-02T02:25:37Z","type":"stable","version":"ent-changelog-1.20.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/ent-changelog-1.20.12","date":"2025-12-02T02:25:33Z","type":"stable","version":"ent-changelog-1.20.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/releases/tag/ent-changelog-1.20.11","date":"2025-12-02T02:25:29Z","type":"stable","version":"ent-changelog-1.20.11"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.14.5","date":"2026-09-18T13:38:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.13.11","date":"2026-09-11T21:11:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.12.15","date":"2026-09-11T21:11:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.11.19","date":"2026-09-11T21:11:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.19"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/2.9.20","date":"2026-09-11T21:11:45Z","type":"stable","version":"2.9.20"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.7.30","date":"2026-09-11T21:11:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.7.30"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.14.4","date":"2026-09-02T22:53:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.14.3","date":"2026-08-10T13:27:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.13.10","date":"2026-08-01T16:57:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.12.14","date":"2026-08-01T16:57:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.11.18","date":"2026-08-01T16:57:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.18"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/2.9.19","date":"2026-08-01T16:57:55Z","type":"stable","version":"2.9.19"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.7.29","date":"2026-08-01T16:57:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.7.29"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.14.2","date":"2026-08-01T16:57:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.14.1","date":"2026-07-15T13:30:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.13.9","date":"2026-07-11T07:53:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.12.13","date":"2026-07-10T17:16:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.11.17","date":"2026-07-10T18:06:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/2.9.18","date":"2026-07-10T18:24:39Z","type":"stable","version":"2.9.18"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.7.28","date":"2026-07-10T18:11:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.7.28"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 7.5 | 8 |
| security.soc2 | yes | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fhashicorp%2Fconsul%2Fapi&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"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,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Service Mesh)

| Capability | Consul | Kuma |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| Data plane | Sidecar | 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 | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:53:46.767Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*