# Istio vs MOSN

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Istio

| Attribute | Istio | MOSN |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 55.7 (53% (medium)) | 37.4 (54% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 149 | 22 |
| adoption.github_stars | 38,429 | 4,508 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Istio extends Kubernetes with programmable networking capabilities, enabling traffic management, mutual TLS encryption, authorization, and observability across services. It supports both traditional sidecar proxy deployment and newer ambient mesh mode without sidecar injection. It is indexed under Service Mesh.","source":"https://istio.io","question":"What is Istio?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Istio 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://istio.io","question":"Is Istio free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Istio supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://istio.io","question":"What platforms does Istio support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Istio can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://istio.io","question":"Can Istio be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed GDPR for Istio. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Istio not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://istio.io/latest/docs/tasks/security/cert-management/","question":"What security certifications does Istio have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Yes. Istio 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/istio/istio","question":"Is Istio 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,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | An open-source service mesh that provides unified traffic management, security, and observability for microservices. Supports both sidecar-based and sidecar-less deployment models for flexibility. | 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":"sidecar","vm_support":true,"cncf_maturity":"graduated","automatic_mtls":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"commercial_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 | 1 | 3 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"cert-manager"}]` | `[{"name":"Istio"},{"name":"Envoy"},{"name":"Jaeger"},{"name":"Skywalking"},{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Holmes"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"cli":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://istio.io","retrievedAt":"2026-10-05T11:09:31.377Z"}` | `{"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 | 2 | 62 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.31.1","date":"2026-09-21T14:45:03Z","type":"stable","version":"1.31.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.30.5","date":"2026-09-21T19:32:06Z","type":"stable","version":"1.30.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.29.8","date":"2026-09-21T19:31:49Z","type":"stable","version":"1.29.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.31.0","date":"2026-08-31T15:47:13Z","type":"stable","version":"1.31.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.31.0-rc.4","date":"2026-08-27T19:10:50Z","type":"prerelease","version":"1.31.0-rc.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.30.4","date":"2026-08-27T15:10:20Z","type":"stable","version":"1.30.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.29.7","date":"2026-08-27T15:11:19Z","type":"stable","version":"1.29.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.31.0-rc.2","date":"2026-08-25T16:57:21Z","type":"prerelease","version":"1.31.0-rc.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.31.0-rc.0","date":"2026-08-19T14:07:42Z","type":"prerelease","version":"1.31.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.31.0-beta.2","date":"2026-08-19T13:05:52Z","type":"prerelease","version":"1.31.0-beta.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.31.0-beta.1","date":"2026-08-17T12:46:22Z","type":"prerelease","version":"1.31.0-beta.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.31.0-alpha.2","date":"2026-08-11T12:40:13Z","type":"prerelease","version":"1.31.0-alpha.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.31.0-alpha.0","date":"2026-07-22T10:19:54Z","type":"prerelease","version":"1.31.0-alpha.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.30.3","date":"2026-07-16T16:50:56Z","type":"stable","version":"1.30.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.29.6","date":"2026-07-16T16:51:06Z","type":"stable","version":"1.29.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.28.10","date":"2026-07-01T10:31:11Z","type":"stable","version":"1.28.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.30.2","date":"2026-06-24T18:25:13Z","type":"stable","version":"1.30.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.29.5","date":"2026-06-24T18:25:57Z","type":"stable","version":"1.29.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.28.9","date":"2026-06-24T18:26:50Z","type":"stable","version":"1.28.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/istio/istio/releases/tag/1.30.1","date":"2026-06-04T21:49:36Z","type":"stable","version":"1.30.1"}]` | `[{"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.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 6.4 | 3.3 |
| security.trust_center | https://istio.io/latest/news/security/ | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":11,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=istio.io%2Fistio&per_page=100","last_12m":2,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` | `{"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 | Istio | MOSN |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **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 | Graduated | - |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Commercial support / enterprise edition | ✓ | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:41:58.577Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*