# Open Service Mesh vs Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh

| Attribute | Open Service Mesh | Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 41.3 (53% (medium)) | 50.3 (26% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 0 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 15 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 2,553 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"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. It is indexed under Service Mesh.","source":"https://openservicemesh.io/","question":"What is Open Service Mesh?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Open Service Mesh 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://openservicemesh.io/","question":"Is Open Service Mesh free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Open Service Mesh supports Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://openservicemesh.io/","question":"What platforms does Open Service Mesh support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Open Service Mesh can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://openservicemesh.io/","question":"Can Open Service Mesh be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 8 integrations for Open Service Mesh, including Envoy, Linkerd, Istio, Consul, Kuma, Helm, SMI specification and external certificate management systems. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://openservicemesh.io/","question":"What does Open Service Mesh integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Open Service Mesh 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/openservicemesh/osm","question":"Is Open Service Mesh open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/cloud-computing/openshift/what-is-openshift-service-mesh","question":"What platforms does Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh can be deployed cloud / SaaS, on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/cloud-computing/openshift/what-is-openshift-service-mesh","question":"Can Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 8 integrations for Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh, including Istio, Envoy, Kiali, Red Hat Connectivity Link, Red Hat OpenShift Observability, cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat OpenShift Gitops and Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/cloud-computing/openshift/what-is-openshift-service-mesh","question":"What does Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh integrate with?","confidence":0.6}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A cloud-native service mesh that injects Envoy proxies to manage traffic, enforce security policies, and provide observability across microservice environments on Kubernetes. It uses SMI APIs for configuration and supports automatic mutual TLS. | Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh is a management layer built on Istio that enables secure communication between microservices and provides visibility into their interactions. It includes built-in traffic management, mutual TLS encryption for zero-trust security, and support for running a single mesh across multiple Kubernetes clusters. |
| features.capabilities | `{"proxy":"envoy","fips_mode":true,"data_plane":"sidecar","automatic_mtls":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"built_in_observability":true}` | `{"proxy":"envoy","data_plane":"sidecar","multicluster":true,"automatic_mtls":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"commercial_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` |
| integrations.count | 8 | 8 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Envoy"},{"name":"Linkerd"},{"name":"Istio"},{"name":"Consul"},{"name":"Kuma"},{"name":"Helm"},{"name":"SMI specification"},{"name":"external certificate management systems"}]` | `[{"name":"Istio"},{"name":"Envoy"},{"name":"Kiali"},{"name":"Red Hat Connectivity Link"},{"name":"Red Hat OpenShift Observability"},{"name":"cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift"},{"name":"Red Hat OpenShift Gitops"},{"name":"Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"cli":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://openservicemesh.io/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-16T21:31:56.824Z"}` | - |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | - |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | - |
| release.cadence_days | 12 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.2.4","date":"2023-04-20T21:24:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.1.4","date":"2023-04-20T21:15:41Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.2.3","date":"2022-12-14T23:49:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.2.2","date":"2022-10-21T19:08:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.1.3","date":"2022-10-20T21:42:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.2.1","date":"2022-09-07T00:12:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.1.2","date":"2022-09-06T23:42:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.2.0","date":"2022-07-20T21:58:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.2.0-rc.1","date":"2022-07-12T19:43:08Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.2.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.1.1","date":"2022-05-10T16:14:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.1.1-rc.1","date":"2022-05-04T21:17:30Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.1.1-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.1.0","date":"2022-04-14T19:48:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.1.0-rc.1","date":"2022-04-04T21:57:23Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.1.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.0.0","date":"2022-02-01T19:20:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc.4","date":"2022-01-19T22:38:08Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.0.0-rc.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc.3","date":"2022-01-10T19:20:43Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.0.0-rc.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc.2","date":"2021-11-15T17:26:39Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.0.0-rc.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v0.11.1","date":"2021-10-20T20:37:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.11.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v0.11.1-rc.1","date":"2021-10-15T23:22:02Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.11.1-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/openservicemesh/osm/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc.1","date":"2021-10-13T18:17:50Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.0.0-rc.1"}]` | - |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 4.8 | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fopenservicemesh%2Fosm&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | - |

## Capabilities (Service Mesh)

| Capability | Open Service Mesh | Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **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 | - | - |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Commercial support / enterprise edition | - | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-21T02:12:59.641Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*