# AWS App Mesh vs Azure Service Mesh

**Leader by Vioscale score:** AWS App Mesh

| Attribute | AWS App Mesh | Azure Service Mesh |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 64.7 (63% (medium)) | 28.9 (4% (low)) |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | AWS App Mesh is an application networking service that provides consistent visibility and network traffic controls for microservices. It uses sidecar proxies to manage service communication, observability, and security without requiring application code changes. | Istio-based service mesh add-on for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) that provides observability, traffic management, and security capabilities for distributed microservices architectures. |
| features.capabilities | `{"data_plane":"sidecar","cncf_maturity":"none","automatic_mtls":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"commercial_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` | `{"proxy":"envoy","data_plane":"sidecar","vm_support":true,"cncf_maturity":"graduated"}` |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","summary":"Pay-as-you-go usage-based pricing; specific pricing rates not disclosed on provided pages","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_pr","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T16:50:07.963Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/istio-about","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T08:36:53.281Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | - |
| pricing.model | freemium | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.transparent | no | - |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.iso27001 | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.soc2 | yes | - |

## Capabilities (Service Mesh)

| Capability | AWS App Mesh | Azure Service Mesh |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| Data plane | Sidecar | Sidecar |
| Proxy | - | 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 | None | Graduated |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Commercial support / enterprise edition | ✓ | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T17:25:21.496Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*