# AWS App Mesh vs NGINX Service Mesh

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

| Attribute | AWS App Mesh | NGINX Service Mesh |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 64.7 (63% (medium)) | 47.1 (48% (low)) |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":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. | F5 NGINX delivers, secures, and scales apps, APIs, Kubernetes services, and AI workloads through a lightweight, high-performance solution designed for distributed, hybrid multi-cloud environments. Standardizes traffic routing, security, and observability across environments. |
| features.capabilities | `{"data_plane":"sidecar","cncf_maturity":"none","automatic_mtls":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"commercial_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` | `{"proxy":"envoy","multicluster":true,"commercial_support":true,"gateway_api_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` |
| integrations.count | - | 3 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"Azure"},{"name":"Google Cloud"},{"name":"Kubernetes"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | - | `{"cli":true,"linux":true}` |
| 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":"subscription","summary":"Subscription and flex consumption models available. Free trials offered.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.nginx.com/products/nginx-service-mesh/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-03T13:09:44.036Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | low | low |
| pricing.transparent | no | 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 | NGINX Service Mesh |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| Data plane | 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 | - |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Commercial support / enterprise edition | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T17:23:04.779Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*