# Cilium vs Google Cloud Service Mesh

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Cilium

| Attribute | Cilium | Google Cloud Service Mesh |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 74 (16% (low)) | 69.6 (30% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 24,837 | - |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true}` |
| description.long | Cilium is an open source, cloud native solution for providing, securing, and observing network connectivity between workloads, fueled by the revolutionary Kernel technology eBPF. | Cloud Service Mesh is a fully managed service mesh that provides service networking, traffic management, and security across hybrid and multicloud deployments. It supports VMs, containers, and serverless workloads with zero-trust security, fault injection, and built-in observability. |
| features.capabilities | `{"proxy":"ebpf","data_plane":"sidecarless_ebpf","multicluster":true,"cncf_maturity":"graduated","commercial_support":true,"gateway_api_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` | `{"proxy":"envoy","data_plane":"sidecar","vm_support":true,"automatic_mtls":true,"fault_injection":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"commercial_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` |
| language.primary | Go | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://cilium.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-01T15:34:37.516Z"}` | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Pay-as-you-go","summary":"$0.50/client/month (~$0.0006945/hour)","features":["Telemetry dashboards","Cloud Service Mesh standard metrics","Managed control plane","Mesh CA (managed certificate authority)"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"hour per client"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.0006945,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Per-client metered pricing","contactSales":false}],"summary":"From $0.50/client/month. Free trial available.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://cloud.google.com/service-mesh","retrievedAt":"2026-08-03T13:00:05.169Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.0006945,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.starting_gbp | - | 0.001 |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 5 | - |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |

## Capabilities (Service Mesh)

| Capability | Cilium | Google Cloud Service Mesh |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| Data plane | Sidecarless (eBPF) | Sidecar |
| Proxy | eBPF | 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: Vioscale. Generated 2026-08-07T00:02:20.639Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*