# Google Cloud Service Mesh vs Kuma

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Google Cloud Service Mesh

| Attribute | Google Cloud Service Mesh | Kuma |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 69.2 (41% (low)) | 53.3 (36% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 8 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 3,995 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A fully managed service mesh platform that unifies service mesh across VMs, containers, and serverless applications with traffic management, security, and fault injection capabilities. | Open-source control plane for service mesh delivering security, observability, routing and more. Built on Envoy with support for Kubernetes, VMs, and multi-cluster deployments. |
| features.capabilities | `{"proxy":"envoy","data_plane":"sidecar","vm_support":true,"automatic_mtls":true,"fault_injection":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"commercial_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` | `{"proxy":"envoy","data_plane":"sidecar","vm_support":true,"multicluster":true,"cncf_maturity":"sandbox","automatic_mtls":true,"fault_injection":true,"traffic_splitting":true,"commercial_support":true,"gateway_api_support":true,"built_in_observability":true}` |
| integrations.count | - | 4 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"Datadog"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry"}]` |
| language.primary | - | Go |
| license.spdx | - | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | - | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"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"]}` | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Open-source with enterprise offerings available (demo on request)","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://kuma.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T09:40:11.791Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | no |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.14.3","date":"2026-08-10T13:27:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.13.10","date":"2026-08-01T16:57:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.12.14","date":"2026-08-01T16:57:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.11.18","date":"2026-08-01T16:57:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.18"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/2.9.19","date":"2026-08-01T16:57:55Z","type":"stable","version":"2.9.19"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.7.29","date":"2026-08-01T16:57:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.7.29"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.14.2","date":"2026-08-01T16:57:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.14.1","date":"2026-07-15T13:30:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.13.9","date":"2026-07-11T07:53:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.12.13","date":"2026-07-10T17:16:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.11.17","date":"2026-07-10T18:06:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/2.9.18","date":"2026-07-10T18:24:39Z","type":"stable","version":"2.9.18"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.7.28","date":"2026-07-10T18:11:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.7.28"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.11.16","date":"2026-06-23T12:37:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.14.0","date":"2026-06-12T18:26:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.13.8","date":"2026-06-05T15:42:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.13.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.12.12","date":"2026-06-05T15:43:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.11.15","date":"2026-06-05T15:43:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/2.9.17","date":"2026-06-05T15:45:37Z","type":"stable","version":"2.9.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/releases/tag/v2.7.27","date":"2026-06-05T16:24:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.7.27"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | - | 8.3 |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fkumahq%2Fkuma%2Fpkg%2Ftransparentproxy%2Fistio&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Service Mesh)

| Capability | Google Cloud Service Mesh | Kuma |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **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 | - | Sandbox |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Commercial support / enterprise edition | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T15:18:31.952Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*