Cilium
An open-source platform for managing network connectivity, security, and observability in cloud-native environments using eBPF kernel technology
- Also known as
- cilium
What is Cilium?
Cilium is an open-source networking layer for Kubernetes that uses eBPF to provide container-to-container communication, load balancing, network policies, multi-cluster connectivity, and deep observability across single or multiple clusters.
Cilium pricing
We don't have Cilium's full plan breakdown yet (its pricing page resisted automated reading). Here's what we could confirm. Always check live pricing for exact numbers.
What Cilium does
The capabilities that matter for service mesh, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.
- Data plane
- Sidecarless (eBPF)
- Proxy
- Envoy
- Automatic mutual TLS
- -
- SPIFFE / SPIRE identity
- ✓
- Traffic splitting / canary
- ✓
- Fault injection / resilience
- -
- Multi-cluster federation
- ✓
- VM support (beyond Kubernetes)
- -
- Built-in observability
- ✓
- Gateway API / GAMMA support
- ✓
- WASM extensibility
- -
- FIPS mode
- -
- CNCF maturity
- Graduated
- Commercial support / enterprise edition
- -
Platform & deployment
Independently observed- CLI
- Linux
- Cloud / SaaS
- Hybrid
- Self-hosted
Integrations (3)
Independently observed- SPIRE←
- Envoy
- Prometheus→
Security & compliance
Known vulnerabilities: 39 (8 in the last 12 months), max severity CRITICAL sourcea count reflects scale & disclosure, not quality
Cilium FAQ
Common questions about Cilium, answered from independent, dated evidence.
What is Cilium?
A cloud-native networking and security platform that uses eBPF to provide networking, observability, and security capabilities. Built for Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure with integrated observability via Hubble. It is indexed under Service Mesh.
Source: https://cilium.io
Is Cilium free to use?
Cilium 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://cilium.io
What platforms does Cilium support?
Cilium supports Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.
Source: https://cilium.io
Can Cilium be self-hosted?
Yes. Cilium can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.
Source: https://cilium.io
What does Cilium integrate with?
We have confirmed 3 integrations for Cilium, including SPIRE, Envoy and Prometheus. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.
Source: https://cilium.io
Is Cilium open source?
Yes. Cilium 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/cilium/cilium
Cilium alternatives
Other service mesh we track, ranked by the same independent score.
- Google Cloud Service MeshA fully managed service mesh platform built on Envoy and Istiolow · 40%
- AWS App MeshA managed service that automates network traffic control and observability for microservicesmedium · 69%
- ConsulA distributed system for connecting and managing services across multiple data centershigh · 75%
- Kong MeshA service mesh for connecting, managing, and securing workloads across any environmentlow · 38%
- Tetrate Service Bridgelow · 31%
- IstioA platform for managing microservice communication, security, and monitoring across cloud-native deploymentsmedium · 53%
Compare Cilium
Side by side against other service mesh, attribute by attribute, with a source on every value.
The vioscaleAI score: one lens on the evidence
Not user reviews and not a paid placement: a confidence-weighted blend of the independent signals below (adoption, activity, security posture, and more), which you can sort and re-weight yourself. Vendors can correct their listing but can never move their rank, and stars are weighted low as a vanity metric. It is one way to read the evidence for Cilium, not the verdict.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Contribution | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Development activity | 63 | 0.09 | 5.9 | ✓ |
| Release cadence | 97 | 0.05 | 5.1 | ✓ |
| Capabilities | 75 | 0.06 | 4.7 | ✓ |
| Security score | 58 | 0.04 | 2.4 | ✓ |
| Stars | 83 | 0.03 | 2.2 | ✓ |
| Dependent projects | 34 | 0.06 | 2.1 | ✓ |
| Integrations | 17 | 0.07 | 1.3 | ✓ |
| Security posture | 0 | 0.12 | 0.0 | - |
| Package downloads | 0 | 0.14 | 0.0 | - |
| Developer Q&A activity | 0 | 0.06 | 0.0 | - |
Computed . Re-weight it by intent, or see the full method.
All data & sourcesshow ↓
Every value we hold, with its source, retrieval date, and confidence. This is the evidence behind the score: don't trust it, verify it.
Activity
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Commits last 30d | 100 | mediumsource · 2026-10-05 · 65% |
Adoption
Content
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Faq | 6 items | mediumsource · 2026-09-10 · 66% |
Features
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | Proxy: envoy · Data plane: sidecarless_ebpf · Multicluster: Yes · Cncf maturity: graduated · Spiffe identity: Yes · Traffic splitting: Yes | mediumsource · 2026-10-05 · 60% |
Integrations
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Count | 3 | mediumsource · 2026-09-07 · 60% |
Language
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Go | highsource · 2026-10-05 · 90% |
License
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Spdx | Apache-2.0 | highsource · 2026-10-05 · 95% |
Pricing
Release
Security
Is Cilium the right choice for you?
Tell us the job, the constraints and what you weigh most, and we will rank Cilium against the rest of the service mesh we index, using the same dated evidence weighted your way.
Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works
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