Service Mesh (Istio) vs CNI (Cilium) Comparison

Service Mesh (Istio) vs CNI (Cilium) Comparison An architecture diagram generated by Archify. L7 proxy-based · Envoy Sidecar · Service Mesh (Istio) L7 proxy-based Envoy Sidecar Application-level traffic control · VirtualService · DestinationRule · Service Mesh (Istio) Application-level traffic control VirtualService · DestinationRule Rich L7 features · Retry · Timeout · Service Mesh (Istio) Rich L7 features Retry · Timeout eBPF-based · Kernel level · CNI (Cilium) eBPF-based Kernel level Network-level policy enforcement · L3/L4 NetworkPolicy · CNI (Cilium) Network-level policy enforcement L3/L4 NetworkPolicy High performance · Low overhead · CNI (Cilium) High performance Low overhead Service Mesh · complex L7 logic · Usage Scenarios Service Mesh complex L7 logic Use both · large enterprise · Usage Scenarios Use both large enterprise Cilium · policy · performance · Usage Scenarios Cilium policy · performance complex L7 logic policy · performance first Service Mesh (Istio) CNI (Cilium) Usage Scenarios Legend Istio Cilium Scenarios

When Cilium is More Suitable

  • • L3/L4 network policies are the main purpose
  • • High performance is a core requirement
  • • Avoiding Service Mesh operational burden
  • • Only simple mTLS and observability needed