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No. 6 of 29 ·Distributed Tracing Tools

Hubble

Web · Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted · API

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Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.6

  • Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
  • Open codeNo open-source code on record
  • Runs widely4 of 6 device platforms
  • DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Hubble is a networking and security observability platform built on Cilium and eBPF. It provides visibility into network flows with identity and label metadata, DNS-aware filters, and protocol-specific details. Its UI displays service dependencies and recent flow events in a graphical map. This flow information can help teams distinguish DNS, application, and Layer 4 or Layer 7 network problems. The CLI retrieves flow events from Hubble Relay or a local server, while Relay can extend visibility across one cluster or multiple clusters in a ClusterMesh setup. Cilium documentation describes metrics and alerting connections to Prometheus, Grafana, and other monitoring systems. When Hubble APIs are exposed over TCP, connections between Hubble instances and Relay use mutual TLS by default. Hubble is free, with a listed plan of 0.00 USD per free. It requires Cilium in a Kubernetes cluster and observes only pods managed by Cilium. Layer 7 flow data is not redacted by default, although Cilium provides options for redacting selected HTTP details.

Who it is for

Hubble suits teams using Cilium in Kubernetes who need network-flow visibility and troubleshooting across clusters. It may also help teams connecting observability metrics and alerts to monitoring systems.

What is good

  • Displays service dependencies and recent flow events.
  • Flow details include identity and label metadata.
  • Relay can span clusters in a ClusterMesh setup.
  • TCP connections to Relay use mutual TLS by default.
  • Free plan costs 0.00 USD per free.

What to know first

  • Requires Cilium in a Kubernetes cluster.
  • Observes only pods managed by Cilium.
  • Layer 7 flow data is not redacted by default.

Verdict

Hubble provides flow visibility and service maps for Cilium-managed workloads, with a CLI and multi-cluster Relay options. It is free, but requires Cilium and does not observe pods outside its management.

Hubble plans and pricing

All plans
Hubble Free Open source observability layer of Cilium · Requires Cilium to be installed in a Kubernetes cluster docs.cilium.io · 1 Oct 2026

Compared on distributed tracing tools

Free plan
Yes
OpenTelemetry support
Yes
Service map
Yes
Deployment model
self_hosted

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