No. 2 of 27 ·Microsegmentation Software

Istio

Mac · Linux · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Two barsScore 6.4

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely2 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Istio is ranked #2 of 27 in microsegmentation software on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, macOS, Self-hosted. There is a free plan.

Istio plans and pricing

All plans

Istio Free Open source service mesh · Releases accessible at no cost istio.io · 29 Sept 2026

Compared on microsegmentation software

Free plan: Yes

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The record

What it does: Istio is an open source service mesh that adds ways to secure, connect, and monitor distributed applications with few or no service code changes.
Traffic management: Istio supports automatic load balancing for HTTP, gRPC, WebSocket, and TCP traffic, plus routing rules, retries, failovers, and fault injection.
Deployment modes: Istio supports sidecar mode and ambient mode, which uses a per-node Layer 4 proxy and optionally a per-namespace Envoy proxy for Layer 7 features.
Workload environments: Istio’s control plane runs on Kubernetes and the mesh can extend to other clusters, virtual machines, and endpoints outside Kubernetes.
Security: Istio security features include workload identity, mutual TLS, authentication, authorization policies, and audit tools.
Observability: Istio can generate metrics, logs, and traces for traffic in a cluster, including ingress and egress traffic.
Integrations: Istio’s integration documentation covers cert-manager, Grafana, Jaeger, Kiali, Prometheus, SPIRE, Apache SkyWalking, Zipkin, and third-party load balancers.
Extensibility: Istio uses Envoy proxies and supports extensions including WebAssembly modules and third-party policy systems.
Installation: Istio can be installed with istioctl or Helm, and its release archive includes the istioctl binary, installation profiles, Helm charts, and samples.
Supported Kubernetes versions: The Istio 1.31 release supports Kubernetes versions 1.32 through 1.36.
Community support: For supported releases, the Istio community provides patch releases for critical issues and technical assistance; partners may offer longer-term support.
Release support window: A minor release is supported until six weeks after the N+2 minor release, and development builds have no support.
Project status: Istio is a graduated Cloud Native Computing Foundation project.
Founded: 2016
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Microsegmentation Software in 2026#2 of 27
Best Service Mesh Platforms in 2026#3 of 16

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Sources

istio.io/latest/docs/overview/what-is-istio/· checked 29 Sept 2026
istio.io/latest/docs/concepts/security/· checked 29 Sept 2026
istio.io/latest/docs/ops/integrations/· checked 29 Sept 2026
istio.io/docs/concepts/what-is-istio/· checked 29 Sept 2026
istio.io/latest/docs/setup/additional-setup/down· checked 29 Sept 2026
istio.io/latest/docs/releases/supported-releases· checked 29 Sept 2026
istio.io· checked 23 Sept 2026