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Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd vs Kuma

Both stand on service mesh platforms. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd

Free plan LinuxSelf-hostedWeb+1

BEL combines traffic security and controls with multicluster support and observability for Kubernetes environments. It is free to try, while production use for companies with 50 or more employees requires contacting Buoyant about paid plans.

Visit Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd

Kuma

Free plan Open source APILinuxMac+2

Kuma offers traffic management, security, and observability features across several deployment environments. Note that it is self-hosted and the GUI is read-only in the Kubernetes quickstart.

Visit Kuma

The facts

Buoyant Enterprise for LinkerdKuma
Free planYesYes
Open sourceNot publishedYes
Runs onLinux, Self-hosted, Web, WindowsAPI, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web
Lowest paid planFree or on requestFree or on request
Plans published32
MakerNot publishedNot published
Websitebuoyant.iokuma.io
On service mesh platforms#4 of 22#1 of 22

Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd: what it does well

  • Mutual TLS encrypts meshed traffic.
  • Includes retries, timeouts and circuit breaking.
  • Supports multicluster failover and federated services.
  • Exports metrics to Prometheus-compatible stores.
  • Open source use is free to try.

What to know first

  • Production use at any scale on the free option is limited to companies with fewer than 50 employees.
  • No private support ticketing or 24×7 on-call SLAs on the open-source plan.
  • Premium and Strategic pricing is available only by request.
  • FIPS validated cryptography is an add-on.

Kuma: what it does well

  • Supports Kubernetes, VMs, and bare-metal environments.
  • One control plane can serve multiple meshes.
  • Includes mutual TLS and mesh traffic permissions.
  • Provides a REST API, CLI, GUI, and Kubernetes CRDs.
  • Open-source plan costs nothing.

What to know first

  • Kuma is self-hosted.
  • The Kubernetes quickstart describes the GUI as read-only.
  • Production setup involves secrets, access controls, and certificates.

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