Side by side
Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd vs Linkerd
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.
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 Free plan LinuxSelf-hosted
Linkerd offers traffic management, observability, and security for Kubernetes without requiring code changes. Its included metrics retention is short, so it is designed to supplement an existing metrics store.
Visit LinkerdThe facts
| Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd | Linkerd | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | Linux, Self-hosted, Web, Windows | Linux, Self-hosted |
| Lowest paid plan | Free or on request | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | buoyant.io | linkerd.io |
| On service mesh platforms | #4 of 22 | #8 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.
Linkerd: what it does well
- Free, Apache 2.0-licensed open-source plan.
- Supports HTTP, HTTP/2, gRPC, TCP, and WebSockets.
- Enables mutual TLS and service authorization policies.
- Includes retries, timeouts, traffic splitting, and rate limiting.
What to know first
- Requires a modern Kubernetes cluster and kubectl.
- Included metrics retention is six hours.
- Not a standalone metrics store replacement.
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