Side by side

Flomesh Service Mesh 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.

Flomesh Service Mesh

Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted

FSM combines traffic management, service security, and integrations for Kubernetes microservices in a free, self-hosted package. Check the Kubernetes version and Gateway API limitations, and account for the init container's root privileges and NET_ADMIN capability.

Visit Flomesh Service Mesh

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

	Flomesh Service Mesh	Kuma
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Yes
Runs on	Linux, Mac, Self-hosted	API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	Free or on request
Plans published	1	2
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	flomesh.io	kuma.io
On service mesh platforms	#5 of 22	#1 of 22

Flomesh Service Mesh: what it does well

Free and open source
Supports HTTP, TCP, gRPC, and MQTT
Mutual TLS and fine-grained access policies
Stable Prometheus and Grafana integrations
Supports x86 and ARM architectures

What to know first

Requires Kubernetes 1.19 or later
Multicluster is marked alpha
ReferenceGrant is not supported
Init container runs as root and adds NET_ADMIN

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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