Consul is a distributed, highly available, and data center aware solution to connect and configure applications across dynamic, distributed infrastructure.
Service discovery and a mesh that also spans virtual machines outside Kubernetes.
alternatives to
Istio
Connect, secure, control, and observe services.
Side by side
| Tool | Fit | Stars | Licence | Terms | Self-hosted | Language | Latest | Last push |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consul | Full replacement | 30k | Other | Source available | No | Go | v2.0.4 | 2026-10-06 |
| Cilium | Partial | 26k | Apache-2.0 | Open source | No | Go | v1.20.2 | 2026-10-06 |
Every alternative
2 alternatives
eBPF-based Networking, Security, and Observability
eBPF networking with a sidecar-free mesh; fewer traffic management features than Istio.
- Language
- Go
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Stars
- 26k
- Latest
- v1.20.2
- Last push
- 2026-10-06
Head to head
About Istio
- Language
- Go
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Stars
- 38k
- Last push
- 2026-10-06