Cilium vs Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium

Cilium9.4Visit Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium8.4Visit

Higher score Cilium #1 in Container Networking Software 9.4/10 Open source ✓ 0 of 5 features Visit Cilium

vs

Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium #7 in Container Networking Software 8.4/10 Pricing on request ✓ 0 of 5 features Visit Cisco

• Cilium fits best

  Broad Kubernetes networking and observability

• Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium fits best

  Enterprise Cilium networking for self-hosted clusters

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Side by side

Feature	Cilium 9.4/10 Visit ↗	Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium 8.4/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.4	8.4
Ranking	#1 in Container Networking Software	#7 in Container Networking Software
Best for	Broad Kubernetes networking and observability	Enterprise Cilium networking for self-hosted clusters
Pricing model	Free	Paid
Starting price	Open source	Pricing on request
Free plan	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud, Self-hosted	Cloud, Self-hosted
Support	Community, Docs	Docs
Integrations	6 integrations	4 integrations
Built for	Mid-market, Enterprise	Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Cilium 0/5 · Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium 0/5
CNI plugin	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Network policies	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Egress control	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Multi-cluster networking	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Encryption in transit	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Specs
Supported platforms	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Our review
Pros	eBPF-based networking with Layer 3 through Layer 7 policies Hubble provides network and security observability Integrates with Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, Prometheus, and Grafana	Identity-aware L3/L4 and L7 policies with network segmentation eBPF forwarding, encryption, routing, overlays, and load balancing Hubble provides cluster-wide traffic-flow observability
Cons	Focused on Linux container platforms such as Kubernetes and Docker Its broad feature set spans networking, security, APIs, and observability Self-hosted and hybrid deployments require platform-level ownership	Pricing requires a sales conversation and is not published as a dollar price Designed for self-hosted Kubernetes and OpenShift environments Commercial licensing differs from open-source Cilium alternatives
Our verdict	Cilium is open-source networking and security software for application services running on Linux container platforms, including Kubernetes and Docker. It is aimed at teams that need one layer for container networking, load balancing,… Read the review →	Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium is a commercial Kubernetes networking and security platform built on Cilium and eBPF. It is intended for platform, cloud-native, NetOps, and enterprise infrastructure teams managing self-hosted Kubernetes… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Cilium — where it wins

  • eBPF-based networking with Layer 3 through Layer 7 policies
  • Hubble provides network and security observability
  • Integrates with Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, Prometheus, and Grafana

  Where it doesn't

  • Focused on Linux container platforms such as Kubernetes and Docker
  • Its broad feature set spans networking, security, APIs, and observability
  • Self-hosted and hybrid deployments require platform-level ownership

• Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium — where it wins

  • Identity-aware L3/L4 and L7 policies with network segmentation
  • eBPF forwarding, encryption, routing, overlays, and load balancing
  • Hubble provides cluster-wide traffic-flow observability

  Where it doesn't

  • Pricing requires a sales conversation and is not published as a dollar price
  • Designed for self-hosted Kubernetes and OpenShift environments
  • Commercial licensing differs from open-source Cilium alternatives

• Cilium9.4/10 · Open source

  A broad open-source networking and observability layer for Kubernetes environments.

  Visit CiliumFull verdict →
• Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium8.4/10 · Pricing on request

  A self-hosted Cilium platform for policy-controlled Kubernetes networking and visibility.

  Visit CiscoFull verdict →