Best Service Mesh Tools

Researched and written by Lauren Worth

Service mesh tools are used to add monitoring and security functionality to cloud-native applications. A service mesh is implemented at the platform layer rather than the application layer and uses network proxies to facilitate communication between microservices. With the incredibly complex nature of modern cloud-native, microservices-based applications, service mesh provides flexible end-to-end protection.

Service mesh tools operate on two levels, the control plane and the data plane. The control plane coordinates the behavior of network proxies while the data plane monitors communication between services. The administrator can then use an API to change the service mesh or retrieve data from the mesh as a whole.

Companies use service mesh to secure cloud-native applications because of the myriad moving parts in any modern application. These application components can consist of thousands of varying instances, containers and APIs. As a result, service mesh tools are often used in tandem with container management software, container orchestration software, container networking software, and service discovery software.

To qualify for inclusion in the Service Mesh Tools category, a product must:

  • Protect microservices at the platform level
  • Utilize network proxies to secure service-to-service communication
  • Monitor and control communications between cloud services

How Many Service Mesh Tools Products Does G2 Track?

Total Products under this Category: 25

Category Stats (Jun 2026)

  • Average Rating: 4.49/5 (↑0.03 vs May 2026) The average rating of products in this category, based on all submitted ratings

Last updated: June 23, 2026

How Does G2 Rank Service Mesh Tools Products?

Why You Can Trust G2's Software Rankings:

  • 30 Analysts and Data Experts
  • 400+ Authentic Reviews
  • 25+ Products
  • Unbiased Rankings

G2's software rankings are built on verified user reviews, rigorous moderation, and a consistent research methodology maintained by a team of analysts and data experts. Each product is measured using the same transparent criteria, with no paid placement or vendor influence. While reviews reflect real user experiences, which can be subjective, they offer valuable insight into how software performs in the hands of professionals. Together, these inputs power the G2 Score, a standardized way to compare tools within every category.

Best Service Mesh Tools At A Glance

Leader:
HashiCorp Consul
Highest Performer:
Istio
Easiest to Use:
HashiCorp Consul
Top Trending:
AWS App Mesh
Best Free Software:
HashiCorp Consul

Istio

(18)4.2 out of 5
Product Description

Istio’s traffic routing rules let you easily control the flow of traffic and API calls between services. Istio simplifies configuration of service-level properties like circuit breakers, timeouts, a

Market Segment: 56% Enterprise, 28% Small-Business
Year Founded
2017
HQ Location
Budapest, Pest
Company Website
https://banzaicloud.com
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/27129691

HashiCorp Consul

(23)4.3 out of 5
Product Description

HashiCorp Consul is a service networking solution that enables teams to manage secure network connectivity between services and across multi-cloud environments and runtimes. Consul offers service disc

Industries: Information Technology and Services · Market Segment: 48% Enterprise, 30% Small-Business
Year Founded
2012
HQ Location
San Francisco, CA
Company Website
https://www.hashicorp.com/
Twitter
@hashicorp
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/2830763/
Ownership
NASDAQ: HCP
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AWS App Mesh

(14)4.3 out of 5
Product Description

AWS App Mesh makes it easy to monitor and control microservices running on AWS. App Mesh standardizes how your microservices communicate, giving you end-to-end visibility and helping to ensure high-av

Market Segment: 43% Small-Business, 29% Enterprise
Year Founded
2006
HQ Location
Seattle, WA
Company Website
https://aws.amazon.com/?nc2=h_lg
Twitter
@awscloud
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amazon-web-services/
Ownership
NASDAQ: AMZN

Linkerd

(9)4.4 out of 5
Product Description

Linkerd is an ultra-light, ultra-simple, ultra-powerful open-source service mesh that provides developers with the tools they need to write secure, reliable, observable cloud-native applications. It i

Market Segment: 33% Mid-Market, 33% Small-Business
Year Founded
2015
HQ Location
San Francisco, CA
Company Website
https://buoyant.io
Twitter
@BuoyantIO
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/6441722

Apache ServiceComb

(7)4.6 out of 5
Product Description

Open-Source, Full-Stack Microservice Solution.With out of the box, high performance, compatible with popular ecology, multi-language support

Market Segment: 43% Mid-Market, 29% Enterprise
Year Founded
1999
HQ Location
Wakefield, MA
Company Website
https://knox.apache.org/index.html
Twitter
@TheASF
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/215982/

Google Cloud Traffic Director

(6)4.3 out of 5
Product Description

Service mesh is a powerful abstraction that's become increasingly popular to deliver microservices and modern applications. In a service mesh, the service mesh data plane, with service proxies like En

Market Segment: 50% Enterprise, 33% Small-Business
ProsUser Interface
Year Founded
1998
HQ Location
Mountain View, CA
Company Website
https://cloud.google.com/
Twitter
@google
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/1441/
Ownership
NASDAQ:GOOG
Phone
+1 (650) 253-0000

Istio on GKE

(3)4.5 out of 5
Product Description

Istio is an open service mesh that provides a uniform way to connect, manage, and secure microservices. It supports managing traffic flows between services, enforcing access policies, and aggregating

Market Segment: 67% Enterprise, 33% Mid-Market
Year Founded
1998
HQ Location
Mountain View, CA
Company Website
https://cloud.google.com/
Twitter
@google
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/1441/
Ownership
NASDAQ:GOOG
Phone
+1 (650) 253-0000

Tetrate.io

(2)4.3 out of 5
Product Description

Tetrate.io provides software solutions, designs and develops an enterprise-grade service mesh platform

Market Segment: 50% Small-Business, 50% Enterprise
Year Founded
2018
HQ Location
Milpitas, California, United States
Company Website
https://www.tetrate.io
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/tetrate/about

Aspen Mesh

(1)4.5 out of 5
Product Description

Aspen Mesh simplifies service mesh. Our tested, hardened and supported distribution of Istio makes it easy for enterprises to get the power of Istio without the headaches.

Market Segment: 100% Mid-Market
HQ Location
Seattle, Washington, United States
Company Website
https://aspenmesh.io/
Twitter
@AspenMesh
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/f5/

envoy

(1)5.0 out of 5
Product Description

ENVOY IS AN OPEN SOURCE EDGE AND SERVICE PROXY, DESIGNED FOR CLOUD-NATIVE APPLICATIONS.

Year Founded
2015
HQ Location
San Francisco, CA
Company Website
https://www.hyperledger.org/
Twitter
@hyperledger
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/10851358/

F5 NGINX Service Mesh

(1)5.0 out of 5
Product Description

NGINX Service Mesh is a developer-friendly Kubernetes solution for service-to-service security, orchestration, observability, and traffic management.

Market Segment: 100% Small-Business
HQ Location
Seattle, Washington
Company Website
https://f5.com/
Twitter
@F5Networks
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/4841/

Gloo Gateway

(1)4.5 out of 5
Product Description

Gloo Gateway is a fast, Kubernetes-native API gateway packed with features IT operations teams need to deliver a full lifecycle security strategy for their cloud-native environments.

Market Segment: 100% Mid-Market
Year Founded
2017
HQ Location
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Company Website
https://solo.io
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/solo.io/

Google Anthos Service Mesh

(1)4.0 out of 5
Product Description

The fully managed service mesh for your complex microservices architectures.

Market Segment: 100% Small-Business
Year Founded
1998
HQ Location
Mountain View, CA
Company Website
https://cloud.google.com/
Twitter
@google
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/1441/
Ownership
NASDAQ:GOOG
Phone
+1 (650) 253-0000

Kiali Operator

(1)4.5 out of 5
Product Description

Kiali is an observability console for Istio with service mesh configuration capabilities. It helps you to understand the structure of your service mesh by inferring the topology, and also provides the

Market Segment: 100% Mid-Market
HQ Location
N/A
Company Website
https://kiali.io/
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/No-Linkedin-Presence-Added-Intentionally-By-DataOps

Meshery

(1)5.0 out of 5
Product Description

Meshery is the multi-service mesh management plane offering lifecycle, configuration, and performance management of service meshes and their workloads.

Market Segment: 100% Enterprise
HQ Location
N/A
Company Website
https://meshery.io/
LinkedIn® Page
https://www.linkedin.com/company/No-Linkedin-Presence-Added-Intentionally-By-DataOps