7 Best Cilium Alternatives for Kubernetes in 2026

Cilium provides eBPF-powered networking, observability, and security for Kubernetes. Its Hubble component offers deep visibility into service-to-service communication at both packet and protocol level, while replacing kube-proxy with high-performance eBPF networking and implementing network policies without iptables overhead.

While Cilium excels as a comprehensive CNI solution, several factors drive teams toward alternatives: the complexity of full CNI replacement when you only need observability, resource overhead in large clusters, learning curve for eBPF-based networking, and operational challenges when troubleshooting issues. Some teams need simpler observability-only solutions, while others want alternatives with different security models or easier migration paths.

Why look for Cilium alternatives?

Cilium delivers powerful capabilities, but specific use cases reveal tradeoffs:

Full CNI replacement adds migration complexity. Switching your entire Kubernetes networking stack to Cilium requires careful planning, testing, and rollback strategies. For teams wanting only network observability, replacing the CNI feels heavyweight compared to tools that layer on top of existing networking.

Resource consumption increases in large clusters. Cilium's eBPF programs and control plane components consume memory and CPU. In clusters with thousands of nodes or tens of thousands of pods, this overhead matters. Some alternatives provide similar visibility with lower resource footprints.

eBPF dependency limits platform compatibility. Cilium requires Linux kernel 4.9+ with eBPF support. Older kernels, non-Linux nodes, or managed Kubernetes services with restricted kernel access can't run Cilium. Traditional observability tools work across broader platform ranges.

Troubleshooting eBPF networking issues requires specialized knowledge. When network connectivity breaks, debugging eBPF programs and Cilium's control plane is more complex than troubleshooting standard iptables rules or traditional CNI plugins. Teams without eBPF expertise may prefer simpler alternatives.

Limited observability outside Kubernetes networking. Cilium Hubble excels at network flows and Layer 7 protocols, but doesn't provide distributed tracing, log management, or application metrics. Production observability needs unified platforms that correlate networking with other telemetry.

Service mesh overlap creates architectural questions. Cilium includes service mesh capabilities, but teams already running Istio, Linkerd, or other meshes face decisions about overlap, migration, or running both. Some prefer dedicated observability tools that work with any mesh.

1. Calico

Calico provides Kubernetes networking and security with network policy enforcement, but focuses on traditional Linux networking instead of eBPF. Where Cilium requires eBPF support, Calico works across broader platform ranges including Windows nodes and older Linux kernels.

Calico's network policies offer fine-grained security controls without eBPF dependencies. Define policies using standard Kubernetes NetworkPolicy resources or Calico's extended policy syntax for global rules, host endpoint protection, and egress gateway functionality. The policy engine runs in userspace using standard Linux networking primitives.

For observability, Calico integrates with Flow Logs and third-party tools. While not as feature-rich as Cilium Hubble for Layer 7 visibility, Calico exports flow logs to external systems like Elasticsearch or Prometheus. This separation of networking from observability lets you choose best-of-breed monitoring tools.

Main Benefits:

Works with older kernels without eBPF requirements
Windows node support for mixed clusters
Network policy enforcement using standard Kubernetes resources
Lower learning curve than eBPF-based solutions
Mature project with extensive enterprise adoption
Compatible with multiple data planes (Linux, eBPF, Windows)

2. Istio with Kiali

Istio service mesh with Kiali provides comprehensive observability including network traffic visualization, distributed tracing, and service dependencies. Where Cilium focuses on network layer visibility, Istio operates at the application layer with richer context about requests, retries, and timeouts.

Istio's sidecar proxies capture detailed request-level telemetry automatically. See HTTP status codes, gRPC methods, request duration, and retry attempts for every service-to-service call. Kiali visualizes this data as service graphs showing traffic flow, error rates, and latency percentiles.

Distributed tracing integration provides request-level detail beyond network flows. Istio automatically propagates trace context, allowing correlation of network calls with application spans. This connects network visibility with application performance in ways pure network monitoring can't achieve.

Main Benefits:

Application-layer visibility (HTTP, gRPC, etc.)
Distributed tracing integration with Jaeger/Zipkin
Service mesh features (retries, circuit breaking, mTLS)
Kiali UI for service graph visualization
CNCF graduated project with strong community
Works without eBPF or CNI replacement

3. Linkerd

Linkerd offers a lightweight service mesh with built-in observability focused on simplicity and performance. Where Cilium provides eBPF-based networking, Linkerd uses ultra-light Rust proxies that add minimal latency while delivering rich metrics and service graphs.

Linkerd's data plane runs in microseconds with minimal resource overhead. The Rust-based proxies consume significantly less memory and CPU than Envoy-based meshes, making Linkerd practical even in resource-constrained environments. Automatic mTLS, load balancing, and reliability features come standard.

The Linkerd dashboard shows golden metrics automatically without configuration. Success rates, latencies (p50, p95, p99), and request volumes appear immediately after installing Linkerd. Tap into live traffic, trace requests, or analyze service dependencies through the built-in UI.

Main Benefits:

Minimal resource overhead with Rust proxies
Automatic golden metrics (success rate, latency, throughput)
Simple installation and configuration
Built-in mTLS without certificate management complexity
Live traffic inspection with tap command
CNCF graduated project focused on simplicity

4. Pixie

Pixie provides automatic Kubernetes observability using eBPF but focuses purely on observability without replacing your CNI. Where Cilium bundles networking and observability together, Pixie installs alongside any CNI to capture comprehensive telemetry without networking changes.

Pixie's eBPF programs automatically capture application traffic without CNI replacement. Deploy Pixie on any Kubernetes cluster regardless of CNI choice (Calico, Flannel, AWS VPC CNI, etc.) and immediately get visibility into HTTP, gRPC, database queries, and DNS requests. No code changes, no sidecar injection, no networking migration.

Data stays on cluster nodes for fast queries and cost savings. Unlike Cilium Hubble which requires Cilium's networking stack, Pixie provides network observability as a standalone solution. Query data through PxL (Pixie Language) with results in milliseconds without data egress charges.

Main Benefits:

eBPF observability without CNI replacement
Works with any existing CNI plugin
Automatic protocol detection (HTTP, gRPC, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, Kafka)
Edge storage for fast queries and low costs
No application code changes required
Open-source with community edition

5. Hubble Standalone

Hubble can run independently of Cilium's full CNI stack in some configurations. Where full Cilium requires replacing your CNI, Hubble standalone provides network flow observability with a smaller footprint when you only need visibility.

Hubble standalone reduces the complexity of full Cilium deployment. For teams wanting Cilium's network observability without committing to the complete CNI replacement, running Hubble independently provides Layer 3/4 flow visibility with less operational overhead.

The Hubble UI visualizes service dependencies and network flows. See which services communicate, DNS queries, connection attempts, and dropped packets. While not as feature-rich as full Cilium with Layer 7 visibility, standalone Hubble delivers core observability use cases.

Main Benefits:

Cilium's network observability without full CNI
Lower resource overhead than complete Cilium
Familiar Hubble UI and CLI tools
Network policy visualization and debugging
Service dependency mapping
Community support from Cilium project

6. Kubernetes Network Policy with Monitoring Tools

Standard Kubernetes NetworkPolicy combined with traditional monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK) provides basic network security and observability without specialized CNI requirements. Where Cilium offers integrated visibility, this approach separates concerns using standard Kubernetes APIs.

NetworkPolicy resources work with any policy-enforcing CNI. Define ingress and egress rules using Kubernetes native resources that work across Calico, Cilium, Weave, and other CNIs. This portability prevents vendor lock-in and simplifies migrations between platforms.

Traditional monitoring tools provide observability through metrics and logs. Export network metrics from your CNI to Prometheus, visualize with Grafana, and aggregate logs in Elasticsearch. While less seamless than Cilium's integrated approach, this separation lets you choose best-of-breed tools for each layer.

Main Benefits:

Standard Kubernetes NetworkPolicy API
Works with multiple CNI implementations
No vendor lock-in to specific networking solution
Flexibility to choose monitoring tools independently
Lower learning curve using familiar Kubernetes concepts
Easier migration paths between CNIs

Commercial Kubernetes Observability Platforms

Open-source CNI solutions handle networking, but production-grade observability usually demands much more. Teams need distributed tracing, log management, metrics, alerting, and deep network visibility—all working together. Commercial platforms bring these capabilities into a single system, without requiring you to replace your existing CNI.

Better Stack

Better Stack delivers full Kubernetes observability powered by eBPF, enabling automatic instrumentation without swapping out your CNI. While Cilium combines networking and observability into one stack, Better Stack focuses purely on observability and works alongside whatever networking setup you already run.

Better Stack’s collector uses eBPF to automatically instrument Kubernetes clusters—no CNI changes required. Deploy it once and immediately start collecting distributed traces, logs, and metrics whether you’re using Calico, Flannel, Cilium, or a cloud-provider CNI. There’s no networking migration and no disruption to your existing architecture.

By leveraging eBPF, Better Stack captures network-level telemetry that exposes real application behavior. You can see HTTP requests with latency and status codes, database queries with parameters and execution times, gRPC calls, message queue activity, and cache interactions. This delivers Cilium-like visibility—without committing to Cilium’s networking layer.

Service dependency maps are generated from observed network traffic, not manual configuration. The resulting map shows which services communicate, request volumes, latency distributions, and error rates, all derived from real activity inside your cluster. You get a service graph similar to Cilium Hubble’s, but without replacing your CNI.

For logs, Better Stack offers real-time analysis through Live Tail. This gives you immediate insight into what’s happening across your systems. Filter by severity, search for specific patterns, or follow a user session across multiple services as events unfold.

Custom dashboards can be built using a drag-and-drop interface or SQL queries. Unlike Cilium Hubble, which concentrates on network flows, Better Stack unifies network observability with distributed tracing, log management, and infrastructure metrics in a single platform. Everything lives in one place, making cross-layer troubleshooting far easier.

Because eBPF performs aggregation inside the kernel, data volumes are significantly reduced compared to traditional approaches. Better Stack combines this efficiency with ClickHouse storage, enabling distributed tracing at up to 30x lower cost than competitors like Datadog. You can run SQL or PromQL queries across billions of spans and still get sub-second responses.

The platform is OpenTelemetry-native, blending automatic eBPF instrumentation with OpenTelemetry SDK flexibility. Use eBPF for infrastructure-level insights and OpenTelemetry SDKs to capture application-specific context. Both data sources flow into the same storage layer and power the same dashboards and queries.

Anomaly detection and alerting are built in. You can configure alerts to notify your team when unusual log patterns appear, critical errors spike, disk space runs low, or security events occur. Unlimited phone call and SMS alerts ensure incidents don’t go unnoticed—extending well beyond the network-focused alerting Cilium Hubble provides.

During incidents, Better Stack’s AI SRE analyzes telemetry collected via eBPF to assist with root cause analysis. It correlates network traces, service dependencies, error patterns, and performance metrics to highlight likely causes. The result is network visibility combined with full application context—something pure network monitoring tools alone can’t provide.

Final thoughts

Cilium delivers high-performance Kubernetes networking powered by eBPF, advanced network policies, and strong observability through Hubble. Its CNCF graduated status and broad production adoption demonstrate its maturity and reliability.

However, it is not always the right choice. Calico provides robust networking without eBPF dependencies. Pixie offers deep observability without requiring a CNI replacement. Istio and Linkerd deliver dedicated service mesh capabilities with rich application-layer visibility.

The most important decision is whether you need a full CNI replacement or primarily better observability. If replacing your networking stack feels unnecessary, observability-focused tools reduce migration risk. If you need advanced service-to-service controls and traffic management, a purpose-built service mesh may be the better fit.

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