Amazon VPC CNI vs Flannel
Amazon VPC CNI
github.comFlannel
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Amazon VPC CNI | Flannel |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Container Networking Software | 7.6 (#12) | 7.8 (#10) |
| How it works | Its CNI plugin wires up the host and pod network stacks, while the ipamd daemon manages a warm pool of IP addresses and assigns addresses to pods. | A small flanneld agent on each host allocates that host a subnet lease from a configured address space. |
| Integrations | The repository documents use with Kubernetes, Amazon EKS managed add-ons, and a Helm chart. | The project lists kube-network-policies, Canal, K3s, and RKE2 as projects that integrate with Flannel. |
| Purpose | Amazon VPC CNI is a Kubernetes networking plugin that uses Elastic Network Interfaces on AWS to provide pod networking. | Flannel provides a layer 3 network fabric for containers designed for Kubernetes. |
| Support | The project directs users to the EKS networking best-practices and troubleshooting guides, GitHub issues, and the Kubernetes Slack #aws-vpc-cni channel. | The project points users to the #k3s channel in Rancher Users Slack, the #flannel-users channel in Calico Users Slack, and GitHub issues for bugs. |
Plans
In their own words
Amazon VPC CNI
Amazon VPC CNI has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Flannel
Flannel is a free network fabric for containers designed for Kubernetes. A small flanneld agent on each host allocates a subnet lease from a configured address space, then forwards packets between hosts using a selected backend. Documented choices include VXLAN, host-gw, WireGuard and UDP, with VXLAN recommended. WireGuard encapsulates and encrypts packets using the in-kernel WireGuard implementation. Network configuration and subnet allocations can be stored in the Kubernetes API or directly in etcd. The project documents Kubernetes and Docker deployments, with Linux and Windows build instructions. Flannel does not enforce network policies itself, though its Helm chart can deploy a Kubernetes SIGs network policy controller alongside it. It runs as a privileged daemonset with access to the host network, so the security policy advises least privilege and keeping it updated. Security fixes are maintained for the latest release only, and the backend documentation says not to change a selected backend at runtime.