AWS App Mesh vs Network Service Mesh
AWS App Mesh
aws.amazon.comNetwork Service Mesh
networkservicemesh.ioSide by side
| Figure | AWS App Mesh | Network Service Mesh |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Service Mesh Platforms | 9.1 (#1) | 8.4 (#3) |
| Documentation depth | AWS provides a user guide, API reference, CLI reference, interactive workshop, examples and a public roadmap. | The examples catalog includes inter-domain, Istio, OpenTelemetry, OPA, IPv6, dual-stack, Jaeger, DNS, webhook, SR-IOV, OVS, resilience and topology-aware examples. |
| Purpose | AWS App Mesh provides visibility and network traffic controls for service-to-service communication. | Network Service Mesh is a hybrid and multi-cloud IP service mesh for connecting workloads across clusters and clouds. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.3 out of 5 from 14 reviews | Not displayed out of 5 from 0 Network Service Mesh reviews; the Linux Foundation seller page includes Network Service Mesh as a profile filter but shows no corresponding product entry. |
| Rating on TrustRadius | 6.4 out of 10 from 39 reviews | Not displayed out of 10 from 0 Network Service Mesh reviews; the TrustRadius service-mesh category page lists 21 other products without Network Service Mesh. |
| What it does | AWS App Mesh is a managed service mesh that standardizes microservice communication and provides visibility and traffic controls through lightweight proxies. | Network Service Mesh connects individual Kubernetes pods and other workloads to network services across clusters, clouds and runtime domains. |
Plans
In their own words
AWS App Mesh
AWS App Mesh is a managed service for visibility and traffic control between services. It uses the open source Envoy proxy to handle traffic into and out of service containers, and can change routes between services without application-code changes. Proxies balance client traffic and adjust endpoints using health checks and service registration. App Mesh provides metrics and logs for service hops, and can collect traces to help visualize service API calls. It works with AWS Fargate, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, Amazon EC2 and Kubernetes on EC2. Mutual TLS verifies service identities using certificates from AWS Certificate Manager Private Certificate Authority or a customer-managed certificate authority. Listed integrations include Amazon CloudWatch and AWS X-Ray, plus tools such as Datadog, HashiCorp and Sysdig. There is no additional charge for App Mesh itself, but proxy-consumed AWS resources are billed separately. AWS states support ends on September 30, 2026; after that, the console and App Mesh resources will no longer be accessible. API clients must support TLS 1.2; AWS recommends TLS 1.3.
Network Service Mesh
Network Service Mesh connects workloads across clusters and clouds through a hybrid, multi-cloud IP service mesh. Each workload can connect independently to zero or more Network Services, regardless of where it runs. The project says it works with an existing CNI without requiring changes to Kubernetes or workloads. Services can provide connectivity, security, and observability at Layer 3 and above, carrying IP or Ethernet payloads.
Clients may be Kubernetes pods, virtual machines, or physical servers. They authenticate independently, currently using SPIFFE IDs, and need authorization to attach. Clients request and close virtual wires over gRPC and can monitor connection status through a streaming call. Endpoint selection offers composition, selective composition, topology awareness, and scale from zero. A service may also provide domain-scoped DNS for connected pods. The architecture describes integration with Istio, Linkerd, Consul, and Kuma. Network Service Mesh is a CNCF sandbox project and is free and open source. Its run guide lists Docker, Go, a Kubernetes cluster, and kubectl as prerequisites; most examples require at least two worker nodes.