Chaos Mesh vs chaosd
Chaos Mesh
chaos-mesh.orgchaosd
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Chaos Mesh | chaosd |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Chaos Engineering Platforms | 8.6 (#4) | 7.9 (#11) |
| Fault types | It supports simulations for Pod, network, DNS, HTTP, CPU and memory, file I/O, clock, kernel, AWS, GCP, and JVM faults. | It supports process, network, CPU or memory pressure, disk, and host faults. |
| License | Chaos Mesh is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. | The GitHub repository identifies its license as Apache-2.0. |
| Purpose | Chaos Mesh simulates faults in development, testing, and production environments to help identify potential system problems. | Chaosd is a Chaos Engineering tool for injecting and recovering faults in physical machine environments. |
| Security | Chaos Mesh manages permissions through Kubernetes RBAC, and namespace annotations can restrict where experiments are enabled. | The PhysicalMachineChaos guide shows Chaosd configured with TLS certificates and says running the service without generated certificates is not recommended for cluster security. |
Plans
In their own words
Chaos Mesh
Chaos Mesh is a free, open-source platform for running fault simulations in development, testing, and production environments. It runs on Kubernetes and manages experiments through Kubernetes CustomResourceDefinitions and the Kubernetes API. Fault simulations cover areas including Pods, networks, DNS, HTTP, I/O, time, stress, kernels, block devices, JVMs, physical machines, and AWS, Azure, and GCP. Schedule, Workflow, and StatusCheck resources support recurring experiments, serial or parallel workflows, and application health checks. Selectors and namespace controls help scope experiments to chosen targets. Chaos Dashboard offers a web interface and HTTP API for creating, managing, and observing experiments, with role-based access control enabled by default. Chaos Mesh is licensed under Apache License 2.0 and can be installed from its Helm repository using Helm 3. Compatibility varies by release: version 2.8 supports Kubernetes 1.30 through 1.35, while version 2.7 supports 1.26 through 1.28. Its privileged Chaos Daemon runs as a Kubernetes DaemonSet by default, though that permission can be disabled. Community support is available through CNCF Slack and GitHub Discussions.
chaosd
Chaosd is free Apache-2.0 software for injecting and recovering faults on physical machines. It can create process, network, CPU or memory pressure, disk, and host faults. Use it as a command-line tool or run it as a background service controlled through HTTP requests. Chaosd is deployed separately from Chaos Mesh; PhysicalMachineChaos experiments require service mode on each targeted physical or virtual machine. The documented environment requires glibc 2.17 or later, and the binary download described is a Linux amd64 tarball. Network experiments using tc or iptables require sudo or root privileges. Deployment prerequisites include tc, ipset, and iptables; source builds additionally list stress-ng and byteman. Experiments can be searched and recovered by UID. TLS certificates are shown for service security, and running without generated certificates is not recommended.