Cilium
eBPF networking, security, and observability for Kubernetes
DevOps / Infrastructure · Apache-2.0 · 25.7k
Reviewed 2026-09-21 · last push 2026-10-19 · repo checked 2026-10-19
What's Good
Apache-2.0 (cilium/cilium). CNCF-graduated Kubernetes networking/security/observability stack built on eBPF: L3–L7 policy, service mesh options, encryption, and Hubble flow visibility. The free path is the OSS project you run; docs at docs.cilium.io and product site at cilium.io.
The Catch
Vs flannel/Calico defaults: Cilium is the deeper eBPF control plane — more power, more kernel/datapath expertise. Isovalent/Cisco commercial layers exist around the same codebase; self-host OSS carefully for upgrades and Hubble ops.
Verdict
Apache-2.0 eBPF Kubernetes networking. Default when identity-aware policy and Hubble flows beat plain CNI.
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