Kuma
What it is
Kuma is a free, open-source control plane for managing service meshes and microservices across Kubernetes, virtual machines, and bare-metal environments. It supports single-zone and multi-zone deployments across clouds, regions, and Kubernetes clusters, and one control plane can manage multiple individual meshes. Traffic policies include HTTP and TCP routing, health checks, circuit breaking, retries, timeouts, fault injection, and rate limiting. Security features include mutual TLS and mesh traffic permissions. For observability, Kuma provides service maps, traces, access logs, metrics, and OpenTelemetry, with integrations described for Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, and Datadog. Interfaces include Kubernetes CRDs, a GUI, REST API, and CLI; Envoy is bundled as the data-plane proxy. Kuma is self-hosted, and its installation guide provides Linux and macOS downloads. The Kubernetes quickstart describes the GUI as read-only. Production guidance covers secrets, API access and authentication, certificates, proxy membership, and Kubernetes RBAC.
For and against
For
- Supports Kubernetes, VMs, and bare metal.
- One control plane can support multiple meshes.
- Traffic policies include retries and circuit breaking.
- Includes mutual TLS and mesh traffic permissions.
- Provides service maps, traces, metrics, and logs.
Against
- The Kubernetes quickstart describes the GUI as read-only.
- Kuma is self-hosted.
The verdict
Kuma covers traffic management, security, and observability for service meshes across several environment types. Its read-only GUI in the Kubernetes quickstart and production security guidance are important deployment considerations.
Who it suits
Kuma may suit teams managing service meshes across Kubernetes, VMs, or bare-metal environments. It is aimed at self-hosted deployments and supports multi-zone setups and multiple meshes.
Plans and prices
Kuma open-source
self-hosted control plane · Kubernetes, VMs and bare metal · Envoy data plane
Read 15 Oct 2026 · ciopages.com
Open source
Open-source control plane; supports Kubernetes, VMs, and bare metal
Read 2 Oct 2026 · kuma.io
On the record
- API
- Kuma exposes a RESTful HTTP API for reading configuration and policies, and Universal mode also permits changes through that API.kuma.io · read 15 Oct 2026
- API specification
- The project publishes a complete OpenAPI specification in its GitHub repository.kuma.io · read 15 Oct 2026
- CLI
- The kumactl command-line interface manages Kuma and is included in production deployment guidance.kuma.io · read 15 Oct 2026
- CNCF health
- The CNCF project page reports a health score of 76 and 334 contributors for Kuma.cncf.io · read 15 Oct 2026
- CNCF status
- CNCF accepted Kuma as a Sandbox project on June 25, 2020.cncf.io · read 15 Oct 2026
- Default exposure limitation
- The API server defaults to plain HTTP on 0.0.0.0:5681 without authentication, requiring operators to restrict network access themselves.kuma.io · read 15 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- Kuma supports single-zone and multi-zone deployments across clouds, regions, and Kubernetes clusters.kuma.io · read 2 Oct 2026
- Deployment security
- Production guidance covers secrets management, API access control, API server and proxy authentication, proxy membership, certificates, and Kubernetes RBAC.kuma.io · read 2 Oct 2026
- External services
- The ExternalService resource applies Kuma observability, security and traffic policies to services outside the mesh.kuma.io · read 15 Oct 2026
- Funding news
- Kong announced a $175 million Series E financing at a $2 billion valuation on November 19, 2024, bringing reported total capital raised to $345 million.konghq.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- GitHub project description
- The public repository describes Kuma as a multi-zone service mesh for containers, Kubernetes and VMs built with Envoy and identifies it as a CNCF Sandbox project.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- GUI limitation
- The Kubernetes quickstart describes Kuma's GUI as read-only.kuma.io · read 2 Oct 2026
- Independent pricing comparison
- The buyer guide classifies Kuma as free open source and Kong Mesh as a moderate-to-premium enterprise subscription.ciopages.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Ingress feature
- Ingress options include delegated gateway, built-in gateway and Kubernetes Gateway API support.kuma.io · read 15 Oct 2026
- Install
- The installation guide provides Linux and macOS downloads and documents installing the CLI on macOS with Homebrew.kuma.io · read 2 Oct 2026
- Installation
- Universal installation can download versioned archives with an installer script, while macOS users can install kumactl through Homebrew.kuma.io · read 15 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Kuma's observability documentation describes integrations with Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, and Datadog.kuma.io · read 2 Oct 2026
- Interface
- Kuma provides native Kubernetes CRDs, a GUI, a REST API, and a CLI.kuma.io · read 2 Oct 2026
