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Istio vs NGINX Service-Mesh comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Istio
Ranking in Service Mesh
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NGINX Service-Mesh
Ranking in Service Mesh
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Service Mesh category, the mindshare of Istio is 22.8%, up from 22.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Service-Mesh is 7.1%, down from 17.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Service Mesh
 

Featured Reviews

JETTI DINESH REDDY - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced microservice security and advanced traffic management and good authentification
When our developers are building the microservices, instead of imposing additional burdens or additional thinking on them, especially as part of network features such as traffic management, security, or observability, we deploy something from the infrastructure side, so developers need only focus…
Fernando Silva - PeerSpot reviewer
A cost-effective and fully integrated service mesh that has good adaptability
The initial setup for NGINX Service-Mesh is straightforward. I have twenty engineers specifically for SI deployments, and we rely on gnet environments. Typically, we have many users, maybe a thousand users, and in Mexico, working with EC Telecom, we serve around five million users for the ISP solution, including internet and service provider solutions.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Istio's best feature is that it's easy to use."
"We use Istio for Service Discovery and routing traffic."
"Istio provides tremendous value, particularly in offering TLS and authentication over microservice-to-microservice communication."
"Istio can save you time in terms of network troubleshooting."
"Istio makes all that much easier - traffic splits, percentage traffic splits, doing some sort of chaos testing to see how it works."
"The load balancing, service application, and monitoring of the life of the service are valuable features. We use it for authentication of call services, load balancing the calls among the service providers on service instances, and monitoring the health of the services."
"The most valuable features of Istio are the traffic management and the Sidecar they inject, which greatly helps secure the application."
"The tool's mutual TLS stands out. It provides secure communication between services within the cluster. Additionally, Istio offers built-in telemetry and tracing with tools like Jaeger, which aids monitoring and troubleshooting."
"The solution is cost-effective and has good adaptability."
 

Cons

"Istio's documentation is basic and would benefit from more examples."
"Istio needs to be more mature and user-friendly."
"It would be good if the solution had more community forums."
"Istio has issues with performance."
"If you're a beginner in infrastructure management and networking, learning Istio might pose some challenges. However, if you have some knowledge of networking or service meshes, you should find it manageable. Istio's website offers documentation to guide you through learning."
"Reducing the latency between the control plane and the data plane would be beneficial."
"Based on my experience, the solution could be improved. They could simplify the learning process so that users can understand how its features work together, especially with components like Kibana. Learning about the different components is necessary. For instance, you need to understand the traffic flow, potential bottlenecks, and the architecture within Istio."
"I've seen applications where they had such strict time constraints, they couldn't use Istio because it was too much overhead."
"NGINX Service Mesh could be improved by integrating more intelligence and stability through certifications and SSL certificates."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is on the less expensive side. It provides a significant saving for us in terms of cost and other things. It is open-source. We just download it from the open-source framework and use it."
"You can deploy Istio free of cost and don't need to pay for it."
"We use the tool's open-source version, so there are no hidden fees or additional costs associated with it."
"The pricing for NGINX Service-Mesh is very reasonable, offering us scalability and cost-effectiveness."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
6%
Financial Services Firm
24%
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Retailer
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Istio?
Istio provides a significant saving for us in terms of costs since it is open source. However, Istio can still come at a price. It has a steep learning curve and might require more manpower hours ...
What do you like most about Istio?
We use Istio for Service Discovery and routing traffic.
What needs improvement with Istio?
At the moment, there are no immediate improvements needed. Reducing the latency between the control plane and the data plane would be beneficial.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX Service-Mesh?
The pricing for NGINX Service-Mesh is very reasonable, offering us scalability and cost-effectiveness.
What needs improvement with NGINX Service-Mesh?
NGINX Service Mesh could be improved by integrating more intelligence and stability through certifications and SSL certificates. Additionally, I need to review the solution for DDoS environments to...
What is your primary use case for NGINX Service-Mesh?
I'm using it to deliver applications and run easy telecom in Mexico. It currently helps distribute ISP, retail, and telecom environments.
 

Comparisons

 

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Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Isito, Envoy, VMware and others in Service Mesh. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.