Calico Open Source

6.8easy start · #2 of 28
in Microsegmentation Software

Free to practise onyes
Free trialnot on record
Well documentedyes
Runs where you worknot on record

Runs on Linux, self-hosted, Windows.

Calico Open Source is ranked #2 of 28 in microsegmentation software on The Geeks Club. It runs on Linux, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

Calico Open Source plans and pricing

All plans

Calico Open Source Free Community-driven support and maintenance · In-memory data retention · Unlimited clusters tigera.io · 28 Sept 2026

Compared on microsegmentation software

Free plan: Yes
CNI plugin: Yes
Network policies: Yes
Egress control: Yes
Multi-cluster networking: Yes
Encryption in transit: Yes
Supported platforms: Kubernetes, Linux, Windows, OpenStack, virtual machines, bare metal

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The record

Purpose: Calico Open Source provides networking, network security, and observability across Kubernetes distributions.
Workloads: It supports containers, virtual machines, and bare-metal workloads with a consistent security policy framework.
Network policy: Its policy engine implements Kubernetes network policy features, including AdminNetworkPolicy and BaselineAdminNetworkPolicy.
Policy controls: Calico network policies support policy tiers, deny and log actions, NetworkSets, and cluster-wide global policies.
Staged policies: Staged Policies let teams evaluate policy behavior without enforcing it.
Data planes: The product page lists eBPF, iptables, nftables, Windows, and VPP data plane options.
Observability: Calico Open Source includes Whisker, a visual UI for viewing flow logs and analyzing network communication.
Ingress: Calico Ingress Gateway is described as an upstream distribution of Envoy Gateway with traffic control, load balancing, and ingress policy enforcement.
Encryption: It can automatically create and manage WireGuard tunnels between nodes to encrypt in-cluster Kubernetes pod traffic.
Scale: Tigera says its development testing includes clusters with thousands of nodes and describes the product as suitable for deployments from 10 to 10,000 or more nodes.
Support: The editions comparison describes Calico Open Source support and maintenance as community-driven.
Supported environments: The product page describes multi-cloud, hybrid-cloud, and on-premises workload networking, security, and observability.
Intended users: Tigera describes Calico Open Source as best suited to users seeking open-source networking, network security, and observability capabilities for Kubernetes.
Founded: 2016
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on The Geeks Club

Best Microsegmentation Software in 2026#2 of 28
Best Container Networking Software in 2026#2 of 26

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Sources

tigera.io/tigera-products/calico/· checked 28 Sept 2026
tigera.io/tigera-products/compare-products/· checked 28 Sept 2026
tigera.io/project-calico/· checked 23 Sept 2026