Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Helidon

12
22
+ 1
1
Istio

2.4K
1.5K
+ 1
54
Add tool

Helidon vs Istio: What are the differences?

  1. Runtime Environment: Helidon is a lightweight Java microservices framework that provides a simple, functional and reactive programming model for building microservices. On the other hand, Istio is a service mesh platform that helps to connect, secure, and manage microservices. While Helidon focuses on providing a framework for developing microservices, Istio is more focused on managing the communication between microservices in a distributed system.

  2. Support for Microservices Communication: Helidon provides support for building microservices using Java programming language, but it does not provide built-in features for handling service-to-service communication, load balancing, and routing. Meanwhile, Istio offers advanced features for managing microservices communication such as traffic routing, load balancing, service discovery, and fault tolerance. Istio uses a data plane and control plane architecture to provide these features.

  3. Integration with Kubernetes: Helidon can be deployed and run on Kubernetes, but it does not offer built-in integration with Kubernetes features such as automatic scaling, rolling updates, and service discovery. In contrast, Istio is designed to work seamlessly with Kubernetes and complements its features by providing advanced networking, security, and monitoring capabilities for microservices running on Kubernetes clusters.

  4. Service Proxy: In Helidon, service-to-service communication is typically implemented using HTTP clients and servers within the microservices. In Istio, a sidecar proxy is deployed alongside each microservice instance to handle communication, routing, and monitoring at the network level. This proxy intercepts and controls all inbound and outbound traffic to the microservice, providing additional security and observability features.

  5. Traffic Management: Helidon does not include built-in tools for advanced traffic management such as A/B testing, canary deployments, and traffic shifting. In contrast, Istio provides powerful traffic management capabilities through its control plane, enabling developers to implement sophisticated deployment strategies and fine-grained routing rules without modifying application code.

  6. Security Features: Helidon offers basic security features such as TLS support and authentication mechanisms for securing microservices. On the other hand, Istio provides a robust set of security features including mutual TLS, access control policies, and encryption of service-to-service communication. Istio's security features are configurable and can be applied uniformly across all microservices in the mesh.

In Summary, Helidon is a lightweight Java microservices framework focused on building microservices, while Istio is a service mesh platform that specializes in managing microservices communication, integration with Kubernetes, service proxying, traffic management, and security features for microservices.

Get Advice from developers at your company using StackShare Enterprise. Sign up for StackShare Enterprise.
Learn More
Pros of Helidon
Pros of Istio
  • 1
    Light weight and fast
  • 14
    Zero code for logging and monitoring
  • 9
    Service Mesh
  • 8
    Great flexibility
  • 5
    Resiliency
  • 5
    Powerful authorization mechanisms
  • 5
    Ingress controller
  • 4
    Easy integration with Kubernetes and Docker
  • 4
    Full Security

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Helidon
Cons of Istio
    Be the first to leave a con
    • 16
      Performance

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is Helidon?

    It is a collection of Java libraries for writing microservices that run on a fast web core powered by Netty.

    What is Istio?

    Istio is an open platform for providing a uniform way to integrate microservices, manage traffic flow across microservices, enforce policies and aggregate telemetry data. Istio's control plane provides an abstraction layer over the underlying cluster management platform, such as Kubernetes, Mesos, etc.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use Helidon?
    What companies use Istio?
      No companies found
      See which teams inside your own company are using Helidon or Istio.
      Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

      Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

      What tools integrate with Helidon?
      What tools integrate with Istio?

      Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

      What are some alternatives to Helidon and Istio?
      Zuul
      It is the front door for all requests from devices and websites to the backend of the Netflix streaming application. As an edge service application, It is built to enable dynamic routing, monitoring, resiliency, and security. Routing is an integral part of a microservice architecture.
      Jersey
      It is open source, production quality, framework for developing RESTful Web Services in Java that provides support for JAX-RS APIs and serves as a JAX-RS (JSR 311 & JSR 339) Reference Implementation. It provides it’s own API that extend the JAX-RS toolkit with additional features and utilities to further simplify RESTful service and client development.
      linkerd
      linkerd is an out-of-process network stack for microservices. It functions as a transparent RPC proxy, handling everything needed to make inter-service RPC safe and sane--including load-balancing, service discovery, instrumentation, and routing.
      Azure Service Fabric
      Azure Service Fabric is a distributed systems platform that makes it easy to package, deploy, and manage scalable and reliable microservices. Service Fabric addresses the significant challenges in developing and managing cloud apps.
      Dapr
      It is a portable, event-driven runtime that makes it easy for developers to build resilient, stateless and stateful microservices that run on the cloud and edge and embraces the diversity of languages and developer frameworks.
      See all alternatives