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linkerd VS Azure Application Gateway

Compare linkerd VS Azure Application Gateway and see what are their differences

linkerd logo linkerd

Linkerd is an ultralight service mesh for Kubernetes. It gives you observability, reliability, and security without requiring any code changes.

Azure Application Gateway logo Azure Application Gateway

Manage traffic to your web applications using Azure Application Gateway, a load balancer that features a web application firewall and intelligent layer 7 routing.
  • linkerd Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-18
  • Azure Application Gateway Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-05

linkerd features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Linkerd is known for its minimal resource usage compared to other service meshes, making it a good choice for environments where resource constraints are a concern.
  • Ease of Use
    Designed to be user-friendly, Linkerd offers a simple installation process and an easy-to-understand interface for managing microservices.
  • High Performance
    Linkerd offers low-latency communication between services, providing efficient and high-performance service mesh functionality.
  • Security Features
    Linkerd provides built-in security features such as mTLS (mutual TLS) for service-to-service encryption, ensuring secure communications within the mesh.
  • Kubernetes Native
    Linkerd is designed to work seamlessly with Kubernetes, providing native integrations and simplifying operations for Kubernetes-based environments.

Possible disadvantages of linkerd

  • Feature Limitations
    Compared to some other service meshes, Linkerd offers fewer features and might not satisfy every use case, particularly for advanced scenarios.
  • Resource Overhead
    Although lightweight, running a service mesh introduces additional components that consume system resources, which might be a concern in very resource-constrained environments.
  • Ecosystem Maturity
    Linkerd's ecosystem and community are not as large as some other service meshes, potentially leading to fewer third-party integrations and support resources.
  • Complexity in Large Scale
    While simple for smaller deployments, managing Linkerd at scale can become complex, requiring more intricate configuration and monitoring.
  • Learning Curve
    Adopting Linkerd, like any service mesh, involves a learning curve that requires teams to understand concepts of service mesh architecture and operations.

Azure Application Gateway features and specs

  • Scalability
    Azure Application Gateway can automatically scale up or down based on traffic demands, ensuring application availability and performance without manual intervention.
  • Security Features
    It offers a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that helps protect your applications from common vulnerabilities and attacks, improving the overall security posture.
  • SSL Termination
    By offloading SSL termination to the application gateway, it reduces the web server's computation load, allowing better resource allocation.
  • URL-based Routing
    Supports URL-based routing which allows for more advanced traffic distribution strategies and optimization of backend resources.
  • Multi-Region Redundancy
    Supports configurations for multi-region redundancy, allowing for improved resilience and availability across geographical locations.

Possible disadvantages of Azure Application Gateway

  • Complexity
    Initial setup and configuration can be complex, especially for users who are not familiar with Azure services, potentially leading to increased deployment times.
  • Cost
    Costs can increase significantly with higher traffic volumes and additional features like the Web Application Firewall, impacting the overall IT budget.
  • Latency
    There might be additional latency introduced due to the routing and processing of requests through the gateway, which can affect application performance.
  • Limited Customization
    Compared to some other solutions, Azure Application Gateway offers limited customization options for specific routing and traffic management scenarios.
  • Dependency on Azure Region
    Performance and availability can be impacted by the Azure region where the application gateway is deployed, leading to potential issues if that region experiences problems.

linkerd videos

Introduction to Linkerd for beginners | a Service Mesh

More videos:

  • Review - Deep Dive: Linkerd - Oliver Gould, Buoyant
  • Review - 60 seconds to a Linkerd service mesh on AKS | Azure Friday

Azure Application Gateway videos

Azure Application Gateways

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to linkerd and Azure Application Gateway)
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Web And Application Servers
Web Servers
48 48%
52% 52
Load Balancer / Reverse Proxy

User comments

Share your experience with using linkerd and Azure Application Gateway. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, linkerd seems to be a lot more popular than Azure Application Gateway. While we know about 18 links to linkerd, we've tracked only 1 mention of Azure Application Gateway. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

linkerd mentions (18)

  • Evaluating 2 Popular Service Meshes
    The decision to add a Service Mesh to an application comes down to how your application communicates between itself. If for instance your design is heavily asynchronous and relies on events and messages, then a service mesh isn't going to make a lot of sense. If however, you've built an application that is heavily reliant on APIs between itself, then a service mesh is a great piece of technology that can make this... - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Fastly and the Linux kernel
    The open source projects Fastly uses and the foundations we partner with are vital to Fastly’s mission and success. Here's an unscientific list of projects and organizations supported by the Linux Foundation that we use and love include: The Linux Kernel, Kubernetes, containerd, eBPF, Falco, OpenAPI Initiative, ESLint, Express, Fastify, Lodash, Mocha, Node.js, Prometheus, Jenkins, OpenTelemetry, Envoy, etcd, Helm,... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • eBPF, sidecars, and the future of the service mesh
    William: My first pick would be Linkerd. It's a must-have for any Kubernetes cluster. I then lean towards tools that complement Linkerd, like Argo and cert-manager. You're off to a solid start with these three. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Optimal JMX Exposure Strategy for Kubernetes Multi-Node Architecture
    Leverage a service mesh like Istio or Linkerd to manage communication between microservices within the Kubernetes cluster. These service meshes can be configured to intercept JMX traffic and enforce access control policies. Benefits:. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Ultimate EKS Baseline Cluster: Part 1 - Provision EKS
    From here, we can explore other developments and tutorials on Kubernetes, such as o11y or observability (PLG, ELK, ELF, TICK, Jaeger, Pyroscope), service mesh (Linkerd, Istio, NSM, Consul Connect, Cillium), and progressive delivery (ArgoCD, FluxCD, Spinnaker). - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
View more

Azure Application Gateway mentions (1)

  • Free and Built-In TLS/SSL certificates in Azure
    It should be easy and free to enable SSL/TSL certificates in Azure. This was the number one question on UserVoice feedback. Microsoft implemented this Built-In free certificate option for some services, like Azure CDN, Front Door, Application Gateway, etc. When you put one of those services in front of your web site (like what I did with this blog), you can enable an auto-renewable Built-In certificate for free. - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing linkerd and Azure Application Gateway, you can also consider the following products

Istio - Open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices

nginx - A high performance free open source web server powering busiest sites on the Internet.

Docker Hub - Docker Hub is a cloud-based registry service

Google Cloud Load Balancing - Google Cloud Load Balancer enables users to scale their applications on Google Compute Engine.

Eureka - Eureka is a contact center and enterprise performance through speech analytics that immediately reveals insights from automated analysis of communications including calls, chat, email, texts, social media, surveys and more.

AWS Elastic Load Balancing - Amazon ELB automatically distributes incoming application traffic across multiple Amazon EC2 instances in the cloud.