Linkerd Has a Free API — The Lightweight Service Mesh

Linkerd is the lightest and fastest service mesh for Kubernetes. If Istio feels too complex, Linkerd gives you 80% of the value with 20% of the complexity. What Is Linkerd? Linkerd is a CNCF graduated project that adds reliability, security, and observability to Kubernetes without code changes. It uses its own ultralight proxy (linkerd2-proxy) written in Rust. Key features: Automatic mTLS (zero-config) Golden metrics (success rate, latency, throughput) Retries and timeouts Traffic splitting Multi-cluster support Install Linkerd curl --proto "=https" -sL https://run.linkerd.io/install | sh export PATH = $HOME /.linkerd2/bin: $PATH linkerd check --pre linkerd install --crds | kubectl apply -f - linkerd install | kubectl apply -f - linkerd check Add to Your App # Inject sidecar into deployment kubectl get deploy my-app -o yaml | linkerd inject - | kubectl apply -f - # Check metrics linkerd stat deploy/my-app Output: NAME MESHED SUCCESS RPS LATENCY_P50 LATENCY_P99 my-app 1/1 100.00% 5.2 1m