SaaSipedia

Consul

consul.io/docs/connect
DevOps
Weekend Project

Connect workloads to Consul service mesh

How to Replace Consul
Compare:vs Andromovs Ranorexvs Gatsby

Overview

Consul is HashiCorp's service mesh solution that enables secure service-to-service communication through Envoy sidecar proxies. It provides service discovery, traffic management, and built-in mTLS encryption with a certificate authority. Consul allows organizations to deploy and configure service mesh across various runtime environments including VMs, Kubernetes, ECS, AWS Lambda, and Nomad.

Features

15 features across 7 categories

Administration(1)

Service Mesh Enable/Disable

Ability to turn the service mesh off or back on again

Also in: Notion, Airtable, Smartsheet

Configuration(3)

Configuration Entries

Consul configuration entries to further secure and monitor service-to-service communication

Proxy Behavior Configuration

Configure behavior for individual proxies or configure default behavior for proxies according to service identity

Service Mesh Configuration

Connect block configuration for CA provider and locality information for nodes in Consul server agents

Also in: Kubernetes Dashboard, Jira, Lacework

Networking(1)

Service Discovery

Service discovery operations available on Consul instances running on the same node as your workload

Also in: Kubernetes Dashboard, MongoDB Atlas, Nomad

Proxy Management(1)

Envoy Sidecar Proxies

Built-in support for Envoy proxies to manage service mesh operations and control traffic between services

Runtime Support(5)

AWS Lambda Support

Connect Consul service mesh to AWS Lambda workloads

ECS Support

Connect and configure workloads to service mesh on Amazon ECS

Kubernetes Support

Connect and configure workloads to service mesh on Kubernetes

Nomad Support

Connect and configure workloads to service mesh on HashiCorp Nomad

VM Workload Support

Connect and configure workloads to service mesh on Virtual Machines

Security(2)

Built-in Certificate Authority

Integrated CA for managing and enforcing mTLS encryption between sidecar proxies

mTLS Encryption

Built-in certificate authority that can enforce mutual TLS encryption between sidecar proxies for secure communication

Also in: Hugging Face, Notion, Airtable

Troubleshooting(2)

Service Mesh Debugging

Debug Consul service mesh and troubleshoot errors when connecting service mesh to workloads

Service-to-Service Communication Troubleshooting

Resources to troubleshoot service-to-service communication issues

Also in: Jaeger

Cost Calculator

Pricing data not available for Consul. Check their website for current pricing.

Build vs Buy

Should you build a Consul alternative or buy the subscription? Estimate based on 15 features.

Buy Consul

Better Value
Monthly costContact Sales
3-year totalVaries
Time to deployDays

Build Your Own

Development cost$12,000
Maintenance$180/mo
3-year total$18,480
Dev time~1 months

Buying Consul saves ~$18,480 over 3 years vs building.

Estimates based on 15 features and a BuildScore of 5/5. Actual costs vary.

Integrations

5 known integrations

AWS ECSAWS LambdaEnvoyKubernetesNomad