head to head · open source
kubeshark vs calico
kubeshark has 12,127 GitHub stars, 558 forks, 149 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. calico has 7,410 stars, 1,620 forks, 279 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kubeshark leads on adoption by 64% (12,127 vs 7,410 stars). kubeshark is written in Go under Apache-2.0; calico is written in Go under Apache-2.0. kubeshark has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, calico 22%. calico was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ebpf, kubernetes), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| kubeshark | calico | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 7.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 558 | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kubeshark if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick calico if
- You want the calico feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and calico fits your workflow better
About kubeshark
Network Observability for SREs & AI Agents Live Demo · Docs Kubeshark indexes cluster wide network traffic at the kernel level using eBPF — delivering instant answers to any query using network, API, and Kubernetes semantics. What you can do: Download Retrospective PCAPs — cluster wide packet captures filtered by nodes, time, workloads, and IPs. Store PCAPs for long term retention and later investigation. Visualize Network Data — explore traffic matching queries with API, Kubernetes, or network semantics through a real time dashboard. See Encrypted Traffic in Plain Text — automatically decrypt TLS/mTLS traffic…
read the full kubeshark overview →
About calico
Calico Quickstart Docs Contribute Slack Releases 🐾 Welcome to Project Calico! Project Calico, created and maintained by [Tigera][tigera], is an open source project with an active development and user community. Calico Open Source has grown to be the most widely adopted solution for container networking and security, powering 8M+ nodes daily across 166 countries. 🌟 Why use Calico? Data Plane Choice : eBPF, standard Linux, Windows, and VPP — versatility in network solutions. Interoperability : Works across multiple distros, multiple clouds, bare metal, and VMs. Optimized Performance : Engineered for high speed…
read the full calico overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kubeshark or calico more popular?
kubeshark has 12,127 GitHub stars and calico has 7,410. kubeshark has the larger community by that measure.
Are kubeshark and calico free?
Both are open source. kubeshark is licensed under Apache-2.0 and calico under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kubeshark and calico?
kubeshark is written in Go and calico in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, kubeshark or calico?
Choose kubeshark if you want the larger community (12,127 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose calico if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.