<p><a href="https://traefik.io/" rel="noreferrer">Traefik</a> is a reverse HTTP proxy with several supported backends, Kubernetes included. How does Istio compare?</p>

<p>It's something of an apples-to-oranges comparison. </p>

<p>Edge proxies like Traefik or Nginx are best compared to <a href="https://lyft.github.io/envoy/" rel="noreferrer">Envoy</a> - the proxy that Istio leverages. An Envoy proxy is installed automatically by Istio adjacent to every pod.</p>

<p>Istio provides several higher level capabilities beyond Envoy, including routing, ACLing and service discovery and access policy <em>across a set</em> of services. In effect, it stitches a set of Envoy enabled services together. This design pattern is often called a <em>service mesh</em>.</p>

<p>Istio is also currently limited to Kubernetes deployments in a single cluster, though work is in place to remove these restrictions in time.</p>
