Submariner

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About

Submariner is ranked #4 of 22 in container networking software on Inferse. It runs on Self-hosted.

Compared on container networking software

Free plan
Yessubmariner.io
CNI plugin
Nosubmariner.io
Network policies
Nosubmariner.io
Egress control
Yessubmariner.io
Multi-cluster networking
Yessubmariner.io
Encryption in transit
Yessubmariner.io
Supported platforms
Kubernetes; OpenShift-SDN; Weave; Flannel; Canal; Calico; OVN; AWS; GKE; Azure; GCP; vSphere; OpenStack; x86-64; ARM64submariner.io

Facts

Purpose
Submariner connects Pods and Services across Kubernetes clusters running on-premises or in the cloud.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
Connectivity
It provides cross-cluster Layer 3 connectivity using encrypted or unencrypted connections.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
Service discovery
Lighthouse provides DNS discovery for services across connected clusters and implements the Kubernetes Multi-Cluster Service APIs.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
Deployment tool
The project includes subctl, a command-line utility that simplifies deployment and management.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
Network plugins
Submariner is designed to be CNI-agnostic and documents working alongside network plugins including Calico and Flannel.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
Overlapping CIDRs
Globalnet is an optional component for connecting clusters with overlapping CIDRs; by default, clusters need distinct, non-overlapping ServiceCIDR and ClusterCIDR ranges.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
Security
The project describes IPsec tunnels as its default for encrypting traffic between clusters.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
Calico limitation
Submariner is validated with Calico when it uses VXLAN encapsulation, and Calico requires configuration to avoid NAT on remote cluster subnets.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
External connectivity
Access to external applications or endpoints outside Kubernetes is described as experimental and potentially less mature or stable than core features.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
Administrative requirements
Deployment requires administrative setup, including configuring firewall rules in the underlying infrastructure.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
License
Contributions to the project other than the website must be made available under the Apache License, version 2.0.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
Community support
The project offers community help through GitHub, Kubernetes Slack, open community meetings, and user and developer mailing lists.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
Project status
Submariner is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation sandbox project.submariner.io · 2 Oct 2026
Purpose
Submariner connects Pods and Services across Kubernetes clusters on-premises or in the cloud.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
Use case
It supports applications spanning cloud providers, data centers, and regions for needs such as geo-redundancy, scale, and fault isolation.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
Open source
The project describes Submariner as completely open source and network-plugin agnostic.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
Networking
It provides cross-cluster Layer 3 connectivity using encrypted or unencrypted connections.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
Service discovery
Lighthouse provides DNS discovery for Kubernetes clusters connected by Submariner and implements Kubernetes Multi-Cluster Service APIs.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
Tunnel options
The Gateway Engine supports IPsec using Libreswan by default, WireGuard, and unencrypted VXLAN tunnels.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
High availability
The Gateway Engine supports active/passive high availability, with standby instances ready to take over if the active instance fails.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
Overlapping CIDRs
Globalnet provides an optional way to connect clusters with overlapping CIDRs; by default, clusters need distinct, non-overlapping ServiceCIDR and ClusterCIDR ranges.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
Deployment
Submariner is installed and managed through a Kubernetes Operator, with subctl and Helm charts as deployment tools; the docs recommend subctl.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
Security
The Broker deployment generates a broker-info.subm file containing an API endpoint, CA certificate, service-account token, and random IPsec pre-shared key.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
License
Contributions to Submariner projects other than the website must be made available under Apache License 2.0.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
Support
The project directs users to GitHub, Kubernetes Slack, community meetings, and the submariner-dev and submariner-users mailing lists for help and discussion.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
Limit
Load Balancer mode is marked experimental and is not yet tested across all cloud providers or failover scenarios.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026
Audience
Submariner is aimed at teams operating multiple Kubernetes clusters across clouds, data centers, or regions.submariner.io · 3 Oct 2026

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