Is Envoy or Lunacy better?

Neither clearly leads. Envoy starts at Free and Lunacy at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Envoy or Lunacy?

Envoy starts at Free and Lunacy at Free.

Does Envoy or Lunacy run on more platforms?

Envoy runs on Web. Lunacy runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.

Can I use Envoy for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Envoy best used for?

Envoy is most often used for acting as the data plane under a service mesh or gateway api implementation, which is how the overwhelming majority of deployments use it, an edge or api gateway that needs per-route retry budgets, circuit breaking and outlier detection rather than round-robin proxying, migrating traffic between service versions or between a monolith and its replacement, using weighted splits and shadow traffic, standardising observability across a polyglot estate, so that latency, error rates and tracing look the same regardless of the language a service is written in. Of those, acting as the data plane under a service mesh or gateway api implementation, which is how the overwhelming majority of deployments use it and an edge or api gateway that needs per-route retry budgets, circuit breaking and outlier detection rather than round-robin proxying are not what Lunacy is typically brought in for.

What can Envoy do that Lunacy cannot?

Envoy covers xDS dynamic configuration, Protocol breadth, Filter chain architecture, Observability by default. Lunacy covers Vector editing, Auto layouts, Components, Real-time collaboration.

Developer Tools · head to head

Envoy vs Lunacy

Envoy

Developer Tools

A high-performance L7 proxy written in C++ that is configured by an API rather than a config file, and is usually deployed under a control plane.

From: Free
Free plan: Yes

Visit Envoy Full review

Lunacy

Design

Free design software that keeps your flow

From: Free
Free plan: Yes

Visit Lunacy Full review

The short version

Lunacy is a free graphic design software.
Both are free.
Only Envoy lists xDS dynamic configuration; only Lunacy lists vector editing.
Where Lunacy falls short: desktop application only, not cloud-based like Figma, limiting accessibility across different computers.
Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Envoy and Lunacy actually diverge.

Attributes where Envoy and Lunacy differ
Attribute	Envoy	Lunacy
Platforms	Web	Windows, macOS, Linux
Category	Developer Tools	Design

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes).

Not yet recorded: pricing model for Lunacy, founded for Envoy.

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Envoy

xDS dynamic configuration
Protocol breadth
Filter chain architecture
Observability by default
Outlier detection
Traffic shaping
mTLS termination and origination
Hot restart

Only in Lunacy

Vector editing
Auto layouts
Components
Real-time collaboration
Built-in photos & icons
AI background remover
AI upscaler
Sketch file support

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Envoy

Acting as the data plane under a service mesh or Gateway API implementation, which is how the overwhelming majority of deployments use itnot Lunacy
An edge or API gateway that needs per-route retry budgets, circuit breaking and outlier detection rather than round-robin proxyingnot Lunacy
Migrating traffic between service versions or between a monolith and its replacement, using weighted splits and shadow trafficnot Lunacy
Standardising observability across a polyglot estate, so that latency, error rates and tracing look the same regardless of the language a service is written innot Lunacy

Lunacy

UI/UX designnot Envoy
Web designnot Envoy
Mobile app designnot Envoy
Icon designnot Envoy
Marketing graphicsnot Envoy

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Envoy

The configuration surface is very large and hand-written bootstrap YAML runs to hundreds of lines for routing that Nginx expresses in twenty, which is why nearly every production deployment sits under a control plane and inherits that control plane's constraints as well
xDS is the real API and it is not stable in the comfortable sense; the v2 API set was removed outright, resource types continue to be deprecated, and your control plane and Envoy binaries have to be upgraded roughly in step or the proxies stop accepting configuration
Extending it properly means writing a C++ filter and building and maintaining your own Envoy binary; the alternatives are Lua, which adds per-request overhead, and proxy-wasm, whose ABI has remained effectively experimental for years with a real performance cost
At sidecar density the per-proxy memory and CPU footprint is a measurable share of cluster capacity, since thousands of workloads each carry a full proxy, and this is precisely the cost that has pushed mesh projects towards node-level or ambient architectures
There is no single vendor selling support for Envoy itself; you get the community plus control-plane vendors such as Solo.io and Tetrate, so an Envoy-level production bug is your own engineers in a C++ codebase unless a support contract happens to cover it
Diagnosing why a request got a particular response involves reading config dumps, the stats endpoint and the RESPONSE_FLAGS codes in access logs rather than a readable error, which is a specific skill you must hire or spend months growing

Lunacy

Desktop application only, not cloud-based like Figma, limiting accessibility across different computers
Animation capabilities are basic, lacking timeline-based animation editing or spring physics available in modern design tools
Paid collaboration features, unlike Figma's free cloud-based team collaboration

Pricing, plan by plan

Envoy

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Envoy review.

Lunacy

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Lunacy review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Envoy if

You need xds dynamic configuration.
You want to start without paying.
You also want protocol breadth.

Envoy review

Choose Lunacy if

You need vector editing.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Windows, macOS, Linux.
You also want auto layouts.

Lunacy review

Questions people ask

Is Envoy or Lunacy better?: Neither clearly leads. Envoy starts at Free and Lunacy at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Envoy or Lunacy?: Envoy starts at Free and Lunacy at Free.
Does Envoy or Lunacy run on more platforms?: Envoy runs on Web. Lunacy runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
Can I use Envoy for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Envoy best used for?: Envoy is most often used for acting as the data plane under a service mesh or gateway api implementation, which is how the overwhelming majority of deployments use it, an edge or api gateway that needs per-route retry budgets, circuit breaking and outlier detection rather than round-robin proxying, migrating traffic between service versions or between a monolith and its replacement, using weighted splits and shadow traffic, standardising observability across a polyglot estate, so that latency, error rates and tracing look the same regardless of the language a service is written in. Of those, acting as the data plane under a service mesh or gateway api implementation, which is how the overwhelming majority of deployments use it and an edge or api gateway that needs per-route retry budgets, circuit breaking and outlier detection rather than round-robin proxying are not what Lunacy is typically brought in for.
What can Envoy do that Lunacy cannot?: Envoy covers xDS dynamic configuration, Protocol breadth, Filter chain architecture, Observability by default. Lunacy covers Vector editing, Auto layouts, Components, Real-time collaboration.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Envoy: Should I run Envoy on its own, or under a control plane?

Almost always under one. Directly authoring xDS or static bootstrap configuration is viable for a handful of routes and becomes unmanageable beyond that. Envoy Gateway, Istio, Contour, Gloo and Consul all exist to generate that configuration for you.

Lunacy: Is Lunacy free to use?

Yes. Lunacy is absolutely free for personal and commercial use. There is no subscription required or trial period limitation.

Source

Envoy: How does it compare with Nginx or HAProxy?

Envoy is dynamically configured over an API and instrumented far more heavily; Nginx and HAProxy are faster to configure and lighter for straightforward reverse proxying. If you never need to change routing without a reload, Envoy is more machinery than the problem requires.

Lunacy: Can Lunacy open and work with Sketch files?

Yes. Lunacy has smooth integration with Sketch files, allowing designers to import and collaborate on Sketch projects without requiring a Sketch subscription.

Source

Envoy: What does it cost?

Nothing to licence; it is Apache 2.0 and there is no paid edition. The cost is engineering time and, for most organisations, a commercial control plane or cloud service that packages it.

Lunacy: Does Lunacy require internet connection to work?

No. Lunacy can work offline, allowing designers to work without an internet connection. It is a desktop application that runs locally on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Source

Envoy: Can I write extensions without C++?

You can write Lua filters or proxy-wasm modules in Rust, Go, C++ or AssemblyScript. Both carry per-request overhead compared with a native filter, and the Wasm path has been slower to stabilise than the project originally projected.

Lunacy: What are Lunacy's hardware requirements?

Lunacy is not demanding on hardware and runs smoothly even on moderate laptops. It has minimal system requirements compared to resource-intensive design tools.

Source

Envoy: Is it a CNCF project?

Yes, it is a graduated CNCF project licensed under Apache 2.0, which means the trademark and governance sit with the foundation rather than with Lyft or any vendor.

Envoy vs Lunacy

Envoy

Lunacy

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Envoy

Only in Lunacy

What people use each for

Envoy

Lunacy

Where each one falls short

Envoy

Lunacy

Pricing, plan by plan

Envoy

Lunacy

Which should you pick?

Choose Envoy if

Choose Lunacy if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Envoy

More on Lunacy

Keep looking

Other head to heads