Cilium vs ManageEngine OpUtils: 2026 Comparison
Cilium is a free network access control tool. ManageEngine OpUtils is a commercial network access control tool by ManageEngine. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best network access control fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, integrations, company size fit, here is our conclusion:
Platform teams running Kubernetes on-premises or in hybrid clouds will get the most from Cilium because its eBPF kernel-level enforcement eliminates the latency and blind spots of traditional overlay networking. With 23,959 GitHub stars and active deployments at scale across financial services and public sector organizations, Cilium's approach to policy enforcement at the dataplane level is proven; it also handles observability without requiring sidecar injection, which keeps resource overhead predictable. Not the right fit for teams needing a managed SaaS experience or those prioritizing CSPM and infrastructure compliance scanning over network microsegmentation.
Network teams managing IP address chaos across mixed on-premises environments should choose ManageEngine OpUtils for its switch port mapping automation, which eliminates the manual work of tracking which device lives on which port. The tool's rogue device detection and real-time port monitoring directly address NIST ID.AM asset management, giving you continuous visibility into what's actually connected to your network. Skip this if you need cloud-native IP management or expect tight integration with your existing IPAM platform; OpUtils is built for the physical network stack, not hybrid infrastructure sprawl.
