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A Complete Comparison of Confluent vs. Apache Kafka®
Open source Apache Kafka is a common starting point for large-scale, low-latency use cases. Confluent's data streaming platform unlocks the best of Kafka’s capabilities for building real-time applications and event-driven architectures with unmatched ease of use and reliability.
Here are the major differences between Confluent and Kafka, as well as a complete comparison of features - including scalability, resilience, security and data quality.
Confluent vs Kafka:
What’s in a Data Streaming Platform?
What’s in a Data Streaming Platform?
Apache Kafka is the industry standard for organizations that are looking to become more data-driven and solve complex data streaming challenges. Real-time analytics, fraud detection, AI enablement—data streaming use cases are nearly endless. While the open source project is highly flexible, using it on its own can present a number of challenges and hidden costs.
When an organization chooses to self-manage open source Kafka, it chooses to take on the responsibilities of balancing clusters, monitoring brokers, and managing software upgrades. Additionally, it will need to solve many of the same problems that Confluent has already solved through millions of hours of focused expertise. Confluent's powerful data streaming platform can elevate any Kafka implementation to ensure that data in motion is more reliable, available and secure.
Let’s compare what you get from a self-managed Kafka solution with the added value provided by Confluent's data streaming platform.
| A Self-managed Kafka Platform | Confluent Data Streaming Platform | |
|---|---|---|
| Operational Overhead | Client-server architecture Requires manual cluster management |
Deploy in any environment:
|
| Scalability | Manually provision, configure, and scale Kafka clusters based on expected load | Autoscale clusters up and down from 0 to GBps without over-provisioning infrastructure or introducing risk of an outage Optimize consumption while only paying for what you use |
| Security | Access control lists Limited options for authentication |
e2e encryption or bring your own encryption key RBAC, SAML SSO / OAuth 2.0 authentication |
| Reslience | Self-monitoring for service disruptions and unexpected changes to workloads | Global resilience backed by a 99.99% uptime SLA |
| Cost | Infrastructure, operations, and platform development costs are on the business | Reduced TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of up to 60% |
| Data Streaming Platform | Self-managed integration and processing with Kafka Connect and Kafka Streams Other data management capabilities need to be built or integrated from an assortment of 3rd party solutions |
Comprehensive platform that offers:
|
| Support | In-house expertise and open source community resources | 24x7 customer support from the world’s foremost Kafka experts with 3 million+ support hours Rich partner ecosystem of Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Systems Integrators and ISVs |
| Data Quality | Bronze and Silver layer data | Bronze, Silver and Gold layer data |
Powering the Cloud-Native Data Streaming Platform with Kora
With the Kora engine, we’ve unlocked a new way for you to experience data streaming in the cloud—with seamless scaling, uninterrupted uptime, and no operational tasks or surprises standing between you and your best work.
Confluent engineers have spent millions of hours re-architecting its streaming engine to fully manage your Kafka workloads. The end result? A cloud-native Kafka engine that abstracts away operational complexities to give you:
Elastic Autoscaling from GBps to 0
Resiliency with a 99.99% uptime SLA
10x Lower Latency
Up to 60% Lower TCO
A Complete Data Streaming Platform for Your Kafka Workloads
The Confluent Data Streaming Platform goes beyond simplifying Kafka—it provides all the tools that you need to stream at any scale and connect systems across environments. All while governing and processing data closer to the source enabling you to build data products even better and faster.
Connect
Connect to any data source and sink with 120+ pre-built connectors and 80+ fully managed connectors.
Process
Effortlessly enrich, join and filter your data with cloud-native, serverless stream processing powered by Apache Flink®.
Cost-Effective Streaming Everywhere, No Matter the Environment
The Confluent data streaming platform can be deployed in any environment and in any combination of environments. To meet the demands of the data-driven organization, Confluent has optimized pricing, infrastructure, and security with an extensive set of feature-rich products that are focused on improving the quality and accessibility of your data.
Build Faster, Stress Less With Confluent Cloud
A fully managed, cloud-native service that goes above and beyond Apache Kafka, available on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud across 60+ regions.
Stream Data On-Premises With Confluent Platform
A complete, enterprise-grade distribution of Apache Kafka for workloads in your on-prem and private cloud environments.
Automate and Scale Securely With Confluent Private Cloud
A complete, enterprise-grade, private data streaming service with cloud-native operations for large platform teams with demanding security and compliance needs.
In Your Own Cloud VPC With WarpStream
A Kafka-compatible, Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) native data streaming service that is zero-access and secure by default so your data never leaves your environment.
Migrate with confidence with Confluent Migration Accelerator
Discover how to migrate from open source Kafka to Confluent with a complete guide of best practices and use case examples from our Migration Accelerator program.
More Resources
4 Drivers of Kafka Costs to Know
Learn about the key drivers of Kafka costs and how Confluent re-architected Kafka to save you time and money.
The Complete Confluent Cloud Breakdown
Learn more about the features that are part of Confluent’s complete, cloud-native platform.
BigCommerce Unlocks Real-Time Analytics
Discover how migrating from Kafka to Confluent saved BigCommerce saving 20+ hours a week in operations work.
How McAfee Migrated to Cloud-Native Microservices
See how McAfee replatformed its architecture and fully capitalized on Kafka with Confluent’s cloud-native data streaming platform.