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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.

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Confluent vs Kafka:
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 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
Operational Overhead Client-server architecture

Requires manual cluster management
Deploy in any environment:
  • Serverless and cloud-native with fully managed clusters
  • Enterprise-grade distribution on a self-managed platform
  • Deployed in your own virtual private cloud
  • Unlimited combinations of serverless, on-prem, hybrid and multicloud
Scalability
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
Security Access control lists

Limited options for authentication
e2e encryption or bring your own encryption key

RBAC, SAML SSO / OAuth 2.0 authentication
Cost
Resilience
Reslience Self-monitoring for service disruptions and unexpected changes to workloads Global resilience backed by a 99.99% uptime SLA
Cost
Cost Infrastructure, operations, and platform development costs are on the business Reduced TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of up to 60%
Data Streaming Platform
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:
  • 120+ pre-built connectors or run a custom connector on Confluent Cloud
  • Stream quality, catalog and lineage for secure governance
  • Serverless Apache Flink® for stream processing
Support
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
Data Quality Bronze and Silver layer data Bronze, Silver and Gold layer data
10x Apache Kafka® service powered by the Kora Engine: Image

What makes Confluent the better, faster, and cheaper way to stream data?

The answer is Kora, our cloud-native Kafka engine built for optimal performance, scalability, and reliability in the cloud.

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.

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Stream

Reimagine data streaming everywhere, on-prem and in every major public cloud

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Connect

Connect to any data source and sink with 120+ pre-built connectors and 80+ fully managed connectors.

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Process

Effortlessly enrich, join and filter your data with cloud-native, serverless stream processing powered by Apache Flink®.

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Govern

Make data in motion self-service, secure, compliant and trustworthy.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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4 Drivers of Kafka Costs to Know

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The Complete Confluent Cloud Breakdown

Learn more about the features that are part of Confluent’s complete, cloud-native platform.

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BigCommerce Unlocks Real-Time Analytics

Discover how migrating from Kafka to Confluent saved BigCommerce saving 20+ hours a week in operations work.

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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.