# Apache Pulsar vs WarpStream

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** WarpStream

| Attribute | Apache Pulsar | WarpStream |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 60.2 (38% (low)) | 74.6 (62% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 316 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 15,343 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A distributed messaging system built for cloud deployments that enables applications to reliably publish and consume messages—either individually or as continuous streams—with sub-10-millisecond latency, supporting millions of independent topics and large-scale streaming workloads. It is indexed under Message Queues.","source":"https://pulsar.apache.org","question":"What is Apache Pulsar?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Apache Pulsar is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://pulsar.apache.org","question":"Is Apache Pulsar free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Apache Pulsar supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://pulsar.apache.org","question":"What platforms does Apache Pulsar support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Apache Pulsar can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://pulsar.apache.org","question":"Can Apache Pulsar be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 27 integrations for Apache Pulsar, including Kafka, RabbitMQ, MongoDB, Cassandra, Elasticsearch, HBase, HDFS and InfluxDB, plus 19 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://pulsar.apache.org","question":"What does Apache Pulsar integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Apache Pulsar is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar","question":"Is Apache Pulsar open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"WarpStream is a Kafka-compatible streaming platform that eliminates local disks by using cloud object storage, enabling automatic scaling and reducing costs significantly compared to traditional Kafka. It maintains full protocol compatibility while simplifying operations through managed deployment in customer cloud accounts. It is indexed under Message Queues.","source":"https://www.warpstream.com/pricing","question":"What is WarpStream?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"WarpStream offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $0.01. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.warpstream.com/pricing","question":"Is WarpStream free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"WarpStream supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.warpstream.com/pricing","question":"What platforms does WarpStream support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. WarpStream can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid, on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.warpstream.com/pricing","question":"Can WarpStream be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 17 integrations for WarpStream, including Apache Kafka, Bento, RisingWave, Grafana, Materialize, Snowflake, Schema Registry and Iceberg, plus 9 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.warpstream.com/pricing","question":"What does WarpStream integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and ISO 27001 for WarpStream. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as WarpStream not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.warpstream.com/pricing","question":"What security certifications does WarpStream have?","confidence":0.6}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A message broker supporting both pub-sub and queue-based messaging patterns. It provides durable storage with strong ordering guarantees, horizontally scales to millions of topics and messages per second, and supports geo-replication for distributed deployments. | WarpStream is a diskless, Kafka-protocol-compatible streaming platform designed to minimize data streaming costs. It offers managed cloud hosting or self-managed deployment, includes built-in autoscaling, cross-region replication, and embedded stream processing. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"both","ordering":"per_partition","paradigm":"pubsub","protocol":"pulsar://","message_replay":true,"persistent_log":true,"consumer_groups":true,"geo_replication":true,"kafka_compatible":true,"stream_processing":true,"delivery_guarantee":"exactly_once","horizontal_scaling":true}` | `{"hosting":"cloud","ordering":"per_partition","paradigm":"log_stream","protocol":"Kafka","message_replay":true,"persistent_log":true,"consumer_groups":true,"geo_replication":true,"kafka_compatible":true,"managed_offering":true,"stream_processing":true,"delivery_guarantee":"at_least_once","horizontal_scaling":true}` |
| integrations.count | 35 | 100 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Kafka"},{"name":"RabbitMQ"},{"name":"MongoDB"},{"name":"Cassandra"},{"name":"Elasticsearch"},{"name":"HBase"},{"name":"HDFS"},{"name":"InfluxDB"},{"name":"Redis"},{"name":"Solr"},{"name":"DynamoDB"},{"name":"Kinesis"},{"name":"Azure Data Explorer"},{"name":"ClickHouse"},{"name":"PostgreSQL"},{"name":"MariaDB"},{"name":"SQLite"},{"name":"Debezium MySQL"},{"name":"Debezium PostgreSQL"},{"name":"Debezium MongoDB"},{"name":"Debezium Oracle"},{"name":"Debezium Microsoft SQL Server"},{"name":"Canal"},{"name":"Aerospike"},{"name":"Alluxio"},{"name":"NSQ"},{"name":"Netty"},{"name":"HTTP"},{"name":"File"},{"name":"Kafka Connect Adaptor","native":true,"direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"MySQL","native":true}]` | `[{"name":"Apache Kafka"},{"name":"Bento"},{"name":"RisingWave"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"Materialize"},{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"Schema Registry"},{"name":"Iceberg"},{"name":"Tigris"},{"name":"Protobuf"},{"name":"Avro"},{"name":"JSON"},{"name":"AWS S3","native":true,"category":"storage"},{"name":"GCP GCS","native":true,"category":"storage"},{"name":"Azure Blob Storage","native":true,"category":"storage"},{"name":"Amazon MSK","category":"messaging","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Confluent Cloud","category":"messaging","direction":"bidirectional"}]` |
| language.primary | Java | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | - | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"web":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://pulsar.apache.org","retrievedAt":"2026-10-14T22:35:49.214Z"}` | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Dev","summary":"$100/month base + metered write throughput and cluster minutes","features":["Core functionality","99.9% SLA","mTLS"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":100,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.01,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":15,"unit":"min"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.0345,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Development-grade cluster with basic functionality","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"retention":"7 days","partitions":"4,096"}},{"free":false,"name":"Fundamentals","summary":"$500/month base + metered usage","features":["Production functionality","99.9% SLA","Agent Groups","Cluster Recovery","mTLS","PrivateLink","Audit Logs","Schema Validation"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":500,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.01,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":15,"unit":"min"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.1725,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Production-grade cluster with standard SLA","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"partitions":"16,384"}},{"free":false,"name":"Pro","summary":"$1,500/month base + metered usage","features":["Advanced isolation","Multi-region replication","99.99% SLA","Lightning Topics","Topic Recovery","Lower Latency"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":1500,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.01,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":15,"unit":"min"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.52083,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Advanced cluster with high availability and multi-region replication","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"partitions":"50,000"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Contact sales for pricing","features":["99.999% SLA","Dedicated Control Plane Cell","Multi-Region HA Replication"],"description":"Custom enterprise deployment","contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"partitions":"200,000+"}}],"summary":"From $100/month base + metered write throughput ($0.01-$0.003/GiB, tiered by volume) and storage. Free $400 non-expiring credits with no card required.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.warpstream.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T09:20:17.521Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.01,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | unknown |
| pricing.transparent | - | no |
| release.cadence_days | 3 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v5.0.0","date":"2026-10-05T19:22:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.2.5","date":"2026-10-05T19:23:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.14","date":"2026-10-05T19:23:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v5.0.0-M2","date":"2026-09-16T23:33:14Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v5.0.0-M2"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.2.4","date":"2026-08-03T09:19:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.13","date":"2026-08-03T09:19:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.2.3","date":"2026-07-06T08:46:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.12","date":"2026-07-06T08:46:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v5.0.0-M1","date":"2026-06-23T14:11:26Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v5.0.0-M1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.2.2","date":"2026-06-08T18:16:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.11","date":"2026-06-08T18:16:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.2.1","date":"2026-04-27T13:04:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.10","date":"2026-04-27T13:04:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v3.0.17","date":"2026-04-27T13:03:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.2.0","date":"2026-03-31T21:12:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.1.3","date":"2026-02-19T19:48:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.9","date":"2026-02-19T19:48:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v3.0.16","date":"2026-02-16T09:24:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.1.2","date":"2025-11-17T07:58:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.8","date":"2025-11-17T07:58:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.8"}]` | - |
| reliability.sla_pct | - | 99.999 |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.certifications | - | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type I","level":"Type I","status":"active"},{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","level":"Type II","status":"active"}]` |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 7.1 | - |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://pulsar.apache.org/docs/5.0.x/security-athenz/ | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=org.apache.pulsar%3Apulsar-client-admin&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | - |

## Capabilities (Message Queues)

| Capability | Apache Pulsar | WarpStream |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Messaging paradigm | Pub/sub | Log / streaming |
| **Correctness** |  |  |
| Delivery guarantee | Exactly-once | At-least-once |
| Ordering guarantee | Per-partition | Per-partition |
| **Durability** |  |  |
| Durable replayable log | ✓ | ✓ |
| Message replay / rewind | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Interop** |  |  |
| Wire protocol | pulsar:// | Kafka |
| Kafka-protocol compatible | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Partitioned horizontal scaling | ✓ | ✓ |
| Geo / cross-region replication | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Consumption** |  |  |
| Consumer groups / competing consumers | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dead-letter queue | - | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Managed cloud offering exists | - | ✓ |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | Cloud only |
| **Processing** |  |  |
| Built-in stream processing | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T19:22:08.425Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*