# Google Cloud Pub/Sub vs WarpStream

**Leader by Vioscale score:** WarpStream

| Attribute | Google Cloud Pub/Sub | WarpStream |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 53.4 (49% (low)) | 80.3 (73% (medium)) |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A cloud-based publish/subscribe messaging system that enables applications to ingest and stream event data at scale with guaranteed delivery, automatic scaling, and built-in replay capabilities. Integrates with data warehouses and stream processing pipelines for real-time analytics. | 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. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"cloud","ordering":"per_key","paradigm":"pubsub","message_replay":true,"persistent_log":true,"consumer_groups":true,"geo_replication":true,"managed_offering":true,"stream_processing":true,"delivery_guarantee":"at_least_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 | 3 | 12 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"BigQuery"},{"name":"Cloud Storage"},{"name":"Dataflow"}]` | `[{"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"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Standard Pub/Sub","summary":"$40/TiB throughput + $0.27/GiB-month storage (first 10 GiB throughput free)","features":["At-least-once message delivery","Per-key message ordering","Pull and push delivery modes","Cross-zone replication","Automatic scaling and provisioning","Message retention and snapshots"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":40,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB-month"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.27,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Pay-as-you-go pricing based on message throughput and retention","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"free_throughput":"10 GiB/month"}}],"addOns":[{"name":"BigQuery Subscription","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":50,"currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Cloud Storage Subscription","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":50,"currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Kinesis Data Streams Import","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":50,"currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Other Source Imports (Azure Event Hubs, AWS MSK, Confluent Cloud)","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":80,"currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"Usage-based: $40/TiB throughput, $0.27/GiB-month storage. Free tier: 10 GiB/month throughput.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://cloud.google.com/pubsub","retrievedAt":"2026-08-05T13:22:58.268Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.27,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"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 | freemium | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | low | low |
| pricing.transparent | no | yes |
| reliability.sla_pct | - | 99.9 |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |

## Capabilities (Message Queues)

| Capability | Google Cloud Pub/Sub | WarpStream |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Messaging paradigm | Pub/sub | Log / streaming |
| **Correctness** |  |  |
| Delivery guarantee | At-least-once | At-least-once |
| Ordering guarantee | Per-key | Per-partition |
| **Durability** |  |  |
| Durable replayable log | ✓ | ✓ |
| Message replay / rewind | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Interop** |  |  |
| Wire protocol | - | 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 only | Cloud only |
| **Processing** |  |  |
| Built-in stream processing | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T17:02:17.647Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*