Available worldwide
What is Apache Kafka?
Apache Kafka is a free system for capturing, storing, and processing data streams in real time. It enables organizations to reliably move large volumes of data between applications and systems, with support for transformations, aggregations, and stateful processing.
Apache Kafka pricing
We don't have Apache Kafka's full plan breakdown yet (its pricing page resisted automated reading). Here's what we could confirm. Always check live pricing for exact numbers.
What Apache Kafka does
The capabilities that matter for message queues, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.
- Messaging paradigm
- Pub/sub
- Delivery guarantee
- Exactly-once
- Ordering guarantee
- Per-partition
- Durable replayable log
- ✓
- Message replay / rewind
- ✓
- Wire protocol
- Binary over TCP (SSL/SASL for authentication/encryption)
- Kafka-protocol compatible
- ✓
- Partitioned horizontal scaling
- ✓
- Geo / cross-region replication
- ✓
- Consumer groups / competing consumers
- ✓
- Dead-letter queue
- -
- Managed cloud offering exists
- ✗
- Hosting
- Self-hosted only
- Built-in stream processing
- ✓
Platform & deployment
Independently observed- CLI
- Linux
- Self-hosted
Integrations (4)
Independently observed- Postgres
- JMS
- Elasticsearch
- AWS S3
Security & compliance
Known vulnerabilities: 0 (0 in the last 12 months) sourcea count reflects scale & disclosure, not quality
Apache Kafka FAQ
Common questions about Apache Kafka, answered from independent, dated evidence.
What is Apache Kafka?
Apache Kafka is a free system for capturing, storing, and processing data streams in real time. It enables organizations to reliably move large volumes of data between applications and systems, with support for transformations, aggregations, and stateful processing. It is indexed under Message Queues.
Source: https://kafka.apache.org
Is Apache Kafka free to use?
Apache Kafka 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://kafka.apache.org
What platforms does Apache Kafka support?
Apache Kafka supports Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.
Source: https://kafka.apache.org
Can Apache Kafka be self-hosted?
Yes. Apache Kafka can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.
Source: https://kafka.apache.org
What does Apache Kafka integrate with?
We have confirmed 4 integrations for Apache Kafka, including Postgres, JMS, Elasticsearch and AWS S3. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.
Source: https://kafka.apache.org
Is Apache Kafka open source?
Yes. Apache Kafka 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/kafka
Apache Kafka alternatives
Other message queues we track, ranked by the same independent score.
- Confluent CloudA fully managed, serverless cloud platform for Apache Kafka enabling real-time data streaming, processing, and integration at any scalemedium · 73%
- WarpStreamA Kafka-compatible streaming platform that significantly reduces costs and operational complexity by storing data in object storage instead of local disksmedium · 73%
- TemporalA platform for building reliable, long-running applications with automatic state management and fault tolerance.high · 76%
- NATSlow · 47%
- RabbitMQA unified messaging and streaming broker for distributed application communicationlow · 47%
- RedpandaA fast, developer-friendly streaming data platform that works with Apache Kafka without ZooKeeper or Javamedium · 59%
Compare Apache Kafka
Side by side against other message queues, attribute by attribute, with a source on every value.
The vioscaleAI score: one lens on the evidence
Not user reviews and not a paid placement: a confidence-weighted blend of the independent signals below (adoption, activity, security posture, and more), which you can sort and re-weight yourself. Vendors can correct their listing but can never move their rank, and stars are weighted low as a vanity metric. It is one way to read the evidence for Apache Kafka, not the verdict.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Contribution | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package downloads | 88 | 0.14 | 11.9 | ✓ |
| Development activity | 63 | 0.09 | 5.9 | ✓ |
| Capabilities | 87 | 0.06 | 5.5 | ✓ |
| Security score | 61 | 0.04 | 2.6 | ✓ |
| Stars | 85 | 0.03 | 2.2 | ✓ |
| Integrations | 20 | 0.07 | 1.5 | ✓ |
| Dependent projects | 5 | 0.06 | 0.3 | ✓ |
| Release cadence | 0 | 0.05 | 0.0 | - |
| Security posture | 0 | 0.12 | 0.0 | - |
| Developer Q&A activity | 0 | 0.06 | 0.0 | - |
Computed . Re-weight it by intent, or see the full method.
All data & sourcesshow ↓
Every value we hold, with its source, retrieval date, and confidence. This is the evidence behind the score: don't trust it, verify it.
Activity
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Commits last 30d | 100 | mediumsource · 2026-09-10 · 65% |
Adoption
Content
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Faq | 6 items | mediumsource · 2026-09-10 · 66% |
Features
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | Hosting: self · Ordering: per_partition · Paradigm: pubsub · Protocol: Binary over TCP (SSL/SASL for authentication/encryption) · Message replay: Yes · Persistent log: Yes | mediumsource · 2026-08-14 · 60% |
Integrations
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Count | 4 | mediumsource · 2026-08-14 · 60% |
Language
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Java | highsource · 2026-09-10 · 90% |
License
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Spdx | Apache-2.0 | highsource · 2026-09-10 · 95% |
Market
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | PrimaryMarkets: … · AvailabilityScope: global · AvailableCountries: … · NotAvailableCountries: … | highsource · 2026-08-14 · 75% |
Pricing
Security
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