Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Apache Kafka VS Amazon AWS

Compare Apache Kafka VS Amazon AWS and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Apache Kafka logo Apache Kafka

Apache Kafka is an open-source message broker project developed by the Apache Software Foundation written in Scala.

Amazon AWS logo Amazon AWS

Amazon Web Services offers reliable, scalable, and inexpensive cloud computing services. Free to join, pay only for what you use.
  • Apache Kafka Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-01
  • Amazon AWS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-29

Apache Kafka features and specs

  • High Throughput
    Kafka is capable of handling thousands of messages per second due to its distributed architecture, making it suitable for applications that require high throughput.
  • Scalability
    Kafka can easily scale horizontally by adding more brokers to a cluster, making it highly scalable to serve increased loads.
  • Fault Tolerance
    Kafka has built-in replication, ensuring that data is replicated across multiple brokers, providing fault tolerance and high availability.
  • Durability
    Kafka ensures data durability by writing data to disk, which can be replicated to other nodes, ensuring data is not lost even if a broker fails.
  • Real-time Processing
    Kafka supports real-time data streaming, enabling applications to process and react to data as it arrives.
  • Decoupling of Systems
    Kafka acts as a buffer and decouples the production and consumption of messages, allowing independent scaling and management of producers and consumers.
  • Wide Ecosystem
    The Kafka ecosystem includes various tools and connectors such as Kafka Streams, Kafka Connect, and KSQL, which enrich the functionality of Kafka.
  • Strong Community Support
    Kafka has strong community support and extensive documentation, making it easier for developers to find help and resources.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Kafka

  • Complex Setup and Management
    Kafka's distributed nature can make initial setup and ongoing management complex, requiring expert knowledge and significant administrative effort.
  • Operational Overhead
    Running Kafka clusters involves additional operational overhead, including hardware provisioning, monitoring, tuning, and scaling.
  • Latency Sensitivity
    Despite its high throughput, Kafka may experience increased latency in certain scenarios, especially when configured for high durability and consistency.
  • Learning Curve
    The concepts and architecture of Kafka can be difficult for new users to grasp, leading to a steep learning curve.
  • Hardware Intensive
    Kafka's performance characteristics often require dedicated and powerful hardware, which can be costly to procure and maintain.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing Kafka's dependencies and ensuring compatibility between versions of Kafka, Zookeeper, and other ecosystem tools can be challenging.
  • Limited Support for Small Messages
    Kafka is optimized for large throughput and can be inefficient for applications that require handling a lot of small messages, where overhead can become significant.
  • Operational Complexity for Small Teams
    Smaller teams might find the operational complexity and maintenance burden of Kafka difficult to manage without a dedicated operations or DevOps team.

Amazon AWS features and specs

  • Scalability
    AWS offers highly scalable services, allowing businesses to easily adjust resources based on demand without significant upfront investment.
  • Comprehensive Service Offering
    AWS provides a wide range of services, from compute and storage to machine learning and analytics, catering to diverse business needs.
  • Global Reach
    With data centers located worldwide, AWS enables low-latency access and redundancy, supporting global operations.
  • Strong Security
    AWS has robust security measures, including compliance certifications, encryption, and physical security, ensuring data and infrastructure protection.
  • Pay-as-You-Go Pricing
    AWS offers a flexible pricing model, where users only pay for what they use, helping manage costs effectively.
  • Extensive Integration Options
    AWS integrates with a wide variety of third-party services and APIs, providing seamless integration capabilities for various applications.
  • Innovation
    AWS frequently releases new services and features, staying at the forefront of technology and providing users with cutting-edge tools.

Possible disadvantages of Amazon AWS

  • Cost Management Complexity
    While the pay-as-you-go model offers flexibility, it can be challenging to track and predict costs, especially for large-scale operations.
  • Learning Curve
    AWS has a comprehensive set of services and features, which can be overwhelming for new users to learn and manage effectively.
  • Potential Vendor Lock-In
    Relying heavily on AWS services may result in vendor lock-in, making it difficult to switch providers or migrate workloads in the future.
  • Service Limitations
    Certain AWS services might have limitations or restrictions, which could hinder specific use cases or require workarounds.
  • Support Costs
    AWS offers different support tiers, and premium support options can be expensive for businesses needing immediate and advanced technical assistance.
  • Performance Variability
    Performance can vary based on server load and geographic location, which may affect the consistency and reliability of certain services.
  • Complex Pricing Structure
    AWS's pricing structure can be complicated, with various pricing models and options making it hard to determine the most cost-efficient choice.

Apache Kafka videos

Apache Kafka Tutorial | What is Apache Kafka? | Kafka Tutorial for Beginners | Edureka

More videos:

  • Review - Apache Kafka - Getting Started - Kafka Multi-node Cluster - Review Properties
  • Review - 4. Apache Kafka Fundamentals | Confluent Fundamentals for Apache Kafka®
  • Review - Apache Kafka in 6 minutes
  • Review - Apache Kafka Explained (Comprehensive Overview)
  • Review - 2. Motivations and Customer Use Cases | Apache Kafka Fundamentals

Amazon AWS videos

Amazon Web Services vs Google Cloud Platform - AWS vs GCP | Difference Between GCP and AWS

More videos:

  • Review - Are AWS Certifications worth it?
  • Review - AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Certification Will Get You Paid!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Kafka and Amazon AWS)
Stream Processing
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Computing
0 0%
100% 100
Data Integration
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Infrastructure
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Apache Kafka and Amazon AWS. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apache Kafka and Amazon AWS

Apache Kafka Reviews

Best ETL Tools: A Curated List
Debezium is an open-source Change Data Capture (CDC) tool that originated from RedHat. It leverages Apache Kafka and Kafka Connect to enable real-time data replication from databases. Debezium was partly inspired by Martin Kleppmann’s "Turning the Database Inside Out" concept, which emphasized the power of the CDC for modern data pipelines.
Source: estuary.dev
Best message queue for cloud-native apps
If you take the time to sort out the history of message queues, you will find a very interesting phenomenon. Most of the currently popular message queues were born around 2010. For example, Apache Kafka was born at LinkedIn in 2010, Derek Collison developed Nats in 2010, and Apache Pulsar was born at Yahoo in 2012. What is the reason for this?
Source: docs.vanus.ai
Are Free, Open-Source Message Queues Right For You?
Apache Kafka is a highly scalable and robust messaging queue system designed by LinkedIn and donated to the Apache Software Foundation. It's ideal for real-time data streaming and processing, providing high throughput for publishing and subscribing to records or messages. Kafka is typically used in scenarios that require real-time analytics and monitoring, IoT applications,...
Source: blog.iron.io
10 Best Open Source ETL Tools for Data Integration
It is difficult to anticipate the exact demand for open-source tools in 2023 because it depends on various factors and emerging trends. However, open-source solutions such as Kubernetes for container orchestration, TensorFlow for machine learning, Apache Kafka for real-time data streaming, and Prometheus for monitoring and observability are expected to grow in prominence in...
Source: testsigma.com
11 Best FREE Open-Source ETL Tools in 2024
Apache Kafka is an Open-Source Data Streaming Tool written in Scala and Java. It publishes and subscribes to a stream of records in a fault-tolerant manner and provides a unified, high-throughput, and low-latency platform to manage data.
Source: hevodata.com

Amazon AWS Reviews

  1. macloughlin
    · AV engineer ·
    The best cloud platform out there

    You could say a lot of things about AWS, but among the cloud platforms (and I've used quite a few) AWS takes the cake. It is logically structured, you can get through its documentation relatively easily, you have a great variety of tools and services to choose from [from AWS itself and from third-party developers in their marketplace]. There is a learning curve, there is quite a lot of it, but it is still way easier than some other platforms. I've used and abused AWS and EC2 specifically and for me it is the best.

    👍 Pros:    Great documentation|Website structure visualization|You have control over everything|Flexibility
    👎 Cons:    Learning curve|A lot of dashboards for different things

Top 15 MuleSoft Competitors and Alternatives
API Gateway private endpoints allow AWS customers to use API endpoints inside their VPC. They can leverage Route 53 resolver endpoints and hybrid connectivity to access APIs and integrated backend services from on-premises clients.
Best Dedicated Server Providers in India: A Comparative Analysis
Dedicated hosts on Amazon EC2 are physical servers that are completely dedicated to meeting corporate compliance standards. With AWS, you can create EC2 instances on a dedicated server. The flexibility offered by Amazon EC2 is definitely one of its biggest advantages, along with high scalability. Apart from that, it isn’t much better than dedicated servers.
Source: moralstory.org
Best Dedicated Server Providers for E-commerce Businesses in India
The dedicated server options from Amazon Web Services (AWS), a well-known brand in the tech industry, are equally excellent. AWS’s elastic infrastructure can smoothly adjust to your demands whether your e-commerce business encounters variable traffic or you expect quick development. AWS guarantees that the speed and performance of your website will always be unmatched thanks...
The Best Dedicated Server Operating System for UK-Based Business
Cloud computing behemoth AWS is renowned for its extensive infrastructure and scalability choices. You can make use of AWS’s numerous data centers, which are positioned strategically to offer low-latency services all across the UK.
Source: featurestic.com
The Best Dedicated Servers for Enterprise Businesses in India: Scalable and Reliable
The extensive selection of cloud-based solutions offered by AWS is one of its main advantages. AWS provides a wide range of cloud services, including computing power, storage choices, databases, machine learning, analytics tools, and dedicated servers. This adaptability enables businesses to create scalable, flexible, and affordable solutions customized to their needs.
Source: india07.in

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Amazon AWS should be more popular than Apache Kafka. It has been mentiond 444 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Kafka mentions (144)

View more

Amazon AWS mentions (444)

  • Step-by-Step Guide to Set Up a Cron Job to Run a Report
    Create an AWS Account: If you don’t already have one, sign up at aws.amazon.com. The free tier provides 750 hours per month of a t2.micro or t3.micro instance for 12 months. - Source: dev.to / 3 days ago
  • How to Host an Express App on AWS EC2 with NGINX (Free Tier Guide)
    Sign in to your AWS account. If you’re new to AWS, you can sign up for the free tier to get started without any upfront cost. - Source: dev.to / 28 days ago
  • Understanding AWS Regions and Availability Zones: A Guide for Beginners
    Amazon Web Services (AWS) has completely changed the game for how we build and manage infrastructure. Gone are the days when spinning up a new service meant begging your sys team for hardware, waiting weeks, and spending hours in a cold data center plugging in cables. Now? A few clicks (or API calls), and yes — you've got an entire data center at your fingertips. - Source: dev.to / 22 days ago
  • AWS S3 Storage Classes Explained: Choosing the Right One
    Choosing the right AWS S3 storage class depends on how frequently you access your data and your cost constraints. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Deploy a Django Rest Api on AWS EC2 using Docker, NGINX, Gunicorn and GitHub Action.
    Let’s start by setting up an EC2 instance to deploy our application. To do this, and you’ll need to open an AWS account (if you don’t already have one). - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Kafka and Amazon AWS, you can also consider the following products

RabbitMQ - RabbitMQ is an open source message broker software.

DigitalOcean - Simplifying cloud hosting. Deploy an SSD cloud server in 55 seconds.

StatCounter - StatCounter is a simple but powerful real-time web analytics service that helps you track, analyse and understand your visitors so you can make good decisions to become more successful online.

Microsoft Azure - Windows Azure and SQL Azure enable you to build, host and scale applications in Microsoft datacenters.

Histats - Start tracking your visitors in 1 minute!

Linode - We make it simple to develop, deploy, and scale cloud infrastructure at the best price-to-performance ratio in the market.