Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Kafka VS Camunda

Compare Kafka VS Camunda and see what are their differences

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Kafka logo Kafka

Apache Kafka is publish-subscribe messaging rethought as a distributed commit log.

Camunda logo Camunda

The Universal Process Orchestrator
  • Kafka Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-24
Not present

The leader in process orchestration, Camunda enables organizations to operationalize and automate AI, integrating human tasks, existing and future systems without compromising security, governance, or innovation. Built for business and IT to collaborate, Camunda empowers organizations to overcome complexity, increase efficiency, and retain their competitive advantage no matter what speed and scale are required. Over 700 top organizations across all industries, including Atlassian, ING, and Vodafone trust Camunda with the design, orchestration, automation, and improvement of their business-critical processes to accelerate digital transformation. To learn more visit camunda.com

Camunda

$ Details
freemium
Release Date
2008 January
Startup details
Country
Germany
State
Berlin
City
Berlin
Founder(s)
Bernd Ruecker
Employees
250 - 499

Kafka features and specs

  • High Throughput
    Apache Kafka is capable of handling a large volume of data with very low latency, making it ideal for real-time data processing applications.
  • Scalability
    Kafka can effortlessly scale out by adding more brokers to a cluster, allowing it to handle increased data loads.
  • Fault Tolerance
    Kafka offers built-in replication and fault tolerance, ensuring that data is not lost even if some brokers or nodes fail.
  • Durability
    Messages in Kafka are persistently stored on disk, providing durability and data recovery capabilities in case of failures.
  • Stream Processing
    Kafka, along with Kafka Streams, offers powerful stream processing capabilities, allowing real-time data transformation and processing.
  • Ecosystem
    Kafka has a rich ecosystem that includes Kafka Connect for data integration, Kafka Streams for stream processing, and many other tools that make it easier to work with data.
  • Language Support
    Kafka clients are available in multiple programming languages, providing flexibility in choosing the technology stack for your project.

Possible disadvantages of Kafka

  • Complexity
    Setting up and managing a Kafka cluster can be complex, requiring expertise in distributed systems and careful configuration.
  • Resource Intensive
    Kafka can be resource-intensive, requiring significant memory and CPU resources, especially at scale.
  • Operational Overhead
    Maintaining Kafka clusters involves considerable operational overhead, including monitoring, tuning, and managing brokers and partitions.
  • Data Ordering
    While Kafka guarantees ordering within a partition, maintaining total order across a topic with multiple partitions can be challenging.
  • Latency
    In certain use-cases, such as strict low-latency requirements, Kafka’s design might introduce higher latency as compared to some specialized messaging systems.
  • Learning Curve
    Kafka has a steep learning curve, which might make it harder for new developers to get started quickly.
  • Data Storage
    Despite Kafka’s durability features, large volumes of data storage can become costly and need careful management to avoid sluggish performance.

Camunda features and specs

  • Agentic Orchestration
    Build AI agents, automate documents with AI-powered IDP, and run RPA bots.
  • Process Orchestration
    Coordinate the various moving parts and endpoints of a business process and tie multiple processes together for true end-to-end automation.
  • Scalability
    Camunda is designed to handle large-scale process automation, making it suitable for enterprise usage.
  • Rich API's
    REST and Java APIs that allow for seamless integration with other software systems and applications.
  • Open architecture
    Customize any workflow to fit your needs.
  • Marketplace
    Your hub for Camunda Accelerators like out-of-box connectors, process blueprints, and the ability to contribute to and request new solutions.
  • Common visual language
    Supports the BPMN 2.0 standard for process modeling, enabling you to adapt faster as business and processes evolves.
  • SAP Integration
    Automate processes that span your Systems of Record.
  • Flexible Deployment
    Cloud and self-hosting licensing available, giving organizations the flexibility to choose their preferred environment.
  • Cockpit and Tasklist
    Includes powerful tools like Cockpit for monitoring and Tasklist for task management, enhancing the control over process execution.
  • Community Support
    A large and active user community provides support, plugins, and shared knowledge, which can be very useful for troubleshooting and extending the platform.
  • Documentation and Training
    Comprehensive documentation and training materials help teams get up to speed quickly with the platform.

Possible disadvantages of Camunda

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive features and capabilities, the platform can be complex for new users to learn and master.
  • Licensing Costs for Enterprise Features
    While the open-source version is free, the enterprise edition with advanced features can be costly.
  • Customization Complexity
    Highly customizable but may require significant development effort to tailor it to specific business needs.
  • Resource Intensive
    Can be resource-intensive, requiring robust hardware to run efficiently, particularly for large-scale deployments.
  • Limited Out-of-the-Box Integrations
    Fewer built-in integrations compared to some competitors, often necessitating custom development work.

Analysis of Kafka

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Kafka is often considered a good choice for organizations needing robust, scalable, and fault-tolerant solutions for handling streaming data and real-time analytics. Its widespread adoption and active open-source community provide a wealth of resources and support for users.

Why this product is good

  • Apache Kafka is renowned for its high-throughput, low-latency platform for handling real-time data feeds. It excels in use cases like real-time data processing, event sourcing, and log aggregation due to its scalability, fault tolerance, and ability to handle large volumes of data with minimal delay. Kafka's distributed architecture allows it to maintain a high degree of availability and fault-tolerance, making it ideal for mission-critical applications.

Recommended for

  • Organizations requiring real-time data processing capabilities
  • Businesses seeking a reliable and scalable event streaming platform
  • Developers implementing event-driven architectures
  • Companies needing to perform log aggregation and real-time monitoring
  • Teams focusing on building systems with fault tolerance and high availability

Analysis of Camunda

Overall verdict

  • Camunda is considered a good option for organizations looking to implement process automation and digital transformation projects. Its ability to handle complex workflows and compatibility with modern software practices makes it a strong candidate, especially for enterprises seeking robust and customizable solutions.

Why this product is good

  • Camunda is a powerful workflow and decision automation tool that is highly scalable and flexible. It offers an open-source platform with extensive capabilities for process automation and orchestration. It integrates well with microservices architectures and supports BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) standards, making it accessible for both developers and business analysts. Additionally, it has strong community support and extensive documentation, which facilitates ease of use and troubleshooting.

Recommended for

  • Enterprises that require scalable process automation solutions
  • Organizations that prefer open-source tools
  • Teams using microservices architectures
  • Businesses looking for BPMN-standard support
  • Developers and business analysts collaborating on process improvement

Kafka videos

Franz Kafka - In The Penal Colony BOOK REVIEW

More videos:

  • Review - LITERATURE: Franz Kafka
  • Review - The Trial (Franz Kafka) – Thug Notes Summary & Analysis

Camunda videos

CamundaCon 2018: The Role of Workflows in Microservices (Camunda)

More videos:

  • Review - 5 Camunda advanced topics
  • Review - Camunda, The Universal Process Orchestrator

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Kafka and Camunda)
Log Management
100 100%
0% 0
BPM
0 0%
100% 100
Backend Development
100 100%
0% 0
Workflow Automation
0 0%
100% 100

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing Kafka and Camunda.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

Camunda's answer:

likeMagic 24 Hour Fitness Atlassian Deutsche Telekom U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Zalando Amdocs DB Cargo Helsana

User comments

Share your experience with using Kafka and Camunda. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

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

Kafka Reviews

6 Best Kafka Alternatives: 2022’s Must-know List
In this article, you learned about Kafka, its features, and some top Kafka Alternatives. Even though Kafka is widely used, the technology segment has advanced to the point where other options can overshadow Kafka’s cons. There are various options available for choosing a stream processing solution. Organizations are increasingly embracing event-driven architectures powered...
Source: hevodata.com

Camunda Reviews

BPM Tools Comparison: Camunda for IT Pros vs Pneumatic for Business Users
Camunda doesn’t offer default deployments, you can’t just sign up for an account and start using it, you have to think first about how and where you plan to deploy your instance. It can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud and supports containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes, offering flexibility depending on the company’s IT strategy. Camunda also offers...
7 Best Business Process Management Tools (2023)
Camunda provides one of the best developer communities to help your team design, build, and automate any complicated business process, with over 100.000 developers. Having such a large network is critical for your team to have a technical reference whenever needed.
11 Business Process Management (BPM) Software for SMBs
With Camunda, you can connect, collaborate, and scale rapidly. Orchestrate Camunda into the process endpoints your organization needs to automate the flow and bring IT and business together to collaborate effectively.
Source: geekflare.com
12 of the Top-Rated Free and Open-Source BPM Software Solutions
Description: Camunda is an open-source software company providing process automation with a developer-friendly approach that is standards-based, highly scalable, and collaborative for business and IT. The vendor offers visibility into business operations and improves system resilience. The provider’s workflow and decision automation tools enable Camunda to build software...
Top 7 Workflow Software (2020 Reviews)
Camunda also offers Camunda Cloud — a workflow system that’s best for cloud computing workflows, like a shared service process.
Source: clickup.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Camunda seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 17 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.

Kafka mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Kafka yet. Tracking of Kafka recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Camunda mentions (17)

  • Automating Enhanced Due Diligence in Regulated Applications
    To put everything together, you need platforms like Drools and Camunda to store the complex rule sets and logic that determine the success or failure of a due diligence attempt. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Workflow, from stateless to stateful
    In addition, I developed a Spring Boot application with Kotlin based on the Camunda platform. Camunda is a workflow engine. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Optimizing Decision Making with a Trie Tree-Based Rules Engine: An Experience Report
    In Pictet Technologies, my team relies a lot on decision models. These models allow our business analysts to input Compliance business rules directly into the systems with minimal developer intervention. When I joined the company, we used to use both Drools and Camunda. However, we faced severe memory and performance issues, specifically with Camunda, prompting me to explore alternatives. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • How to Communicate Your Process Visually using BPMN as Code
    BPMN is actually a set of standards has been used for years for complex enterprise processes, and nowadays it's becoming more accessible thanks to the development of the new techniques. Web based tooling (like Camunda, BPMN.io), more platforms supporting integrating diagrams into the flows, and remote work culture all helps us to use BPMN easier. Besides all of that, we drive/lead more and more initiatives... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • How to Achieve Geo-redundancy with Zeebe
    Bernd Ruecker is co-founder and chief technologist of Camunda as well as the author ofPractical Process Automation with O’Reilly. He likes speaking about himself in the third person. He is passionate about developer-friendly process automation technology. Connect viaLinkedIn or follow him onTwitter. As always, he loves getting your feedback. Comment below orsend him an email. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Kafka and Camunda, you can also consider the following products

Sentry.io - From error tracking to performance monitoring, developers can see what actually matters, solve quicker, and learn continuously about their applications - from the frontend to the backend.

Appian - See how Appian, leading provider of modern low-code and BPM software solutions, has helped transform the businesses of over 3.5 million users worldwide.

Raygun - Raygun gives developers meaningful insights into problems affecting their applications. Discover issues - Understand the problem - Fix things faster.

Bizagi - Bizagi is a Business Process Management (BPMS) solution for faster and flexible process automation. It's powerful yet intuitive BPM Suite is designed to make your business more agile.

Snare - Snare is well known historically as a leader in the event log space.

Kintone - Build business apps and supercharge your company's productivity with kintone's all-in-one...