Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Particle.io VS Confluent

Compare Particle.io VS Confluent and see what are their differences

Particle.io logo Particle.io

Particle is an IoT platform enabling businesses to build, connect and manage their connected solutions.

Confluent logo Confluent

Confluent offers a real-time data platform built around Apache Kafka.
  • Particle.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-23
  • Confluent Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-22

Particle.io features and specs

  • Comprehensive IoT Ecosystem
    Particle.io offers a complete IoT ecosystem with hardware, software, and cloud integration, making it easier for developers to build, deploy, and manage IoT solutions.
  • Device Management
    It provides robust device management features, allowing users to monitor and control a large number of devices remotely, ensuring better scalability and maintenance.
  • Cloud Connectivity
    Particle’s devices come with built-in cloud connectivity, which saves time and effort in setting up secure and reliable communications for IoT devices.
  • Extensive Documentation
    Particle.io offers extensive and well-organized documentation, making it easier for both beginners and experienced developers to get started and troubleshoot issues.
  • Community Support
    Particle.io has a strong community of developers who contribute to forums and share knowledge, aiding in problem-solving and project development.
  • Security
    Particle prioritizes security, providing features like over-the-air updates, secure boot, and encrypted communications, ensuring that IoT deployments are secure.
  • Development Tools
    It offers powerful development tools, including a web IDE, local development environment, and mobile app, catering to different user preferences.

Possible disadvantages of Particle.io

  • Cost
    Particle’s comprehensive solution can be more expensive compared to other DIY or less integrated IoT solutions, potentially making it less appealing for hobbyists or budget-constrained projects.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite extensive documentation, the breadth of features and services may present a steeper learning curve for new users or those less familiar with IoT concepts.
  • Hardware Dependence
    Users may find themselves dependent on Particle’s specific hardware offerings, which could limit flexibility or increase costs if alternative hardware needs to be integrated.
  • Service Dependency
    Reliance on Particle’s cloud services implies that any service downtime or changes in service terms could impact one's IoT projects significantly.
  • Complexity
    For simple IoT applications, the extensive features of Particle.io might be overkill, adding unnecessary complexity to projects that do not require advanced capabilities.

Confluent features and specs

  • Scalability
    Confluent is built on Apache Kafka, which allows for smooth scalability to handle growing data needs without significant performance degradation.
  • Real-Time Data Processing
    Confluent enables real-time streaming data processing, which is beneficial for applications requiring immediate data insights and actions.
  • Comprehensive Ecosystem
    Confluent provides a rich set of tools and connectors that integrate seamlessly with various data sources and sinks, making it easier to build and manage data pipelines.
  • Ease of Use
    Confluent offers an intuitive user interface and comprehensive documentation, which simplifies the setup and management of Kafka clusters.
  • Managed Service Option
    Confluent Cloud provides a fully managed Kafka service, reducing the operational burden on the engineering team and allowing businesses to focus on developing applications.
  • Advanced Security Features
    Confluent offers robust security features including encryption, SSL, ACLs, and more, ensuring that data streams are protected.
  • Strong Customer Support
    Confluent offers professional support and consultancy services which can be very helpful for enterprises requiring 24/7 support and expertise.

Possible disadvantages of Confluent

  • Cost
    Confluent can be expensive, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. The costs can grow significantly with scale and additional enterprise features.
  • Complexity
    Despite its ease of use, the underlying system’s complexity can pose a challenge, particularly for teams who are new to Kafka or streaming data technologies.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running Confluent on-premises can be resource-intensive, requiring significant computational and storage resources to maintain optimal performance.
  • Learning Curve
    For those unfamiliar with Kafka and streaming technologies, there is a steep learning curve which can lead to longer implementation times.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Utilizing Confluent’s proprietary tools and connectors can result in vendor lock-in, making it difficult to switch to alternative solutions without considerable effort and reconfiguration.
  • Dependency on Cloud Provider
    If using Confluent Cloud, dependency on the cloud provider’s infrastructure may introduce compliance and control limitations, particularly for businesses with strict data sovereignty requirements.

Analysis of Particle.io

Overall verdict

  • Particle.io is generally considered a good platform, especially for those interested in building IoT (Internet of Things) projects and products.

Why this product is good

  • Security
    Security is a priority, with features like encrypted communications and customizable security policies.
  • Ease of use
    It offers an easy-to-use environment for both beginners and experienced developers, with robust documentation and a supportive community.
  • Scalability
    The platform supports scalability which can be important for both prototyping and production-level IoT applications.
  • Integrations
    Particle.io offers various integrations with other systems and platforms, making it flexible for different use cases.
  • Comprehensive platform
    Particle.io provides a comprehensive platform for IoT development, including hardware, software, and cloud services.

Recommended for

  • Developers building IoT prototypes
  • Engineers planning to scale IoT deployments
  • Companies looking for a reliable IoT platform
  • Educational purposes for teaching IoT concepts

Particle.io videos

Particle All In One Face Cream For Men Review | thatsNathan

More videos:

  • Review - MEN'S SKIN CARE ROUTINE ! ( PARTICLE CREAM REVIEW )
  • Tutorial - THE BEST MEN'S SKIN CARE ROUTINE! ( PARTICLE FOR MEN FACE WASH REVIEW ) How To Have Great Skin!

Confluent videos

1. Intro | Monitoring Kafka in Confluent Control Center

More videos:

  • Review - Jason Gustafson, Confluent: Revisiting Exactly One Semantics (EOS) | Bay Area Apache Kafka® Meetup
  • Review - CLEARER SKIN AFTER 1 USE‼️| Ancient Cosmetics Update✨| CONFLUENT & RETICULATED PAPILLOMATOSIS CURE?😩

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Particle.io and Confluent)
IoT Platform
100 100%
0% 0
Stream Processing
0 0%
100% 100
Data Dashboard
100 100%
0% 0
Big Data
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Particle.io and Confluent

Particle.io Reviews

Best IoT Platforms in 2022 for Small Business
The IoT solutions offered by Particle are fully integrated and it is an easy to use IoT platform with built-in infrastructure. The particle’s operating system and the Device OS are the differentiators as it expedites the complex integration between firmware, hardware, and network connectivity on all Particle devices.
Source: www.fogwing.io
Open Source Internet of Things (IoT) Platforms
Self-describing as a “complete edge-to-cloud platform”, Particle.io also contains all the building blocks for developing an IoT product. This includes connectivity, device management, and even the hardware required to prototype IoT solutions and scale quickly thanks to the robust infrastructure. The platform supports IoT data collection and over-the-air development in a...

Confluent Reviews

We have no reviews of Confluent yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Particle.io should be more popular than Confluent. It has been mentiond 9 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.

Particle.io mentions (9)

  • What hardware do I need for a robot to upload information to the cloud?
    Look into AWS Greengrass, Robomaker, etc. If you're looking for more customization. Or you could use an all-in-one product like from particle.io if you'd more of an out-of-the-box solution. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Web developer becoming embedded engineer?
    5) look at using a GPRS or LTE (look at particle.io) cell monitor a fridge or freezer. Source: over 3 years ago
  • KnowYourCrypto #51: BitTorrent Token (BTT)
    I really dig your KYC reports. Please do Particl particle.io next :). Source: over 3 years ago
  • Cloud solution for ESP8266
    That's not how I read the OP's proposal. It sounds more like they want to build something like the service that http://particle.io/ appears to provide. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Ray Ozzie's latest venture is a cheap IoT board with flat rate connectivity
    Looks cool! How does this differ from http://particle.io ? - Source: Hacker News / almost 4 years ago
View more

Confluent mentions (1)

  • Spring Boot Event Streaming with Kafka
    We’re going to setup a Kafka cluster using confluent.io, create a producer and consumer as well as enhance our behavior driven tests to include the new interface. We’re going to update our helm chart so that the updates are seamless to Kubernetes and we’re going to leverage our observability stack to propagate the traces in the published messages. Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Particle.io and Confluent, you can also consider the following products

AWS IoT - Easily and securely connect devices to the cloud.

Amazon Kinesis - Amazon Kinesis services make it easy to work with real-time streaming data in the AWS cloud.

AWS Greengrass - Local compute, messaging, data caching, and synch capabilities for connected devices

Apache Flink - Flink is a streaming dataflow engine that provides data distribution, communication, and fault tolerance for distributed computations.

ThingSpeak - Open source data platform for the Internet of Things. ThingSpeak Features

PieSync - Seamless two-way sync between your CRM, marketing apps and Google in no time