Overview
Confluent is the company founded by Kafka's creators, offering a complete data streaming platform. Confluent Cloud is fully managed Kafka, while Confluent Platform adds enterprise features to self-managed deployments. They've expanded beyond Kafka with ksqlDB, Schema Registry, and more.
Key Features
- ✓ Confluent Cloud: Fully managed Kafka
- ✓ ksqlDB: Stream processing with SQL
- ✓ Schema Registry: Manage data schemas
- ✓ Connectors: 200+ managed connectors
- ✓ Stream Governance: Lineage and quality
- ✓ Flink: Managed Apache Flink (acquired)
Pros
- 👍 Best Kafka experience available
- 👍 Truly serverless option
- 👍 Excellent enterprise features
- 👍 Strong connector ecosystem
- 👍 Kafka creators on staff
Cons
- 👎 Premium pricing
- 👎 Can get expensive at scale
- 👎 Some vendor lock-in
- 👎 Complexity for simple use cases
Best For
Organizations serious about event streaming who want managed Kafka without operational overhead. Essential for real-time architectures.
Founded: 2014 HQ: Mountain View, CA