Apache Pulsar is a cloud-native, distributed messaging and streaming platform originally created at Yahoo! and now a top-level Apache Software Foundation project
I installed the solution for my customer who uses it for data streaming. Currently, there are six users but at some point the solution will be used throughout the entire company.
The solution operates as a classic message broker but also as a streaming platform. It operates differently than a traditional streaming platform with storage and computing handled separately.
It scales easier and better than Kafka which can be stubborn. You can even make it act like Kafka because it understands Kafka APIs. There are even companies that will sell you Kafka but underneath it is Apache Pulsar.
The solution is very compatible because it can mimic other APIs without changing a line of code.
Documentation is poor because much of it is in Chinese with no English translation.
I have been using the solution for six months.
The solution is scalable.
The solution does not have technical support because it is an open-source freeware product. We rely on the provided documentation and Google searches for support.
Some companies provide support for the solution but you need to buy their license. They basically take the open-source product, put their own source over it, distribute it, and provide technical support.
I'm a solutions architect, so I work with various products. For this client, we are removing the MQ series including RabbitMQ, Kafka, and ActiveMQ.
The initial setup for the solution was relatively easy and took two days.
We installed the solution for our customer and make continuous improvements over time. There are many aspects to the solution so it requires monitoring and ongoing integrations.
The solution is open-source freeware.
The solution is a very versatile broker but don't expect the ecosystem to be as large as Kafka which is much bigger, well established, and widely used. The product is getting more popular and becoming a rival of Kafka. Some functions are better than Kafka and that is why we chose it for our customer.
It is an Asian product and documentation isn't great so it functions as a do-it-yourself to a point.
I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
