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Apache Kafka pros and cons

Vendor: Apache
4.1 out of 5
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Apache Kafka offers high performance and reliability, suitable for managing thousands of messages per second.
Kafka excels in scalability and fault tolerance, providing high throughput with built-in replication.
The distributed commit log feature and the ability to handle large-scale message processing differentiate Kafka from other messaging systems.
Kafka supports a high volume of data, providing seamless integration capabilities and a strong community.
Apache Kafka's versatility and real-time processing capabilities make it valuable for a range of applications, including streaming and transactions.

CONS

Apache Kafka has dependency issues with ZooKeeper, which is still a bottleneck for implementation.
The manageability and scalability of Apache Kafka can be challenging, requiring significant expertise.
Apache Kafka's configuration and setup are complex, making deployment and initial integration difficult.
The lack of real-time monitoring and insufficient enterprise-grade solutions for observability are notable problems in Apache Kafka.
Apache Kafka experiences latency issues and consumes a lot of memory, leading to performance-related challenges.
 

Apache Kafka Pros review quotes

KQ
Senior Technical Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Nov 6, 2017
I like the performance and reliability of Kafka. I needed a data streaming buffer that could handle thousands of messages per second with at least one processing point for an analytics pipeline. Kafka fits this requirement very well.
it_user590451 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Jan 19, 2017
Some of the clusters churn millions of records per seconds with ease.
it_user592356 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead/Project Manager(Consulting Apple Inc) at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jan 23, 2017
This is the best tool I have ever used for asynchronous, event-based solutions.
Learn what your peers think about Apache Kafka. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
892,646 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user642168 - PeerSpot reviewer
Big Data Lead at a marketing services firm with 51-200 employees
Apr 6, 2017
We are growing and currently, we manage 1M events per second in Kafka.
it_user613983 - PeerSpot reviewer
Java Architect at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Apr 10, 2017
Excellent speeds for publishing messages faster.
it_user644286 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy General Manager, DevOps Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Apr 10, 2017
One of the best features which I have worked with is replay.
it_user647457 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Engineering
Apr 15, 2017
Ease of use.
it_user650004 - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Apr 20, 2017
It has become dead simple to connect different application and services, saving a lot of development hours.
it_user650223 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Software Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Apr 24, 2017
Kafka rendered itself suitable for our product offering, as it supports all the necessary requirements for a real-time pipeline.
it_user653562 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Apr 26, 2017
Apache Kafka is actually a distributed commit log. That is different than most messaging and queuing systems before it.
 

Apache Kafka Cons review quotes

KQ
Senior Technical Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Nov 6, 2017
As an open-source project, Kafka is still fairly young and has not yet built out the stability and features that other open-source projects have acquired over the many years. If done correctly, Kafka can also take over the stream-processing space that technologies such as Apache Storm cover.
it_user590451 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Jan 19, 2017
This product guarantees at-least-once delivery.
it_user592356 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead/Project Manager(Consulting Apple Inc) at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jan 23, 2017
If you are using the same group ID for multiple topics, it may shut down the application.
Learn what your peers think about Apache Kafka. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
892,646 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user642168 - PeerSpot reviewer
Big Data Lead at a marketing services firm with 51-200 employees
Apr 6, 2017
We used to have problems in Kafka every three weeks and our dev ops team fixed a few issues.
it_user613983 - PeerSpot reviewer
Java Architect at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Apr 10, 2017
Too much dependency on the zookeeper and leader selection is still the bottleneck for Kafka implementation.
it_user644286 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy General Manager, DevOps Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Apr 10, 2017
GUI for Kafka infrastructure monitoring and deployment
it_user647457 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Engineering
Apr 15, 2017
Stability of the API and the technical support could be improved.
it_user650004 - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Apr 20, 2017
The standard Kafka Java library, which is shipped with the product, is too complex for inexperienced users.
it_user650223 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Software Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Apr 24, 2017
When we have thousands of topics, it is hard to visualize.
it_user653562 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Apr 26, 2017
The GUI tools for monitoring and support are still very basic and not very rich. There is no help in determining a shard key for performance.