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Amazon Kinesis vs Google Cloud Dataflow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.0
Organizations benefit financially from Amazon Kinesis through improved data processing, cost savings, and seamless AWS service integration.
Sentiment score
4.7
Google Cloud Dataflow offers significant cost and time savings, proving to be an efficient investment for data architecture.
With Lambda, there is no need for data transfer charges, which is beneficial for less frequent workloads.
AWS Cloud Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Amazon Kinesis support varies, with response quality influenced by user-AWS relationships and complexity of the issues faced.
Sentiment score
6.1
Google Cloud Dataflow's support is effective for large issues but experiences mixed feedback on response times and service consistency.
We receive prompt support from AWS solution architects or TAMs.
AWS Cloud Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
The fact that no interaction is needed shows their great support since I don't face issues.
Data Engineer at Accenture
Google's support team is good at resolving issues, especially with large data.
Senior Data Engineer at Accruent
Compared to other support systems, such as those in Braze, Tealium, Google, and others like Adobe, Google Cloud takes more time because it is a bigger company.
Senior Customer Data Platform Specialist at a marketing services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Amazon Kinesis offers robust scalability with sharding and auto-scaling, ideal for high data throughput, despite some cost considerations.
Sentiment score
6.9
Google Cloud Dataflow excels in scalability, resource optimization, and autoscaling, effectively supporting varying data volumes across departments.
I would rate the scalability of Amazon Kinesis as a nine.
Director of Software Development at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Amazon Kinesis provides auto-scaling with streams that handle large volumes well.
AWS Cloud Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Google Cloud Dataflow has auto-scaling capabilities, allowing me to add different machine types based on pace and requirements.
Data Engineer at Accenture
Google Cloud Dataflow can handle large data processing for real-time streaming workloads as they grow, making it a good fit for our business.
Senior Data Engineer at Accruent
As a team lead, I'm responsible for handling five to six applications, but Google Cloud Dataflow seems to handle our use case effectively.
Senior Software Engineer at Dun & Bradstreet
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Amazon Kinesis is reliable with minor issues, praised for consistent performance and effective fault-tolerance features.
Sentiment score
8.3
Google Cloud Dataflow is stable and reliable, praised for automatic scaling, despite occasional errors with complex tasks.
I would rate the stability of Amazon Kinesis as high, giving it a 10.
Director of Software Development at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I have not encountered any issues with the performance of Dataflow, as it is stable and backed by Google services.
Data Engineer at Accenture
The job we built has not failed once over six to seven months.
Senior Software Engineer at Dun & Bradstreet
The automatic scaling feature helps maintain stability.
Senior Data Engineer at Accruent
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon Kinesis users seek enhancements in data aggregation, integration, automation, retention, cost reduction, compatibility, machine learning, and documentation.
Improvements in error logging, support, cost, integration, scalability, and automation are needed for Google Cloud Dataflow's efficiency.
There is no lack of functions in Amazon Kinesis. Functionality-wise, we feel it's complete.
Director of Software Development at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Amazon Kinesis could improve its pricing to be more competitive, especially for large volumes.
AWS Cloud Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
I feel there could be something that they can introduce, such as when we have data in the tables, a feature that creates a unique persona of the user automatically, so we do not have to do that manually.
Senior Customer Data Platform Specialist at a marketing services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Outside of Google Cloud Platform, it is problematic for others to use it and may require promotion as an actual technology.
Data Engineer at Accenture
Dealing with a huge volume of data causes failure due to array size.
Senior Software Engineer at Dun & Bradstreet
 

Setup Cost

Amazon Kinesis offers competitive pricing, though costs rise with scaling, large data volumes, and Kinesis Analytics can be expensive.
Google Cloud Dataflow is seen as a cost-effective streaming solution, with affordability ratings varying widely among users.
Amazon Kinesis and Lambda pricing is competitive, but we noticed that scaling and large volumes could potentially increase costs significantly.
AWS Cloud Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
It is part of a package received from Google, and they are not charging us too high.
Senior Software Engineer at Dun & Bradstreet
 

Valuable Features

Amazon Kinesis provides easy, scalable streaming with AWS integration, supporting analytics and monitoring without complex infrastructure management.
Google Cloud Dataflow offers scalable, cost-effective data processing, integrating seamlessly with Google Cloud, using Apache Beam and various tools.
Amazon Kinesis integrates easily with the AWS environment.
Director of Software Development at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Lambda's scalability, seamless integration with other AWS services, and support for multiple programming languages are very beneficial.
AWS Cloud Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
It supports multiple programming languages such as Java and Python, enabling flexibility without the need to learn something new.
Data Engineer at Accenture
Google Cloud Dataflow's features for event stream processing allow us to gain various insights like detecting real-time alerts.
Senior Data Engineer at Accruent
I can see what is happening with this script, how many users are affected, whether the script is working, what is failing, and how we can rectify issues with proper monitoring.
Senior Customer Data Platform Specialist at a marketing services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Kinesis
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Google Cloud Dataflow
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Amazon Kinesis is 4.7%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Dataflow is 3.9%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Streaming Analytics Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Amazon Kinesis4.7%
Google Cloud Dataflow3.9%
Other91.4%
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

CD
AWS Cloud Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Real-time streaming and seamless integration enhance workloads with room for competitive pricing improvements
Amazon Kinesis is easy to get started with, provides good documentation, and has a multilang daemon interface that makes it programming-language agnostic. The throughput is convenient for processing volumes out of the box and does not require complex configurations. It also provides auto-scaling with different partition keys into various shards. Lambda's scalability, seamless integration with other AWS services, and support for multiple programming languages are very beneficial.
reviewer2812851 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Customer Data Platform Specialist at a marketing services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Unified user personas have improved data workflows and support detailed monitoring and logging
Google Cloud has many streams and products. In Google Cloud, everything is translated in the backend, so we do not have to use services such as Apache Beam. When you want to use Google Cloud Functions, you write the code, and the backend talks to all the libraries or Apache, so we do not need to be concerned about those. We just need to use our functions that translate and have many tools and services readily available. Google Cloud Dataflow has made it very easy for detailed monitoring and logging features for pipeline performance assessment. For example, if I am using Google Cloud Functions, I can easily see what changes I have done and trace it properly. I can see what is happening with this script, how many users are affected, whether the script is working, what is failing, and how we can rectify issues with proper monitoring.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Retailer
10%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Kinesis?
Amazon Kinesis's main purpose is to provide near real-time data streaming at a consistent 2Mbps rate, which is really impressive.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Kinesis?
Amazon Kinesis and Lambda pricing is competitive, but we noticed that scaling and large volumes could potentially increase costs significantly.
What needs improvement with Amazon Kinesis?
We are contemplating moving away from Amazon Kinesis primarily because of the cost. It is very useful, but if we write our own analytics and data processing pipeline, it would be much cheaper for u...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Dataflow?
Pricing is normal. It is part of a package received from Google, and they are not charging us too high.
What needs improvement with Google Cloud Dataflow?
I feel there could be something that they can introduce, such as when we have data in the tables, a feature that creates a unique persona of the user automatically, so we do not have to do that man...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Dataflow?
The primary use case for Google Cloud Dataflow is when a brand has a lot of data and wants to store it in their warehouse. They can use BigQuery to store their data or use big data solutions to sto...
 

Also Known As

Amazon AWS Kinesis, AWS Kinesis, Kinesis
Google Dataflow
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Zillow, Netflix, Sonos
Absolutdata, Backflip Studios, Bluecore, Claritics, Crystalloids, Energyworx, GenieConnect, Leanplum, Nomanini, Redbus, Streak, TabTale
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Kinesis vs. Google Cloud Dataflow and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
886,932 professionals have used our research since 2012.