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Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud vs PerfectScale comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Apache Kafka on Confluent C...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Streaming Analytics (12th)
PerfectScale
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
1.7
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Cost Management (25th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud and PerfectScale aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is designed for Streaming Analytics and holds a mindshare of 0.7%.
PerfectScale, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud Cost Management, holds 1.4% mindshare, up 0.2% since last year.
Streaming Analytics Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud0.7%
Apache Flink8.9%
Databricks8.1%
Other82.3%
Streaming Analytics
Cloud Cost Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
PerfectScale1.4%
IBM Turbonomic6.1%
Cloudability5.8%
Other86.7%
Cloud Cost Management
 

Featured Reviews

AF
Lead Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Has unified log streams from multiple systems and accelerated issue tracking through streamlined setup
I think Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud can be improved by probably working more around Confluent or the tool. In my opinion, it should utilize the response structures in a better way or be able to detect if there is any variable or if there is any data structure that is mismatched, as it would be easier than us manually having to put in the exact name in order for it to match the response. Regarding additional improvements, I would say probably around error handling, where when we encounter errors specific to our response structures and everything, or the tables or anything of that nature, it would be better if we were prompted with better error handling mechanisms. I do not think there are any other improvements Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud needs, aside from error handling and response structures.
reviewer2750058 - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps & FinOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Gain visibility into Kubernetes clusters and optimize resource allocation based on historical data
I think they should focus more on Kubernetes features that allow on-the-fly resource allocation without the need to restart services. They should implement this in their autoscaler to make it more useful in scenarios that require immediate scaling up or down. They should also offer more options for visualizing graphs in different ways, such as tabular views.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Kafka provides handy properties that allow us to directly configure the data, whether to keep it or discard it after use."
"Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is critical infrastructure for us; without it, our infrastructure costs would increase significantly, potentially amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, and its real-time capabilities accelerate speed to value and enable new use cases, providing significant business value."
"The order guarantee of Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud and the amount of throughput it can handle are valuable; the fact that the consumer pulls the data, not the broker, makes it more resilient and more reliable compared to other technologies."
"Overall, I think it's a good experience. Apache Kafka can be quite complex and difficult to maintain on your own, so using Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud makes it much easier to use it without worrying about setup and maintenance."
"In case of huge transactions on the web or mobile apps, it helps you capture real-time data and analyze it."
"Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is critical infrastructure for us; without it, our infrastructure costs would increase significantly, potentially amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, and its real-time capabilities accelerate speed to value and enable new use cases, providing significant business value."
"The state-saving feature is very much appreciated. It allows me to rewind a certain process if I see an error and then reprocess it."
"Some of the best features with Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud are streaming and event capabilities, which are important due to scalability and resiliency."
"The cluster and workload autoscaler gives us the ability to have control over all the workloads' resources instead of managing them one by one."
"PerfectScale made our Kubernetes optimization effortless; it found wasted resources, lowered our cloud costs, and improved performance almost instantly."
"Automated resource optimization using different policies based on the environment enabled the organization to achieve infrastructure cost savings."
"Automated resource optimization using different policies based on the environment enabled the organization to achieve infrastructure cost savings."
 

Cons

"Some areas for improvement in Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud include issues faced during migration with Kubernetes pods."
"The administration port could be more extensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"Although, specifically with Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud, it was a bit more challenging to increase adoption because it's very expensive."
"Maybe in terms of Apache Kafka's integration with other Microsoft tools, our company faced some challenges."
"There could be an in-built feature for data analysis."
"Improvement can be made by making it easier to build applications on the real-time stream, focusing on real-time pre-processing and anomaly detection."
"There's one thing that's a common use case, but I don't know why it's not covered in Kafka. When a message comes in, and another message with the same key arrives, the first version should be deleted automatically."
"I think they should focus more on Kubernetes features that allow on-the-fly resource allocation without the need to restart services."
"With their in-place optimisations, stateful set optimisation would be a great addition."
"At the beginning, the support was not very impressive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think the pricing is fair, but Confluent requires a little bit more thinking because the price can go up really quickly when it comes to premium connectors."
"Regarding pricing, Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is not a cheap tool. The right use case would justify the cost. It might make sense if you have a high volume of data that you can leverage to generate value for the business. But if you don't have those requirements, there are likely cheaper solutions you could use instead."
"I consider that the product's price falls under the middle range category."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Insurance Company
32%
Construction Company
28%
Healthcare Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
I think Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud can be improved by probably working more around Confluent or the tool. In my opinion, it should utilize the response structures in a better way or be able to...
What is your primary use case for Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
I have used Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud for one of my projects with regard to log monitoring. My main use case for Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud in that project was mainly streaming of the lo...
What advice do you have for others considering Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
My advice to others looking into using Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is that it is easier and has a low learning curve. If there is any use case regarding streaming, I would suggest starting off ...
What needs improvement with PerfectScale?
With their in-place optimisations, stateful set optimisation would be a great addition.
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Microsoft, Apache and others in Streaming Analytics. Updated: March 2026.
892,487 professionals have used our research since 2012.