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Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud vs PubSub+ Platform 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
3.1
Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud boosts ROI and reliability, but adoption may be challenging due to associated costs.
Sentiment score
7.0
PubSub+ Platform users see efficiency and cost benefits, though some find Kafka more economical long-term due to complex returns.
Returns depend on the application you deploy and the amount of benefits you are getting, which depends on how many applications you are deploying, what are the sorts of applications, and what are the requirements.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.3
Apache Kafka's Confluent Cloud support is well-rated, effective with tools, timely, despite minor communication issues and preference for forums.
Sentiment score
7.5
PubSub+ Platform offers exceptional, responsive customer service with efficient problem resolution and user-driven feature development.
I would rate them eight if 10 was the best and one was the worst.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
3.8
Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is praised for scalability, despite some reliability issues, with managed services reducing operational burdens.
Sentiment score
7.0
PubSub+ Platform seamlessly scales across IT environments, excelling in adaptability, performance, and transaction processing despite some complexity concerns.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
3.5
Users consider Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud stable but report performance drops with traffic spikes and dashboard management challenges.
Sentiment score
8.2
PubSub+ Platform delivers stable, reliable performance with zero downtime, handling massive data efficiently and ensuring high availability.
 

Room For Improvement

Confluent Cloud improves Kafka integration with PyTRAN and Microsoft, but faces challenges in real-time processing, monitoring, and cost.
PubSub+ Platform needs improvements in integration, user management, dashboard functionality, and open-source support for enhanced application deployment.
If it were easier to configure clusters and had more straightforward configuration, high-level API abstraction in the APIs could improve it.
Observability and monitoring are areas that could be enhanced.
It was as impressive as Kafka, better than Kafka based on my experience working on the Solace and Kafka white paper.
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise users see Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud's pricing as flexible but requiring careful management for cost optimization.
Enterprise users value PubSub+ for its clear pricing, scalability, and cost-effectiveness, appreciating the free version for initial evaluation.
 

Valuable Features

Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud offers scalable streaming, seamless integration, and efficient data processing, simplifying microservices and multi-cloud support.
PubSub+ Platform offers seamless integration, scalability, and WAN optimization with intuitive management, efficient data distribution, and advanced topic filtering.
These features are important due to scalability and resiliency.
The Kafka Streams API helps with real-time data transformations and aggregations.
The solution's ability to decouple message producers and consumers allows us to have high cohesion and low coupling, making it an excellent solution for that purpose.
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache Kafka on Confluent C...
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
3.7
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
PubSub+ Platform
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
13th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Message Queue (MQ) Software (8th), Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) (2nd), Event Monitoring (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PubSub+ Platform is 3.0%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Streaming Analytics Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud0.1%
PubSub+ Platform3.0%
Other96.9%
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

FABIO LUIS VELLOSO DA SILVA - PeerSpot reviewer
Has enabled asynchronous communication and real-time data processing with strong performance
The valuable features with Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud are the messaging and the asynchronous messages; it's the basic, not advanced usage. It's only to create clusters to receive and send messages. The point is the asynchronous messages and the scalability; it is important for us. To guarantee the compliance of the architecture and the patterns for the company, to provide scalability, and to guarantee the security to send the messages. The Kafka Streams API helps with real-time data transformations and aggregations. It's very fast and helps us to create the project, guarantee the message delivery, and the performance. It's a good experience with very impressive processing and a very impressive project and product.
BhanuChidigam - PeerSpot reviewer
Performs well, high availability, and helpful support
We use approximately four people for the maintenance of the solution. My advice to others is this solution has high throughput and is used for many stock exchanges. For business critical use cases, such as processing financial transactions at a quick speed, I would recommend this solution. I rate PubSub+ Event Broker an eight out of ten.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
6%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Retailer
10%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
Kafka and Confluent Cloud have proven to be cost-effective, especially when compared to other tools. In a recent BI integration program over the past year, we assessed multiple use cases spanning s...
What needs improvement with Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
If it were easier to configure clusters and had more straightforward configuration, high-level API abstraction in the APIs could improve it. The clustering is a little hard for juniors and clients....
What is your primary use case for Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
We need to send a lot of asynchronous messages in this project, and we use the middleware and Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud to guarantee asynchronous messaging between the services. We use Apache...
What needs improvement with PubSub+ Event Broker?
Regarding improving the PubSub+ Platform, I'm not sure about the pricing aspect, but I heard that it is quite expensive compared to Kafka. That's the only concern I can mention; otherwise, it was a...
What is your primary use case for PubSub+ Event Broker?
My typical use case for the PubSub+ Platform is as an event-driven solution for communication between two components.
What advice do you have for others considering PubSub+ Event Broker?
I have experience working with Kafka, PubSub+ Platform, and IBM MQ, all three of them. We are customers, meaning my company uses Solace. We use it and customize it based on our needs. Based on my e...
 

Also Known As

No data available
PubSub+ Event Broker, PubSub+ Event Portal
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
FxPro, TP ICAP, Barclays, Airtel, American Express, Cobalt, Legal & General, LSE Group, Akuna Capital, Azure Information Technology, Brand.net, Canadian Securities Exchange, Core Transport Technologies, Crédit Agricole, Fluent Trade Technologies, Harris Corporation, Korea Exchange, Live E!, Mercuria Energy, Myspace, NYSE Technologies, Pico, RBC Capital Markets, Standard Chartered Bank, Unibet 
Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud vs. PubSub+ Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,202 professionals have used our research since 2012.