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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
5.2
Confluent Cloud's Apache Kafka saves costs and enhances ROI with efficient, reliable data processing, stability, and scalability.
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
7.7
Confluent Cloud offers strong Apache Kafka support, praised for expertise and timely solutions, though some users seek additional resources.
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
6.5
Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud offers scalable, efficient data handling, though some reliability concerns exist during scaling operations.
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
1.0
Users praise Confluent Cloud's Apache Kafka for stability and monitoring but cite unresponsiveness during traffic spikes, suggesting improvements.
Sentiment score
8.2
PubSub+ Platform delivers stable, reliable performance with zero downtime, handling massive data efficiently and ensuring high availability.
 

Room For Improvement

Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud needs better integrations, improved features, and more efficient tools to address usability and cost issues.
PubSub+ Platform needs improvements in integration, user management, dashboard functionality, and open-source support for enhanced application deployment.
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 find Confluent Cloud's mid-range pricing flexible yet complex, with costs escalating for premium connectors and high data volumes.
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 provides scalable, cost-effective real-time data processing with robust integration, multi-cloud support, and serverless architecture.
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 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
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.1
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
PubSub+ Platform
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
12th
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 August 2025, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is 0.0%. The mindshare of PubSub+ Platform is 2.9%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

Ritik Varshney - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced data streaming with reliable features and good analytics
Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud provides an enhanced level of reliability and resources compared to Apache Kafka alone. It offers more features which are beneficial for our clients, including cluster linking, schema registry, error handling, and dead-letter queues. It significantly improves customer and publisher satisfaction, especially with topic integration and data streaming.
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
14%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Retailer
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
I think what I would improve about the solution is the cost, mostly. From my standpoint, it's the cost. From an engineering perspective, it works really well. There's always room for improvement. O...
What is your primary use case for Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
We find that the best features include using the CDC functionality with the connector to take the data from our SQL database and publish it to many consumers. Any changes enable us to easily publis...
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: August 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.