Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud vs Sophos Central comparison

Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud vs. Sophos Central

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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...

Ranking in AWS Marketplace

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Sophos Central

Ranking in AWS Marketplace

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

8.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the AWS Marketplace category, the mindshare of Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is 0.9%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Central is 0.4%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

AWS Marketplace

Featured Reviews

Ritik Varshney

Scholar Trainee/Project Engineer at Wipro Limited

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.

Read full review

Sandeepraj Gatla

SOC Analyst at Wydur

Cost-effective security management with a user-friendly interface, efficient resource utilization, and rapid response capabilities

While Sophos Central has demonstrated commendable functionality, there is room for improvement in the realm of automation. Specifically, addressing ransomware attacks often requires leveraging external tools, deploying virtual machines, and utilizing supplementary tools like Caliper Analytics for operations and security communication. The integration of these essential functionalities directly into the software would represent a significant enhancement, streamlining the incident response process and bolstering the platform's comprehensive threat mitigation capabilities. Furthermore, a valuable addition to future releases could involve augmenting the new screen component with advanced capabilities such as XML utilization and rule integration. This enhancement, especially pertinent to tools involved in sandboxing and virtual machines within the investigation process, would greatly streamline the analysis of logs and reports. This would prove particularly beneficial in the context of email analysis, spam attack detection, and other critical security aspects. By incorporating these features, Sophos Central could further elevate its utility in facilitating in-depth security analyses and response strategies.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Confluent Cloud handles data volume pretty well."

"Kafka provides handy properties that allow us to directly configure the data, whether to keep it or discard it after use."

"In case of huge transactions on the web or mobile apps, it helps you capture real-time data and analyze it."

"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."

"The product's installation phase is pretty straightforward for us since we know how to use it."

"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."

"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 ship-to-shore and various Azure integrations. Our findings revealed that Confluent Kafka performed exceptionally well, standing out alongside Genesys and Azure Event Hubs. While these three are top contenders, the choice among other tools depends on the specific use case and project requirements. The customer initially used tools like SMQs, FITRA, and Stream for real-time data processing. However, after our recommendation, Confluent Cloud proved to be a superior choice, capable of replacing these three tools and simplifying their data infrastructure. This shift to a single tool, Confluent Cloud, streamlined their operations, making maintenance and management more efficient for their internal projects."

"Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is more reliable and frequent to use compared to Apache Kafka."

"The best thing about Sophos Central is how it brings all its security solutions together in one place."

"The level of protection offered by this antivirus product is highly commendable."

"We used to get malicious attacks from mail before using the solution."

"The product's installation phase was easy."

"The most important feature is definitely the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) tool. It allows us to track malware and other incidents in our environment."

"It helps manage all the components from one centralized portal."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the ease with which admins can monitor and troubleshoot issues related to any emails coming into our environment with malware or viruses."

"The standout feature is its focus on indexing, primarily designed for managing reports and logs from 500 to 1,000 endpoints, including Windows 10 hosts within the network."

More Sophos Central pros

Cons

"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."

"There are some premium connectors, for example, available in Confluent, which you cannot access in the marketplace, so there are some limitations."

"Maybe in terms of Apache Kafka's integration with other Microsoft tools, our company faced some challenges."

"Regarding real-time data usage, there were challenges with CDC (Change Data Capture) integrations. Specifically, with PyTRAN, we encountered difficulties. We recommended using our on-premises Kaspersky as an alternative to PyTRAN for that specific use case due to issues with CDC store configuration and log reading challenges with the iton components."

"The administration port could be more extensive."

"Some areas for improvement in Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud include issues faced during migration with Kubernetes pods."

"The solution is expensive."

"There could be an in-built feature for data analysis."

"The product's firewall servers and dashboard need improvement."

"Vulnerability protection and monitoring any changes are crucial aspects that require attention."

"The current service level is not as efficient as desired, but we acknowledge that it presents an area for improvement, particularly in terms of support concentration."

"The user interface could be more intuitive and user-friendly."

"Whenever a customer installs a Sophos Central agent on the end-user system, their system becomes slow."

"The product needs to improve monitoring since it gives false positives. It needs also to improve pricing."

"The product must be made a little bit quicker."

"Pushing global rules and policies to all devices from Central isn't easy. You can do it for all endpoints, which is fine. But you can't do the same with firewalls. Firewall management with Central is very limited. You can connect one firewall to another and tell it, "I want one policy for all my customer's firewalls," but that's not possible. For a customer with multiple firewalls, you can't say, "This works for France, Great Britain, Canada," and push it. It's not possible."

More Sophos Central cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 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."

"I consider that the product's price falls under the middle range category."

"The product is not expensive."

"The pricing is highly affordable, with no additional costs."

"The cost is quite affordable."

"The product is inexpensive."

"Though I don't know the exact price of the product, I know that the tool is worth the money."

"The tool is competitively priced."

"The tool's pricing is good."

"The solution is moderately expensive."

More Sophos Central pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

Transportation Company

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

20%

Comms Service Provider

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

University

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 do you like most about Sophos Central?

One of the significant advantages of Sophos is its affordability compared to other technologies like Check Point and Fortinet.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Central?

As we get more people, we just add another item or Sophos appliances, and then we are good to go.

What needs improvement with Sophos Central?

As a user, I suggest improving Sophos Central by addressing some error messages we occasionally encounter that we just do not know what they relate to, even when it says it has resolved them. To im...

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Product Reports

Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud

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Sophos Central

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Overview

Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud enables organizations to perform real-time data streaming and processing, integrating user data, and managing large transaction volumes efficiently.

Organizations leverage Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud for several applications such as capturing change data, handling IoT workloads, and fostering data migration and microservices. It is instrumental in publishing and managing data across multiple platforms, ensuring both high throughput and seamless log management. Confluent Cloud's features like scalability, efficient transaction management, and cost-effectiveness, combined with seamless integration with multiple data tools, make it a preferred choice for real-time data processing tasks.

What are the key features?

Scalability: Easily scale up or down based on demand.
Efficient transaction management: Manage transactions smoothly.
Cost-effectiveness: Optimize costs without compromising performance.
Real-time data capture: Capture data in real-time with ease.
State-saving: Save states efficiently to support various processes.
Message processing speed: Fast processing of messages ensures quick data handling.
Topic flexibility: Flexibility in managing topics caters to different data needs.

What benefits and ROI should you look for?

Seamless integration: Integrate effortlessly with major data tools.
Streamlined operations: Reduce the number of tools required for data processing and streamline maintenance.
High throughput: Maintain high throughput across platforms.
Seamless log management: Effective management of logs ensures operational efficiency.

In specific industries, such as finance, real-time data processing is crucial for handling high volumes of transactions and location tracking. In retail, it integrates user data and manages inventory systems efficiently. IoT applications benefit from Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud by capturing and processing massive data streams from connected devices in real-time.

Confluent

Sophos Central allows you to manage our award-winning Synchronized Security platform. Advanced attacks are more coordinated than ever before. Now, your defenses are too. Our revolutionary Security Heartbeat™ ensures your endpoint protection and firewall are talking to each other. It’s a simple yet effective idea that means you get better protection against advanced threats and spend less time responding to incidents. It’s so simple, it makes you wonder why nobody did it before.

Sophos

Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud vs. Sophos Central