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Apache Kafka vs Striim 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
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Striim
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (47th), Cloud Data Integration (27th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Apache Kafka is 3.8%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Striim is 1.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Streaming Analytics Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Apache Kafka3.8%
Striim1.7%
Other94.5%
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

Amandeep Pawar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Engineer at Airy Software Technologies Private Limited
Event-driven architecture has improved asynchronous communication and supports high throughput
We can improve the high throughput because there are some limitations. We could add something to improve Apache Kafka. Based on my daily usage and analysis, there is a complex setup and management, which is one area requiring improvement. Apache Kafka does not have built-in message delay or scheduling capabilities. Apache Kafka cannot natively schedule messages. Limited message prioritization is also an area requiring improvement. Ordering is limited to a single partition. Large messages affect performance. Apache Kafka is optimized for many small to medium-sized messages, but large payloads increase network usage, increase disk usage, and slow down producers and consumers. I rate Apache Kafka eight out of ten instead of ten out of ten because operating an Apache Kafka cluster requires expertise in partitioning, application monitoring, and capacity planning. Self-managed deployment can become complex as the cluster grows. Pro-managed Apache Kafka services significantly reduce the operational overhead.
RV
Data Engineer
Real-time data capture has accelerated releases and now improves trust in our data warehouse
The checkpoints would help me to figure out where the problem was if there's any lag, but I had to do a lot of manual work to figure out where the lag is. Striim would not intuitively tell me the culprit table or database behind the lag. I believe that is an improvement Striim could definitely do. Passwords were an issue. Property variables were not supported for passwords, meaning I had to make sure the password is manually populated. I believe if Striim could read from AWS secrets or its own secret mechanism to store the password, that would really save a lot of time so that I don't have to keep updating the password whenever there is any change. The user experience of triggering alerts if there's any lag which Striim identified, which is outside normal processing time, could intrinsically be done by Striim. I believe that was lacking. I would wait for Striim to tell me, instead of me going and validating whether Striim is lagging behind. If Striim could itself tell me that it's seeing a lot more volume than expected, that would really make me give it a higher number.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Resiliency is great and also the fact that it handles different data formats."
"The solution is very scalable. We started with a cluster of three and then scaled it to seven."
"Apache Kafka is effective when dealing with large volumes of data flowing at high speeds, requiring real-time processing."
"The most valuable features are the stream API, consumer groups, and the way that the scaling takes place."
"Apache Kafka offers unique data streaming."
"The most important feature for me is the guaranteed delivery of messages from producers to consumers."
"The stream processing is a very valuable aspect of the solution for us."
"The use of Kafka's logging mechanism has been extremely beneficial for us, as it allows us to sequence messages, track pointers, and manage memory without having to create multiple copies."
"Striim is capable of absorbing a large number of transactions, and the difference between the two databases is always less than a second, which demonstrates efficiency and highlights the variety of sources and targets I have used."
"We were confidently in a situation to call Snowflake as a single source of truth, and I believe with Striim, we were able to do that because without Striim, the SLA would be much higher, and there would not have been much confidence in Snowflake."
 

Cons

"Kafka is complex and there is a little bit of a learning curve."
"Config management can be better. We are always trying to find the best configs, which is a challenge."
"The management tool could be improved."
"Due to the fact that the solution is open source, it has a zookeeper dependency."
"Apache Kafka has performance issues that cause it to lag."
"Managing Apache Kafka can be a challenge, but there are solutions. I used the newest release, as it seems they have removed Zookeeper, which should make it easier. Confluent provides a fully managed Kafka platform, in which the cluster does not need to be managed."
"I would like them to reduce the learning curve around the creation of brokers and topics. They also need to improve on the concept of the partitions."
"Stability of the API and the technical support could be improved."
"The user experience of triggering alerts if there's any lag which Striim identified, which is not normal, could intrinsically be done by Striim."
"I think Striim could be improved with better pricing and enhanced documentation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Apache Kafka is an open-source solution and there are no fees, but there are fees associated with confluence, which are based on subscription."
"It's quite affordable considering the value it provides."
"The solution is open source."
"It's a premium product, so it is not price-effective for us."
"Apache Kafka has an open-source pricing."
"Kafka is open-source and it is cheaper than any other product."
"This is an open-source version."
"The price of the solution is low."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
Construction Company
16%
Healthcare Company
13%
Retailer
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise51
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What are the differences between Apache Kafka and IBM MQ?
Apache Kafka is open source and can be used for free. It has very good log management and has a way to store the data used for analytics. Apache Kafka is very good if you have a high number of user...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Kafka?
From the AWS perspective, the price is on the higher side. However, if you go for Apache Kafka, it is low. From a price perspective, if you are asking about Apache Kafka, I would rate it a nine.
What needs improvement with Apache Kafka?
Apache Kafka is abundant with features which only an expert-level person will be able to manage due to the high volume and high concurrent expectations. Apache Kafka groups could introduce themes o...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Striim?
My experience with the pricing, implementation cost, and licensing of Striim is that it is somewhat expensive.
What needs improvement with Striim?
I think Striim could be improved with better pricing and enhanced documentation.
What is your primary use case for Striim?
I use Striim to perform change data capture from relational databases to non-relational databases in my organization. I implement CDC with Striim by transferring data from Oracle Database to MongoD...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Striim Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Uber, Netflix, Activision, Spotify, Slack, Pinterest
Sky, UPS, MACY'S, EMAAR, HSBC
Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Microsoft, Apache and others in Streaming Analytics. Updated: July 2026.
909,153 professionals have used our research since 2012.