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Apache NiFi vs Google Cloud Dataflow 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
4.8
Apache NiFi users experience significant time savings and improved efficiency, although exact cost benefits aren't always quantifiable.
Sentiment score
4.7
Google Cloud Dataflow offers significant cost and time savings, proving to be an efficient investment for data architecture.
Thanks to improvements on both our side in how we run processes and enhancements to Apache NiFi, we have reduced the time commitment to almost not needing to interact with Apache NiFi except for minor queue-clearance tasks, allowing it to run smoothly.
Data Engineer at The Kudelski Group
It supports not just ETL but also ELT, allowing us to save significant time.
Team Lead Technical Specialist (Production Support) at a recreational facilities/services company with 11-50 employees
There may be return on investment based on the technology and easily moving our workloads onto Apache NiFi from our previous system.
Senior Consultant - Data Analytics at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.7
Apache NiFi users find support adequate, using documentation and forums, with mixed reviews on official support and positive Cloudera experiences.
Sentiment score
6.1
Google Cloud Dataflow's support is effective for large issues but experiences mixed feedback on response times and service consistency.
The customer support is really good, and they are helpful whenever concerns are posted, responding immediately.
Cloud Data Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Customer support for Apache NiFi has been excellent, with minimal response times whenever we raise cases that cannot be directly addressed by logs.
Team Lead Technical Specialist (Production Support) at a recreational facilities/services company with 11-50 employees
I would rate the customer support of Apache NiFi a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Partner at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The fact that no interaction is needed shows their great support since I don't face issues.
Data Engineer at Accenture
Google's support team is good at resolving issues, especially with large data.
Senior Data Engineer at Accruent
Whenever we have issues, we can consult with Google.
Senior Software Engineer at Dun & Bradstreet
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Apache NiFi's scalability varies; some users succeed with clusters, while others struggle without Kubernetes, impacting implementation.
Sentiment score
6.9
Google Cloud Dataflow excels in scalability, resource optimization, and autoscaling, effectively supporting varying data volumes across departments.
Depending on the workload we process, it remains stable since at the end of the day, it is just used as an orchestration tool that triggers the job while the heavy lifting is done on Spark servers.
Manager at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Scaling up is fairly straightforward, provided you manage configurations effectively.
Data Engineer at The Kudelski Group
Based on the workload, more nodes can be added to make a bigger cluster, which enhances the cluster whenever needed.
Cloud Data Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Google Cloud Dataflow has auto-scaling capabilities, allowing me to add different machine types based on pace and requirements.
Data Engineer at Accenture
As a team lead, I'm responsible for handling five to six applications, but Google Cloud Dataflow seems to handle our use case effectively.
Senior Software Engineer at Dun & Bradstreet
Google Cloud Dataflow can handle large data processing for real-time streaming workloads as they grow, making it a good fit for our business.
Senior Data Engineer at Accruent
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Apache NiFi is generally stable but may face occasional crashes and reliability challenges, especially in distributed environments.
Sentiment score
8.3
Google Cloud Dataflow is stable and reliable, praised for automatic scaling, despite occasional errors with complex tasks.
I have seen Apache NiFi crashing at times, which is one of the issues we have faced in production.
Manager at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Apache NiFi is stable in most cases.
Senior Consultant - Data Analytics at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
I have not encountered any issues with the performance of Dataflow, as it is stable and backed by Google services.
Data Engineer at Accenture
The job we built has not failed once over six to seven months.
Senior Software Engineer at Dun & Bradstreet
The automatic scaling feature helps maintain stability.
Senior Data Engineer at Accruent
 

Room For Improvement

Apache NiFi needs improved integration, UI, scalability, security features, and seamless CI/CD processes for enhanced usability and efficiency.
Improvements in error logging, support, cost, integration, scalability, and automation are needed for Google Cloud Dataflow's efficiency.
Apache NiFi should have APIs or connectors that can connect seamlessly to other external entities, whether in the cloud or on-premises, creating a plug-and-play mechanism.
Manager at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
The history of processed files should be more readable so that not only the centralized teams managing Apache NiFi but also application folks who are new to the platform can read how a specific document is traversing through Apache NiFi.
Team Lead Technical Specialist (Production Support) at a recreational facilities/services company with 11-50 employees
The initial error did not indicate it was related to memory or size limitations but appeared as a parsing error or something similar.
Data Engineer at The Kudelski Group
Outside of Google Cloud Platform, it is problematic for others to use it and may require promotion as an actual technology.
Data Engineer at Accenture
I feel there could be something that they can introduce, such as when we have data in the tables, a feature that creates a unique persona of the user automatically, so we do not have to do that manually.
Senior Customer Data Platform Specialist at a marketing services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Dealing with a huge volume of data causes failure due to array size.
Senior Software Engineer at Dun & Bradstreet
 

Setup Cost

Apache NiFi is an open-source solution with no setup costs, offering time-saving efficiencies despite potential integration expenses.
Google Cloud Dataflow is seen as a cost-effective streaming solution, with affordability ratings varying widely among users.
The pricing in Italy is considered a little bit high, but the product is worth it.
Partner at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It is part of a package received from Google, and they are not charging us too high.
Senior Software Engineer at Dun & Bradstreet
 

Valuable Features

Apache NiFi simplifies data flow orchestration with drag-and-drop features, scalability, and integration, enhancing productivity and reliability.
Google Cloud Dataflow offers scalable, cost-effective data processing, integrating seamlessly with Google Cloud, using Apache Beam and various tools.
Apache NiFi has positively impacted my organization by definitely bridging the gap between the on-premises and cloud interaction until we find a solution to open the firewall for cloud components to directly interact with on-premises services.
Manager at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Development has improved with a reduction in time spent being the main benefit; before we needed a matter of days to create the ingestion flows, but now it only takes a couple of hours to configure.
Senior Data Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The ease of use in Apache NiFi has helped my team because anyone can learn how to use it in a short amount of time, so we were able to get a lot of work done.
Senior Consultant - Data Analytics at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
It supports multiple programming languages such as Java and Python, enabling flexibility without the need to learn something new.
Data Engineer at Accenture
The integration within Google Cloud Platform is very good.
Senior Software Engineer at Dun & Bradstreet
Google Cloud Dataflow's features for event stream processing allow us to gain various insights like detecting real-time alerts.
Senior Data Engineer at Accruent
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache NiFi
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Compute Service (6th)
Google Cloud Dataflow
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Streaming Analytics (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Apache NiFi and Google Cloud Dataflow aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Apache NiFi is designed for Compute Service and holds a mindshare of 8.2%, down 8.4% compared to last year.
Google Cloud Dataflow, on the other hand, focuses on Streaming Analytics, holds 3.7% mindshare, down 7.1% since last year.
Compute Service Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Apache NiFi8.2%
AWS Lambda14.2%
Amazon EC213.6%
Other64.0%
Compute Service
Streaming Analytics Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Google Cloud Dataflow3.7%
Apache Flink8.9%
Databricks8.1%
Other79.3%
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

YV
architect with 51-200 employees
Unified data flows have simplified large-scale ingestion and have improved SLA reliability
Improvements can be made in the way of the UI. From the deployment perspective, Git configurations are available in 2.6 versions and 2.0 and later versions of Apache NiFi. Before 2.0, templates had to be created and stored in Apache NiFi Registry, which is available. However, templates still need to be imported and exported manually if moving from one environment to another environment. Even in 2.0 versions, although GitHub configurations are available, how it will function needs to be evaluated. Seamless CI/CD deployments are somewhat tricky and challenging when it comes to Apache NiFi with the proper approvals, moving that flow to another environment, and giving the proper RBAC controls. These are areas that could be improved. Documentation is adequate, but the only pain point is the deployment aspect.
reviewer2812851 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Customer Data Platform Specialist at a marketing services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Unified user personas have improved data workflows and support detailed monitoring and logging
Google Cloud has many streams and products. In Google Cloud, everything is translated in the backend, so we do not have to use services such as Apache Beam. When you want to use Google Cloud Functions, you write the code, and the backend talks to all the libraries or Apache, so we do not need to be concerned about those. We just need to use our functions that translate and have many tools and services readily available. Google Cloud Dataflow has made it very easy for detailed monitoring and logging features for pipeline performance assessment. For example, if I am using Google Cloud Functions, I can easily see what changes I have done and trace it properly. I can see what is happening with this script, how many users are affected, whether the script is working, what is failing, and how we can rectify issues with proper monitoring.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Retailer
10%
Insurance Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache NiFi?
The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was fine, as the integration with the AWS Marketplace was very good. The pricing in Italy is considered a little bit high, but the product is ...
What needs improvement with Apache NiFi?
Improvements can be made in the way of the UI. From the deployment perspective, Git configurations are available in 2.6 versions and 2.0 and later versions of Apache NiFi. Before 2.0, templates had...
What is your primary use case for Apache NiFi?
Apache NiFi is used to fetch data from different sources and ingest it into different destinations. The entire platform depends on Apache NiFi for data transformation and data movement. Multiple so...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Dataflow?
Pricing is normal. It is part of a package received from Google, and they are not charging us too high.
What needs improvement with Google Cloud Dataflow?
I feel there could be something that they can introduce, such as when we have data in the tables, a feature that creates a unique persona of the user automatically, so we do not have to do that man...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Dataflow?
The primary use case for Google Cloud Dataflow is when a brand has a lot of data and wants to store it in their warehouse. They can use BigQuery to store their data or use big data solutions to sto...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Google Dataflow
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Macquarie Telecom Group, Dovestech, Slovak Telekom, Looker, Hastings Group
Absolutdata, Backflip Studios, Bluecore, Claritics, Crystalloids, Energyworx, GenieConnect, Leanplum, Nomanini, Redbus, Streak, TabTale
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Web Services (AWS), Apache, Spot - A Flexera company and others in Compute Service. Updated: April 2026.
892,383 professionals have used our research since 2012.