AWS Database Migration Service vs Confluent comparison

AWS Database Migration Service

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between AWS Database Migration Service and Confluent based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Cloud Data Integration solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Database Migration Service vs. Confluent Report (Updated: September 2025).

AWS Database Migration Service vs. Confluent

September 2025

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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

AWS Database Migration Service

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Integration (2nd)

Confluent

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Streaming Analytics (3rd)

Featured Reviews

Avinash Gangu

Lead Architect at Fracral

Centralizing database tables enhances workflow efficiency for ease of use

I was looking for some content as part of a comparison analysis. However, one of the pain points is that it is way too free-flowing. I have to skim through all the security pages to get to the crux of it. I was looking for a table that suggests which facets such services address with proofs of reference from professional conferences. The document is a 63-page read, making it very difficult to navigate without a summary. I was looking for a summary at the start, however, if I have to do it myself, I might as well integrate from AWS Docs and then Informative Exchange. The current document contains a lot of information, which is great, but there needs to be a summary indicating the story's essence. Unless there's a correction, it is not present in the document.

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PavanManepalli

AVP - Sr Middleware Messaging Integration Engineer at Wells Fargo

Has supported streaming use cases across data centers and simplifies fraud analytics with SQL-based processing

I recommend that Confluent should improve its solution to keep up with competitors in the market, such as Solace and other upcoming tools such as NATS. Recently, there has been a lot of buzz about Confluent charging high fees while not offering features that match those of other tools. They need to improve in that direction by not only reducing costs but also providing better solutions for the problems customers face to avoid frustrations, whether through future enhancement requests or ensuring product stability. The cost should be worked on, and they should provide better solutions for customers. Solutions should focus on hierarchical topics; if a customer has different types of data and sources, they should be able to send them to the same place for analytics. Currently, Confluent requires everything to send to the same topic, which becomes very large and makes running analytics difficult. The hierarchy of topics should be improved. This part is available in MQ and other products such as Solace, but it is missing in Confluent, leading many in capital markets and trading to switch to Solace. In terms of stability, it is not the stability itself that needs improvement but rather the delivery semantics. Other products offer exactly-once delivery out of the box, whereas Confluent states it will offer this but lacks the knobs or levers for tuning configurations effectively. Confluent has hundreds of configurations that application teams must understand, which creates a gap. Users are often unaware of what values to set for better performance or to achieve exactly-once semantics, making it difficult to navigate through them. Delivery semantics also need to be worked on.

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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

"It's scalable."

"I like that I can focus on the logic and I don't have to worry about the administration stuff. AWS handles that for me."

"The product's initial setup phase was very easy."

"Even if it does break down, it will automatically recover itself and resumes from where it stopped."

"The database migration services allow us to do real-time synchronization of on-premise and database to plan out our releases."

"Scalable and stable solution for migrating databases to AWS, with valuable features such as parallel full load and continuous data replication."

"The process is now simplified because there won't be maintenance. Usually we can take a snapshot of the number I need. We can automate the backup snapshots and we can restore it very quickly. We get many benefits from the application."

"One of the features, I find most valuable is its ability to apply rules and transformations to data during real-time integration. This includes changing schema names or table structures on AWS without delaying the data flow. Initially, full migrations can vary widely in time depending on the source system; for instance, a large Magento database might take up to six months, while smaller databases like IBM DB2 could migrate within hours. Once set up, AWS DMS ensures real-time synchronization using Change Data Capture (CDC), maintaining data integrity throughout the process."

More AWS Database Migration Service pros

"Confluence's greatest asset is its user-friendly interface, coupled with its remarkable ability to seamlessly integrate with a vast range of other solutions."

"The client APIs are the most valuable feature."

"The features I find most useful in Confluent are the Multi-Region Cluster, MRC, and the Cluster Linking for replication."

"One of the best features of Confluent is that it's very easy to search and have a live status with Jira."

"With Confluent Cloud we no longer need to handle the infrastructure and the plumbing, which is a concern for Confluent. The other advantage is that all portfolios have access to the data that is being shared."

"The design of the product is extremely well built and it is highly configurable."

"The most valuable is its capability to enhance the documentation process, particularly when creating software documentation."

"The benefit is escaping email communication. Sometimes people ignore emails or put them into spam, but with Confluence, everyone sees the same text at the same time."

More Confluent pros

Cons

"I was looking for a table that suggests which facets such services address with proofs of reference from professional conferences. The document is a 63 page read, making it very difficult to navigate without a summary."

"This solution is compatible with only AWS."

"In my experience, AWS Database Migration Service performs well for its primary purpose of data migration. One area that could be improved is its support for non-AWS file formats, particularly when integrating data from sources stored outside of AWS. For example, handling AWS Data Lakes, Delta Lake, or Hadoop file formats stored in S3 requires extensive configuration and isn't always straightforward. It would be beneficial to streamline this process to ensure smoother migrations from non-AWS environments to AWS. As for additional functionality, I think enhancing support for these external file formats and simplifying configuration steps would be valuable improvements for the service."

"More endpoints need to be supported by AWS Database Migration Service. There's also a need for more control and transparency on the product, including better technical support."

"The cost is a concern. We use DMS because of its simplicity, but the price could definitely be more competitive."

"What needs improvement in AWS Database Migration Service is that it lacks a log file validation feature. If the solution could provide more details about a particular transaction, that would be helpful. The stability of AWS Database Migration Service for online CDC records also needs to be improved."

"As a solution, the better thing is if more platforms come with direct compatibility, like connecting to different data sources. The basic problem I faced the most was while transferring and reading data from Excel. So, one time, I found that all the components I had declared in my scripts were able to take it. And after some patching happens, it is not able to support that. Again, we need to update the version of Excel. So, it's not like a plug-in type place where you have done the solution and are confident that it will work. So, this is an area of improvement."

"If they had some sort of functionality where, at a specific point in time, if I want to start a new job, it should automatically pick up from where it has been left rather than having people worry about the exact job number and the timing."

More AWS Database Migration Service cons

"We continuously face issues, such as Kafka being down and slow responses from the support team."

"there is room for improvement in the visualization."

"It could have more themes. They should also have more reporting-oriented plugins as well. It would be great to have free custom reports that can be dispatched directly from Jira."

"Confluence could improve the server version of the solution. However, most companies are going to the cloud."

"It could be improved by including a feature that automatically creates a new topic and puts failed messages."

"In Confluent, there could be a few more VPN options."

"One area we've identified that could be improved is the governance and access control to the Kafka topics. We've found some limitations, like a threshold of 10,000 rules per cluster, that make it challenging to manage access at scale if we have many different data sources."

"Recently, there has been a lot of buzz about Confluent charging high fees while not offering features that match those of other tools."

More Confluent cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is per hour, though I do not have the exact figures. If you have specific questions about the service, a personal support team from Amazon is available, but this will bring in additional costs."

"Pricing for the solution is reasonable, but could still be reduced."

"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price."

"AWS Database Migration Service is very inexpensive."

"The pricing is on the higher side."

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

"Pricing can be improved."

"Cost is the only factor that is challenging."

More AWS Database Migration Service pricing and cost advice

"Confluent is an expensive solution."

"The pricing model of Confluent could improve because if you have a classic use case where you're going to use all the features there is no plan to reduce the features. You should be able to pick and choose basic services at a reduced price. The pricing was high for our needs. We should not have to pay for features we do not use."

"Confluent is expensive, I would prefer, Apache Kafka over Confluent because of the high cost of maintenance."

"Confluent is highly priced."

"The solution is cheaper than other products."

"Confluence's pricing is quite reasonable, with a cost of around $10 per user that decreases as the number of users increases. Additionally, it's worth noting that for teams of up to 10 users, the solution is completely free."

"You have to pay additional for one or two features."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is low pricing and ten is high pricing, I would rate Confluent's pricing at five. I have not encountered any additional costs."

More Confluent pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

13%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	17

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	16

Questions from the Community

What resources can you use to learn how to utilize AWS Database Migration Service?

As with all AWS products, you are given very useful documentation with AWS Database Migration Service. Before we started using this product, we went over it and we were able to learn the basics an...

Would you recommend AWS Database Migration Service as a cloud data integration tool?

My current company started using AWS Database Migration Service upon my recommendation, and I continue telling people how good of a product it is. However, users should keep in mind a few things. ...

Is AWS Database Migration Service an affordable solution?

Compared to similar solutions, AWS Database Migration Service falls somewhere in the middle price-wise, at least from my experience. This being said, it is not a very affordable solution, especial...

What do you like most about Confluent?

I find Confluent's Kafka Connectors and Kafka Streams invaluable for my use cases because they simplify real-time data processing and ETL tasks by providing reliable, pre-packaged connectors and to...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Confluent?

They charge a lot for scaling, which makes it expensive.

What needs improvement with Confluent?

People do not appreciate that Confluent is pushing us more towards Teams because they want to use a true Microsoft Word-type format where we can format our sentences better, instead of just saying ...

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Product Reports

AWS Database Migration Service

October 2025

Download AWS Database Migration Service product report

Download Confluent product report

October 2025

Also Known As

AWS Data Migration Service

No data available

Overview

AWS Database Migration Service, also known as AWS DMS, is a cloud service that facilitates the migration of relational databases, NoSQL databases, data warehouses, and other types of data stores. The product can be used to migrate users' data into the AWS Cloud or between combinations of on-premises and cloud setups. The solution allows migration between a wide variety of sources and target endpoints; the only requirement is that one of the endpoints has to be an AWS service. AWS DMS cannot be used to migrate from an on-premises database to another on-premises database.

AWS Database Migration Service allows users to perform one-time migrations, as well as replications of ongoing changes to keep sources and targets in sync. Organizations can utilize the AWS Schema Conversion Tool to translate their database schema to a new platform and then use AWS DMS to migrate the data. The product offers cost efficiency as a part of the AWS Cloud, as well as speed to market, flexibility, and security.

The main use cases of AWS Database Migration Service include:

Migrating from legacy or on-premises databases to managed cloud services through a simplified migration process.
Reliable replication of backup files to minimize downtime and data loss.
Improvement of integration through building of data lakes and performing real-time processing on change data from users' data stores.

AWS Database Migration Service Components

AWS Database Migration Service consists of various components which function together to achieve users’ data migration. A migration on AWS DMS is structured in three levels: a replication instance, source and target endpoints, and a replication task. The components include the following actions:

Replication instance: AWS Database Migration Service provides users with a variety of replication instances, allowing them to select the optimal configuration for their use case. Depending on the instance class an organization selects, their replication instance provides a different amount of data storage.
Endpoint: AWS DMS uses an endpoint to access users' source or target data stores. The connection information is different and depends on the specific data store, but it usually consists of the following information: endpoint type, engine type, server name, port, encryption, and credentials. This information can easily be managed through the AWS DMS console.
Replication tasks: AWS Database Migration Service replication tasks can be used to move a set of data from the source endpoint to the target endpoint. The creation of a replication task is the last required step before starting a migration. Each replication task requires the following settings to be set: replication instance, source endpoint, target endpoint, and migration type options.
Ongoing replication or change data capture (CDC): AWS DMS also has the capacity to capture ongoing changes to the source that is stored while users migrate their data to a target.
Schema and code migration: The product requires assistance from tools such as MySQL Workbench, pgAdmin III, and Oracle SQL Developer to perform schema or code conversion, as it cannot do it on its own.

AWS Database Migration Service Benefits

AWS Database Migration Service offers its users a wide range of benefits. Among them are the following:

The solution ensures minimal downtime, as it continuously replicates the changes to the user’s source database during migration.
AWS DMS provides users with flexibility, as it supports many commonly used databases, including commercial and open-source ones.
The product is user friendly, as it offers an easy set of tasks in the AWS Management Console.
Users of Aurora, Redshift, DocumentDB, and DynamoDB can benefit from the free use of AWS DMS.
AWS Database Migration Service is very reliable because it is a self-healing service that automatically restarts in cases of interruptions.
The product supports both homogenous migrations and heterogenous migrations.
AWS DMS accelerates business growth, as it scales businesses at an affordable price.

Reviews from Real Users

Vishal S., an infrastructure lead at a computer software company, likes AWS Database Migration Service because it is easy to use and set up.

Vinod K., a data analyst at AIMLEAP, describes AWS DMS as an easy solution to save and extract data.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Confluent is an enterprise-ready, full-scale streaming platform that enhances Apache Kafka.

Confluent has integrated cutting-edge features that are designed to enhance these tasks:

Speed up application development and connectivity
Enable transformations through stream processing
Streamline business operations at scale
Adhere to strict architectural standards

Confluent is a more complete distribution of Kafka in that it enhances the integration possibilities of Kafka by introducing tools for managing and optimizing Kafka clusters while providing methods for making sure the streams are secure. Confluent supports publish-and-subscribe as well as the storing and processing of data within the streams. Kafka is easier to operate and build thanks to Confluent.

Confluent's software is available in three different varieties:

A free, open-source streaming platform that makes it simple to start using real-time data streams
An enterprise-grade version of the product with more administrative, ops, and monitoring tools
A premium cloud-based version.

Confluent Advantage Features

Confluent has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Multi-language
- Clients: C++, Python, Go, and .NET
- REST proxy: Can connect to Kafka from any connected network device
- Admin REST APIs: RESTful interface for performing administrator operations

Pre-built ecosystem
- Connectors: More than 100 supported connectors, including S3, Elastic, HDFS, JDBC
- MQTT proxy: Gain access to Kafka from MQTT gateways and devices
- Schema registry: Centralized database to guarantee data compatibility

Streaming database
- ksqlDB: Materialized views and real-time stream processing

GUI management
- Control panel: GUI for scalable Kafka management and monitoring
- Health+: Smart alerts and cloud-based control centers

DevOps automation that is flexible
- Confluent for Kubernetes: Complete API to deploy on Kubernetes
- Automated Ansible deployment on non-containerized environments

Dynamic performance
- Self-balancing clusters: Automated partition re-balancing across brokers in the cluster
- Tiered storage: Older Kafka data offloading to object storage with transparent access

Security that is enterprise-grade
- Role-based access control: Granular user/group access authorization
- Audit logs that are structured: Logs of user actions kept in dedicated Kafka topics
- Secret protection: Sensitive information is encrypted

Global resilience
- Linking clusters: A real-time, highly reliable, and consistent bridge across on-premises and cloud environments
- Multiple-region clusters: Single Kafka cluster with automated client failover distributed across multiple data centers
- Replicator: Asynchronous replication that is based on the Kafka Connect framework

Support
- Round the clock enterprise support from Kafka experts

Reviews from Real Users

Confluent stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its robust enterprise support and its open source option. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

Ravi B., a solutions architect at a tech services company, writes of the solution, “KSQL is a valuable feature, as is the Kafka Connect framework for connecting to the various source systems where you need not write the code. We get great support from Confluent because we're using the enterprise version and whenever there's a problem, they support us with fine-tuning and finding the root cause.”

Amit S., an IT consultant, notes, “The biggest benefit is that it is open source. You have the flexibility of opting or not opting for enterprise support, even though the tool itself is open source.” He adds, “The second benefit is it's very modern and built on Java and Scala. You can extend the features very well, and it doesn't take a lot of effort to do so.”

Sample Customers

Veoci, Trimble, Nasdaq, shaadi.com, Hotelbeds, SysAid, Verizon, Expedia, Pega

ING, Priceline.com, Nordea, Target, RBC, Tivo, Capital One, Chartboost