Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Confluent vs Equalum comparison

Confluent and Equalum are both solutions in the Cloud Data Integration category. Additionally, 95% of Confluent users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Equalum users who would recommend it.
Confluent
Read 23 Confluent reviews
  • 4,435 Views
  • 3,336 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
Equalum
Read 7 Equalum reviews
  • 146 Views
  • 64 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report
Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between Confluent and Equalum 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.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE REPORT
To learn more, read our detailed Confluent vs. Equalum Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Confluent vs. Equalum
April 2025
Download the complete report
Helped 850,236 peers since 2012

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

Confluent
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Streaming Analytics (4th)
Equalum
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (58th), Data Replication (17th), Cloud Data Integration (27th)
 

Featured Reviews

Gustavo-Barbosa Dos Santos - PeerSpot reviewer
Has good technical support services and a valuable feature for real-time data streaming
Implementing Confluent's schema registry has significantly enhanced our organization's data quality assurance. It helps us understand the various requirements of multiple customers and validates the information for different versions. We can automate the tasks using Confluent Kafka. Thus, it guarantees us the data quality and maintains the integrity of message contracts.
Read full review
reviewer1525674 - PeerSpot reviewer
Frees staff to focus on data workflow and on what can be done with data, and away from the details of the technology
There are areas they can do better in, like most software companies that are still relatively young. They need to expand their capabilities in some of the targets, as well as source connectors, and native connectors for a number of large data sources and databases. That's a huge challenge for every company in this area, not just Equalum. If I had the wherewithal to create a tool that could allow for all that connectivity, it would be massive, out-of-the-box. There are all the updates every month. An open source changes constantly, so compatibility for these sources or targets is not easy. And a lot of targets are proprietary and they actually don't want you to connect with them in real time. They want to keep that connectivity for their own competitive tool. What happens is that a customer will say, "Okay, I've got Oracle, and I've got MariaDB, and I've got SQL Server over here, and I've got something else over there. And I want to aggregate that, and put it into Google Cloud Platform." Having connectors to all of those is extremely difficult, as is maintaining them. So there are major challenges to keeping connectivity to those data sources, especially at a CDC level, because you've got to maintain your connectors. And every change that's made with a new version that comes out means they've got to upgrade their version of the connector. It's a real challenge in the industry. But one good thing about Equalum is that they're up for the challenge. If there's a customer opportunity, they will develop and make sure that they update a connector to meet the needs of the customer. They'll also look at custom development of connectors, based on the customer opportunity. It's a work in progress. Everybody in the space is in the same boat. And it's not just ETL tools. It's everybody in the Big Data space. It's a challenge. The other area for improvement, for Equalum, is their documentation of the product. But that comes with being a certain size and having a marketing team of 30 or 40 people and growing as an organization. They're getting there and I believe they know what the deficiencies are. Maintaining and driving a channel business, like Equalum is doing, is really quite a different business model than the direct-sales model. It requires a tremendous amount of documentation, marketing information, and educational information. It's not easy.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the best features of Confluent is that it's very easy to search and have a live status with Jira."
"The most valuable feature that we are using is the data replication between the data centers allowing us to configure a disaster recovery or software. However, is it's not mandatory to use and because most of the features that we use are from Apache Kafka, such as end-to-end encryption. Internally, we can develop our own kind of product or service from Apache Kafka."
"We ensure seamless management of Kafka through Confluent, allowing all of our Kafka activities to be handled by a third party."
"The solution can handle a high volume of data because it works and scales well."
"We mostly use the solution's message queues and event-driven architecture."
"Kafka Connect framework is valuable for connecting to the various source systems where code doesn't need to be written."
"I would rate the scalability of the solution at eight out of ten. We have 20 people who use Confluent in our organization now, and we hope to increase usage in the future."
"Implementing Confluent's schema registry has significantly enhanced our organization's data quality assurance."
More Confluent pros
"Equalum provides a single platform for core architectural use cases, including CDC replication, streaming ETL, and batch ETL. That is important to our clients because there is no other single-focus product that covers these areas in that much detail, and with this many features on the platform. The fact that they are single-minded and focused on CDC and ETL makes this such a rich solution. Other solutions cover these things a little bit in their multi-function products, but they don't go as deep."
"Equalum is real-time. If you are moving from an overnight process to a real-time process, there is always a difference in what reports and analytics show compared to what our operational system shows. Some of our organizations, especially finance, don't want those differences to be shown. Therefore, going to a real-time environment makes the data in one place match the data in another place. Data accuracy is almost instantaneous with this tool."
"The main impact for Oracle LogMiner is the performance. Performance is drastically reduced if you use the solution’s Oracle Binary Log Parser. So, if we have 60 million records, initially it used to take a minute. Now, it takes a second to do synchronization from the source and target tables."
"I found two features in Equalum that I consider the most valuable. One is that Equalum is a no-code tool. You can do your activities on its graphical interface, which doesn't require complex knowledge of extracting, changing, or loading data. Another feature of Equalum that I like the most is that it monitors the data transfers and tells you if there's any issue so that you can quickly check and correct it. Equalum also tells you where the problem lies, for example, if it's a hardware or communication issue."
"Equalum has resulted in system performance improvements in our organization. Now, I am ingressing data off of multiple S3 sources, doing data processing, and formatting a schema. This would usually take me a couple of days, but now it takes me hours."
"All our architectural use cases are on a single platform, not multiple platforms. You don't have to dump into different modules because it is the same module everywhere."
"It's a really powerful platform in terms of the combination of technologies they've developed and integrated together, out-of-the-box. The combination of Kafka and Spark is, we believe, quite unique, combined with CDC capabilities. And then, of course, there are the performance aspects. As an overall package, it's a very powerful data integration, migration, and replication tool."
"It's got it all, from end-to-end. It's the glue. There are a lot of other products out there, good products, but there's always a little bit of something missing from the other products. Equalum did its research well and understood the requirements of large enterprise and governments in terms of one tool to rule them all, from a data migration integration perspective."
 

Cons

"It could have more integration with different platforms."
"We continuously face issues, such as Kafka being down and slow responses from the support team."
"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."
"The Schema Registry service could be improved. I would like a bigger knowledge base of other use cases and more technical forums. It would be good to have more flexible monitoring features added to the next release as well."
"The product should integrate tools for incorporating diagrams like Lucidchart. It also needs to improve its formatting features. We also faced issues while granting permissions."
"In Confluent, there could be a few more VPN options."
"I am not very impressed by Confluent. We continuously face issues, such as Kafka being down and slow responses from the support team."
"Currently, in the early stages, I see a gap on the security side. If you are using the SaaS version, we would like to get a fuller, more secure solution that can be adopted right out of the box. Confluence could do a better job sharing best practices or a reusable pattern that others have used, especially for companies that can not afford to hire professional services from Confluent."
More Confluent cons
"There is not enough proven integration with other vendors. That is what needs to be worked on. Equalum hasn't tested anything between vendors, which worries our clients. We need more proven vendor integration. It is an expensive product and it needs to support a multi-vendor approach."
"Their UI could use some work. Also, they could make it just a little faster to get around their user interface. It could be a bit more intuitive with things like keyboard shortcuts."
"The deployment of their flows needs improvement. It doesn't work with a typical Git branching and CI/CD deployment strategy."
"If you need to use the basic features of Equalum, for example, you don't even need data integration, then many competitors in the market can give you basic features. For instance, if you need batch ETL, you can pick among solutions in the market that have been around longer than Equalum. What needs improvement in Equalum is replication, as it could be faster. Equalum also needs better integration with specific databases such as Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server."
"I should be able to see only my project versus somebody else's garbage. That is something that would be good in future. Right now, the security is by tenants, but I would like to have it by project, e.g., this project has this source and flows in these streams, and I have access to this on this site."
"Right now, they have a good notification system, but it is in bulk. For example, if I have five projects running and I put a notification, the notification comes back to me for all five projects. I would like the notification to come back only for one project."
"They need to expand their capabilities in some of the targets, as well as source connectors, and native connectors for a number of large data sources and databases. That's a huge challenge for every company in this area, not just Equalum."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Confluent is expensive, I would prefer, Apache Kafka over Confluent because of the high cost of maintenance."
"Confluent is an expensive solution."
"The solution is cheaper than other products."
"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."
"Confluent is highly priced."
"It comes with a high cost."
"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."
"Confluent has a yearly license, which is a bit high because it's on a per-user basis."
More Confluent pricing and cost advice
"They have a very simple approach to licensing. They don't get tied up with different types of connectivity to different databases. If you need more connectors or if you need more CPU, you just add on. It's component-based pricing."
"As soon as you have more than six users, Equalum is lower in cost [than Talend] and if the group gets bigger, it's quite a big delta. If more users want to use it, you don't end up with an increase in licensing costs, so that makes it very easy. And if you need more licenses or more sources, it's a very simple upgrade methodology."
"Equalum is rather expensive compared to its competitors. So, you have to make up that cost in time savings, and we usually do that. If we are saving money, it is because we are reducing our development time."
"Equalum licensing costs vary, but I won't be able to give information on its fees."
"Equalum was reasonably priced. It is not like those million dollar tools, such as Informatica."
report
See which vendors are best for you
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Data Integration solutions are best for your needs.
See recommendations
850,236 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
18%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Healthcare Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Confluent?
They charge a lot for scaling, which makes it expensive.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Confluent?
I am not very impressed by Confluent. We continuously face issues, such as Kafka being down and slow responses from the support team. The lack of easy access to the Confluent support team is also a...
See all answers
Why should I use Equalum instead of LogMiner?
You'd want to use the Equalium Oracle Binary Log Parser because it's just better than the LogMiner. Sure, LogMiner is made by Oracle and probably the team knows some insight to make it efficient th...
See all answers
Is Equalum compatible with all databases?
I'm using Equalum's data replication software for Oracle because that's the one database it's designed for. While it may sound limiting, when you find out how many solutions it can provide for you ...
See all answers
Can I use Equalum for free?
No, it's not free but you can benefit from a free trial, though. There's an option to try their platform for a limited amount of time, so that may be useful to help you decide if you want to contin...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Amazon Kinesis vs Confluent Logo
Amazon Kinesis vs Confluent
Compared 18% of the time
Databricks vs Confluent Logo
Databricks vs Confluent
Compared 9% of the time
Amazon MSK vs Confluent Logo
Amazon MSK vs Confluent
Compared 9% of the time
Cribl vs Confluent Logo
Cribl vs Confluent
Compared 5% of the time
AWS Glue vs Confluent Logo
AWS Glue vs Confluent
Compared 4% of the time
More Confluent Competitors
No data available
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Confluent
April 2025
Confluent reportDownload Confluent product report
Buyer's Guide
Equalum
May 2025
Equalum reportDownload Equalum product report
 

Overview

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: 

  1. A free, open-source streaming platform that makes it simple to start using real-time data streams
  2. An enterprise-grade version of the product with more administrative, ops, and monitoring tools
  3. 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.”

Confluent

Equalum is a fully-managed, end-to-end data integration and real-time data streaming platform, powered by industry-leading change data capture (CDC) tech and modern data transformation capabilities (streaming ETL and ELT). Equalum's enterprise-grade platform features intuitive UI allowing you to build robust, real-time data pipelines in minutes.

Equalum
 

Sample Customers

ING, Priceline.com, Nordea, Target, RBC, Tivo, Capital One, Chartboost
SIEMENS, GSK, Wal-Mart, T Systems
Buyer's Guide
Confluent vs. Equalum
April 2025
Free Report: Confluent vs. Equalum
Find out what your peers are saying about Confluent vs. Equalum and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
850,236 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See our Confluent vs. Equalum report.
See our list of best Cloud Data Integration vendors.

We monitor all Cloud Data Integration reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.