Redpanda vs. Kafka
Apache Kafka® compatibility without the Kafka complexity. See why more companies are choosing Redpanda as their reliable, cost-efficient, and scalable streaming data platform that works out of the box.
Why Redpanda?
Redpanda makes real-time data processing easy. Streamlined architecture, great performance, and developer-friendly tools—all without external dependencies. Build more, spend less, and be agile with the unified platform that simplifies building real-time applications.
Key feature breakdown
 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Streamlined Components |  Single-binary deployment: brokers, schema registry, HTTP proxy, Raft consensus all built in |  External dependencies on ZooKeeper/KRaft, JVM, schema registry, and HTTP proxy |
| Engine Configurations | Dynamically optimize topics for availability, consistency, latency, safety, and networking costs | Less flexible, unsafe ISR replication strategy creates potential for data loss |
| Cloud Storage Options | Production-proven tiered storage. Cloud Topics roadmap (mid 2025) for direct-to-object-storage persistence | Unproven tiered storage: production-ready as of 3.9.0 (fall 2024). No option to use object storage directly. |
| Provision | ||
| Cluster Sizing | Consultative guidance on sizing & deployment included | DIY effort |
| Automation | Continuous data and partition balancing built in | Requires separate Cruise Control system |
| Monitoring | Available natively via Prometheus | Requires 3rd-party tools |
| Ecosystem | ||
| Data Connectors | Redpanda Connect: 280+ data & AI connectors, config-based & stateless for ease of use | Kafka Connect: 200+ integrations, no AI, mix of stateful/stateless connectors |
| Kafka API | Redpanda natively supports the Kafka API | The industry standard for data streaming |
| UI | Redpanda Console is open source and works with Apache Kafka | Requires 3rd-party tools (like Redpanda Console) |
| Schema Registry | Built into the Redpanda binary | Requires separate infrastructure |
| Transactions | Part of Redpanda's Kafka compatibility | The industry standard for data streaming |
| Support | ||
| Access Experts 24/7 | 24/7/365 coverage for production outages | Community-based best-effort support |
| Security | Enterprise-grade features like SSO, RBAC, audit-logging & more | DIY effort, often requires 3rd-party tools |
Start building with Redpanda
Best-in-class experiences from startups to the enterprise
"We had a large Kafka environment (800M events per day). I dropped Redpanda in and changed nothing and that's when I was completely sold."
"Redpanda was able to handle the same load on far less resources than Kafka required. It was 5 to 6 times more efficient, greatly reducing our hardware costs as well as support and licensing costs."
"Redpanda helped us grow from the hundreds of millions of dollars in trading per day to billions of dollars."
"We have operational agility with Redpanda, meeting stringent SLOs while keeping developers focused on high-value work. Redpanda's tiered storage saves up to 30% on storage costs, easily handling 14.5GB/second."
"Redpanda rose to the top of our list because we knew its obsessed over performance and reliability at scale. We tested the data platform for up to 100M users with zero performance blips at 100GB/min throughput and peaks of 100K transactions/second."
What's new at Redpanda?
Take Redpanda for a spin!
Looking to improve application performance and simplify data pipelines? Give Redpanda a try or get in touch with us to learn more.