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Apache Kafka pros and cons

Vendor: Apache
4.1 out of 5
1,226 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

Apache Kafka delivers exceptional performance, supporting thousands of messages per second with fault tolerance and scalability for large-scale data processing. Its open-source nature, guaranteed message delivery, and stream processing capabilities make it attractive for organizations. Kafka provides strong integration with various platforms, enhancing interoperability. However, dependency on ZooKeeper, complex setup, and maintenance, as well as significant DevOps expertise, may present challenges. Stability of API and technical support requires enhancement.

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Apache Kafka provides high throughput and reliability for handling thousands of messages per second.
The software excels in scalability, allowing easy horizontal scaling and integration with various platforms through numerous connectors.
Apache Kafka enables robust real-time data processing with features like stream processing, partitioning, and data replication.
The messaging function offers guaranteed delivery from producers to consumers and supports high availability with built-in fault tolerance.
Its versatility and open-source nature allow for easy customization and cost-effective implementation.

CONS

Kafka is dependent on Zookeeper, which creates a bottleneck in implementation.
There are significant challenges in setting up and deploying Kafka, particularly for those without DevOps expertise.
The pricing for the enterprise version is high and could be better optimized.
Manageability requires improvement as it involves complex configurations and considerable oversight.
Kafka faces performance issues, particularly in latency spikes and resource consumption.
 

Apache Kafka Pros review quotes

reviewer2075460 - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 25, 2023
Kafka can process messages in real-time, making it useful for applications that require near-instantaneous processing.
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DZ
Feb 6, 2023
There are numerous possibilities that can be explored. While it may be challenging to fully comprehend the potential advantages, one key aspect is the ability to establish a proper sequence of events rather than simply dealing with a jumbled group of occurrences. These events possess their own timestamps, even if they were not initially provided with one, and are arranged in a chronological order that allows for a clear understanding of the progression of the events.
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GT
Sep 16, 2022
The main advantage is increased reliability, particularly with regard to data and the speed with which messages are published to the other side.
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Apache Kafka
April 2025
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it_user660627 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 8, 2017
Kafka, as compared with other messaging system options, is great for large scale message processing applications. It offers high throughput with built-in fault-tolerance and replication.
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Amit Laddha - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 13, 2023
Apache Kafka's most valuable features include clustering and sharding...It is a pretty stable solution.
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Pratul Shukla - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 1, 2023
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.
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RH
Aug 28, 2020
When comparing it with other messaging and integration platforms, this is one of the best rated.
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OT
Jan 19, 2020
Kafka provides us with a way to store the data used for analytics. That's the big selling point. There's very good log management.
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reviewer2150616 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 2, 2024
The most valuable features of the solution revolve around areas like the latency part, where the tool offers very little latency and the sequencing part.
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reviewer1421481 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 27, 2020
The processing power of Apache Kafka is good when you have requirements for high throughput and a large number of consumers.
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Apache Kafka Cons review quotes

reviewer2075460 - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 25, 2023
Data pulling and restart ability need improving.
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DZ
Feb 6, 2023
There have been some challenges with monitoring Apache Kafka, as there are currently only a few production-grade solutions available, which are all under enterprise license and therefore not easily accessible. The speaker has not had access to any of these solutions and has instead relied on tools, such as Dynatrace, which do not provide sufficient insight into the Apache Kafka system. While there are other tools available, they do not offer the same level of real-time data as enterprise solutions.
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GT
Sep 16, 2022
One of the things I am mostly looking for is that once the message is picked up from Kafka, it should not be visible or able to be consumed by other applications, or something along those lines. That feature is not present, but it is not a limitation or anything of the sort; rather, it is a desirable feature. The next release should include a feature that prevents messages from being consumed by other applications once they are picked up by Kafka.
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Buyer's Guide
Apache Kafka
April 2025
Free Report: Apache Kafka Reviews and More
Learn what your peers think about Apache Kafka. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user660627 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 8, 2017
Kafka requires non-trivial expertise with DevOps to deploy in production at scale. The organization needs to understand ZooKeeper and Kafka and should consider using additional tools, such as MirrorMaker, so that the organization can survive an availability zone or a region going down.
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Amit Laddha - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 13, 2023
In Apache Kafka, it is currently difficult to create a consumer.
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Pratul Shukla - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 1, 2023
There is a lot of information available for the solution and it can be overwhelming to sort through.
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RH
Aug 28, 2020
The model where you create the integration or the integration scenario needs improvement.
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OT
Jan 19, 2020
If the graphical user interface was easier for the Kafka administration it would be much better. Right now, you need to use the program with the command-line interface. If the graphical user interface was easier, it could be a better product.
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reviewer2150616 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 2, 2024
One complexity that I faced with the tool stems from the fact that since it is not kind of a stand-alone application, it won't integrate with native cloud, like AWS or Azure.
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reviewer1421481 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 27, 2020
They need to have a proper portal to do everything because, at this moment, Kafka is lagging in this regard.
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