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Amazon MSK vs Google Cloud Dataflow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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
7.1
Amazon MSK provides positive ROI by reducing integration time, minimizing licensing costs, and supporting flexible, cost-efficient experimentation with large data volumes.
Sentiment score
7.2
Many startups find Google Cloud Dataflow's ROI unclear, yet it offers significant time savings of around 70 percent.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Amazon MSK customer service is generally praised for accessibility and responsiveness, but expertise and cost can vary by plan.
Sentiment score
7.9
Google Cloud Dataflow provides strong service and updates, but accessing technical support is slow and can be challenging.
Amazon's support is excellent.
The fact that no interaction is needed shows their great support since I don't face issues.
Whenever we have issues, we can consult with Google.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Amazon MSK offers efficient manual scalability, rated six to nine by users, suitable for different organizational needs.
Sentiment score
7.2
Google Cloud Dataflow excels in scalability, with flexible autoscaling and custom options, though some users suggest improvements.
The functionality for scaling comes out of the box and is very effective.
Google Cloud Dataflow has auto-scaling capabilities, allowing me to add different machine types based on pace and requirements.
As a team lead, I'm responsible for handling five to six applications, but Google Cloud Dataflow seems to handle our use case effectively.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Amazon MSK is stable with high user ratings, though concerns exist due to its newness and some Windows-specific issues.
Sentiment score
8.3
Google Cloud Dataflow is highly stable and reliable, consistently receiving high user ratings for its flawless performance.
I have not encountered any issues with the performance of Dataflow, as it is stable and backed by Google services.
The job we built has not failed once over six to seven months.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon MSK needs better integration, configuration ease, improved documentation, cost reduction, and feature enhancements to compete and integrate effectively.
Google Cloud Dataflow needs improved Kafka integration, error logging, and community support, with easier setup and better Python SDK features.
The increase in cloud costs by 50% to 60% does not justify the savings.
Outside of Google Cloud Platform, it is problematic for others to use it and may require promotion as an actual technology.
Dealing with a huge volume of data causes failure due to array size.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon MSK is cost-effective for large workloads but can be expensive for smaller use cases, needing careful evaluation.
Google Cloud Dataflow is favored for cost-effectiveness, cheaper than AWS, with users rating pricing between two and seven.
Once we started using Kafka, our cloud costs rose by 50% to 60%.
It is part of a package received from Google, and they are not charging us too high.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon MSK offers seamless AWS integration, cost-efficiency, simplified setup, and reliable performance for CDC pipelines and asynchronous data collection.
Google Cloud Dataflow offers seamless integration, cost-effectiveness, and scalability with robust support for batch and streaming processes.
The scalability and usability are quite remarkable.
It supports multiple programming languages such as Java and Python, enabling flexibility without the need to learn something new.
The integration within Google Cloud Platform is very good.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon MSK
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
6th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Google Cloud Dataflow
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Amazon MSK is 7.9%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Dataflow is 7.4%, up from 6.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

FNU AKSHANSH - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlines our processes, and we don't need to configure any VPCs; it's automatic
We don't have many use cases involving ingesting large amounts of data and scaling up and down. We have a clear understanding of our data volume, which remains relatively constant throughout the week. While we're aware of other features Amazon MSK offers, we feel confident in our current setup. If our requirements change significantly in the future, we'll reassess our needs and consider adopting Amazon MSK.
Jana Polianskaja - PeerSpot reviewer
Build Scalable Data Pipelines with Apache Beam and Google Cloud Dataflow
As a data engineer, I find several features of Google Cloud Dataflow particularly valuable. The ability to test solutions locally using Direct Runner is crucial for development, allowing me to validate pipelines without incurring the costs of full Dataflow jobs. The unified programming model for both batch and streaming processing is exceptional - requiring only minor code adjustments to optimize for either mode. This flexibility extends to language support, with robust implementations in both Java and Python, allowing teams to leverage their existing expertise. The platform's comprehensive monitoring capabilities are another standout feature. The intuitive interface, Grafana integration, and extensive service connectivity make troubleshooting and performance tracking highly efficient. Furthermore, seamless integration with Google Cloud Composer (managed Airflow) enables sophisticated orchestration of data pipelines.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Retailer
5%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Retailer
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon MSK?
Amazon MSK has significantly improved our organization by building seamless integration between systems.
What needs improvement with Amazon MSK?
The cost of using Amazon MSK is high, which is a significant disadvantage, as the increase in cloud costs by 50% to 60% does not justify the savings. There were no other notable issues.
What is your primary use case for Amazon MSK?
We used Amazon MSK to manage high-volume third-party data entering our system. It served as a buffer when our system was unable to consume data at high speeds in real-time. The data initially went ...
What do you like most about Google Cloud Dataflow?
The product's installation process is easy...The tool's maintenance part is somewhat easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Dataflow?
Google Cloud Dataflow costs are primarily driven by compute resources (worker type and count) and data volume. However, other factors like pipeline complexity also contribute significantly to the t...
What needs improvement with Google Cloud Dataflow?
Apache Beam represents a powerful data processing solution that deserves wider recognition in the broader tech community. This technology offers remarkable capabilities for handling data at scale, ...
 

Also Known As

Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka
Google Dataflow
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Absolutdata, Backflip Studios, Bluecore, Claritics, Crystalloids, Energyworx, GenieConnect, Leanplum, Nomanini, Redbus, Streak, TabTale
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon MSK vs. Google Cloud Dataflow and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,194 professionals have used our research since 2012.