CLOUDERA VS. CONFLUENT
Lower spend and get more out of your streaming architecture
Why Cloudera is better than Confluent
It is no secret that Confluent deployments can be very expensive.
Apache Kafka has been around for 13 years and is now table stakes for streaming. The cost of Kafka should be going down, yet Confluent continues to charge a premium.
Confluent also charges for extraneous features that do not drive value for the majority of use cases that require only basic streaming functionality. By providing the industry’s most comprehensive and flexible deployment of Kafka, Apache Flink, and Apache NiFi, Cloudera offers all of the streaming capabilities enterprise organizations require at a fraction of cost.
With Cloudera you can:
- Lower your total streaming spend.
- Get all the functionality you need to support core streaming use cases.
- Derive more from your streaming architecture at scale.
- Evolve your streaming pipelines to meet changing business and data requirements.
- Easily migrate from Confluent to Cloudera without any additional code.
The truth behind what you’re paying for
While streaming enables a wide variety of business use cases, most of them follow a handful of common architectural patterns that leverage core Kafka functionality without requiring additional features. Cloudera delivers all the functionality to support event-driven architectures, streaming pipelines, and real-time analytics. However, unlike Confluent, Cloudera includes all of these features in our base pricing.
| Feature | Confluent | Cloudera |
| Scalable streaming platform powered by Apache Kafka | $ | Included |
| Apache Kafka Ecosystem Components (Streams, Connect, Cruise Control) | $ | Included |
| Central Control Plane for administration and platform ops | $ | Included |
| Robust data governance | $ | Included |
| Stream processing for automation and real-time analytics | $ | Included |
| Connectors to data sources and destinations | $ | Included |
By leveraging core Kafka functionality and bundling all of the necessary features in the base pricing, Cloudera delivers everything enterprise organizations need to build and deploy streaming pipelines at a fraction of the cost of Confluent.
Ready to see Cloudera in action?
Request your personalized TCO analysis and product demo.
Get more from your streaming architecture
While Kafka is essential to streaming use cases, Cloudera offers you more than table-stakes functionality.
We take a “best tool for the job” approach to streaming with a complete set of functionality that is optimized for efficiency and built with modular components that you can modify and scale independently.
With NiFi and a more complete offering of Flink, you can truly capture, process, and distribute any data, anywhere, in real time. By offering much deeper integrations with a range of data at rest technologies, Cloudera also extends this approach beyond streaming to make data more secure, accessible, and usable across the entire data lifecycle at lower TCO.
Cloudera’s breadth of capabilities include:
Continuously improve your business-critical streaming pipelines
Streaming data is used in many operational applications and for decision-making. As operations evolve, so must the data streams that support them. Teams will need to add new data sources and destinations, update business logic, and incorporate AI outputs in various applications. To deliver the level of agility that modern business requires, a complete development experience that enables a DevOps approach to streaming use cases is necessary.
With Cloudera, even small teams can make big changes to streaming pipelines quickly and easily to drive continuous improvement.
Complete capabilities + comprehensive developer experience = agility
A proven methodology for seamless migration
Cloudera’s methodology seamlessly migrates Confluent customers without requiring additional code using this step-by-step process:
1
Configure Cloudera
Install, secure, and configure Cloudera’s streaming platform in the environment of your choice—in multiple clouds or on premises.
2
Deploy Kafka clusters on Cloudera
Easily click and deploy your Kafka clusters with the Cloudera Management tool.
3
Replicate Confluent topics
Use the no-code Cloudera tool to import Confluent schemas and security settings. Replicate data, topics from Confluent to new Kafka clusters on Cloudera.
4
Shift to Cloudera in phases
(at your own pace)
Migrate connectors, stream processing logic, and other key assets to simplify the transition.
5
Transfer ops
Validate data and test application integrations before switching over to Cloudera Kafka.
6
Deprecate Confluent
Say goodbye to your high Confluent bill.
Need more proof?
Cloudera has been validated by analysts and customers in all industries.
PRODUCT TOUR
Cloudera Streaming Product Tour
PRODUCT TRIAL