News, guides, and engineering deep dives.
Practical guidance on Kafka, Flink, Iceberg, and real-time data.
CMAK vs Kafdrop
CMAK is an admin console that needs ZooKeeper. Kafdrop is a message viewer that does not. What each is for, what free costs, and what a KRaft cutover breaks.
CMAK vs Lenses
CMAK is free and stopped shipping in 2022. Lenses is a control plane with a database per cluster. What each costs, where each runs out, and which fits.
CMAK vs Offset Explorer
CMAK is a server-side console with a hard ZooKeeper dependency. Offset Explorer is a desktop client licensed per user. What each costs and where each runs out.
CMAK vs Redpanda Console
CMAK cannot reach a KRaft cluster. Redpanda Console licenses the partition reassignment CMAK did for nothing. What each covers free, and which fits your team.
Conduktor vs Confluent Control Center
Conduktor bills per seat and runs against any Kafka distribution. Confluent Control Center is bundled with Confluent Platform and reaches nothing else.
Conduktor vs Kadeck
Conduktor sells policy enforcement, Kadeck sells data exploration. What each charges per person, where governance sits on each ladder, and which fits a team.
Conduktor vs Kafbat UI
Conduktor Console Community caps at 50 users and 3 clusters. Kafbat UI caps at nothing. What each free tier reaches, what the next rung costs, which to pick.
Conduktor vs Kafdrop
Kafdrop is free with no authentication at all. Conduktor Team Edition is 1,200 US dollars per seat per year. What each free tier reaches, and which fits yours.
Conduktor vs Lenses
Conduktor bills per seat and puts a proxy on the wire. Lenses tiers by user count and connects as a client. What each costs, and which fits a team.