The best Kafka tool for a team using Confluent Cloud ksqlDB is one that connects to the hosted ksqlDB cluster with a ksqlDB-scoped API key over TLS, lets one engineer read query results while another may create streams or terminate queries, records which person ran each statement, follows a persistent query to its consumer group, its lag and the sources that depend on it, and runs as one container in your own network, out of the data path. Kpow, the Confluent Cloud Console, Kafbat UI, AKHQ, the ksqlDB CLI and REST API, and Conduktor each cover part of that, and NORD/LB is one bank that moved its ksqlDB query development into Kpow, on Confluent Platform. Scored on the six weighted criteria explained below the rankings, Kpow ranks first with 99 out of 110, ahead of the Confluent Cloud Console at 74 and Kafbat UI at 70; Conduktor, listed last, totals 65.
Tools compared
| Rank | Tool | Total (out of 110) | Out of the data path | Production access on request | Audit trail per person | ksqlDB operations | Directory and Kafka sign-in | Many teams, shared clusters | Cost a year, one cluster (modelled) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kpow | 99 | One container, no external database, not a proxy | Temporary policies, staged approvals, masking | Every statement and data read, by user | Query, execute, insert and terminate split per person; query to consumer group | SAML, OpenID, LDAP | Tenants per team, ksqlDB included | $7,380 |
| 2 | Confluent Cloud Console | 74 | Nothing to deploy | One KsqlAdmin role, no approvals or expiry | Sign-in and permission checks, not statements | Native editor, provisioning, query saturation metrics | Confluent accounts with SSO | One ksqlDB cluster per team | $0; ksqlDB billed in CSUs |
| 3 | Kafbat UI | 70 | One container | Read-only clusters, no approvals | Opt-in log, no view in the product | One ksqlDB server, basic auth; Confluent Cloud not named | OAuth2, OIDC, LDAP | Roles per resource | $8,640 |
| 4 | AKHQ | 62 | One container | Group roles, no approvals | Opt-in topic, no reads | Works with TLS and ALPN flags its docs omit | LDAP, OIDC | Regex groups | $8,640 |
| 5 | The ksqlDB CLI and REST API | 53 | Nothing to deploy | Whoever holds the API key | Key owner's sign-in only | Every statement, nothing watching | API key over HTTPS | One endpoint per ksqlDB cluster | $11,520 |
| 6 | Conduktor | 65 | Console on PostgreSQL; Gateway, a proxy, for data-level controls | Masking exemptions, owner approval | 70+ event types in the UI | Streams, tables, queries, editor; one ksqldbAccess permission | LDAP, OIDC | Groups; Virtual Clusters need Gateway | $32,880; $122,880 with Gateway Core and Protect |
The tools, ranked for Confluent Cloud ksqlDB
Rank 1 Kpow
99 out of 110 Total
Try Kpow in the live demo No signup needed.
- Cost a year
- $4,500 per Kafka cluster with 100 users included, plus about $2,880 in operator time, so $7,380 on one cluster (modelled)
- On Confluent Cloud ksqlDB
- Hosted ksqlDB over TLS and ALPN with a ksqlDB API key; Kpow Enterprise
- Deployment
- One container or JAR, no external database
- Out of the data path ×3 weight, this criterion counts 3 times toward the total
- 9 out of 10
- Production access on request ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 9 out of 10
- Audit trail per person ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 9 out of 10
- ksqlDB operations ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 9 out of 10
- Directory and Kafka sign-in
- 9 out of 10
- Many teams, shared clusters
- 9 out of 10
Why these scores for Kpow
- Out of the data path 9 out of 10
- It is one container or JAR whose snapshots, metrics and audit log live in topics on your own cluster, and it reaches Kafka as an ordinary client and ksqlDB through its REST API, so nothing sits between your applications and the brokers.
- Production access on request 9 out of 10
- Temporary policies grant time-boxed access that an admin or a change system calling the Kpow API can create, staged mutations hold any action for approval, and data policies mask fields in inspection, though masking is per resource rather than per viewer.
- Audit trail per person 9 out of 10
- Every action is recorded with the user from the identity provider and the policy that allowed it, including data inspect queries, with a seven-day view in the product, the record written to an audit topic on your own cluster, and webhooks that send it to a SIEM for long-term retention.
- ksqlDB operations 9 out of 10
- Four separate actions, KSQLDB_QUERY, KSQLDB_EXECUTE, KSQLDB_INSERT and KSQLDB_TERMINATE_QUERY, decide who may read, create, insert or stop, every statement is written to the audit log, and each source and query links to its backing topic, its consumer group, its schema and the queries that read or write it; it is held below 10 because the Confluent Cloud Console adds query saturation metrics and cluster provisioning that Kpow’s documentation does not cover.
- Directory and Kafka sign-in 9 out of 10
- People sign in with SAML, OpenID or LDAP, and Kpow connects to Kafka with the same SASL or TLS settings as any client and to Confluent Cloud’s ksqlDB with a ksqlDB-scoped API key over TLS with ALPN.
- Many teams, shared clusters 9 out of 10
- Tenants scope each team to its own topics, consumer groups, connectors and ksqlDB resources on a shared cluster, and RBAC adds Allow, Deny or Stage per action.
On Confluent Cloud ksqlDB. Kpow’s ksqlDB configuration states that its ksqlDB integration works with Confluent Cloud’s hosted ksqlDB server: create an API key with confluent api-key create --resource $KSQLDB_ID, then set KSQLDB_HOST to the cluster’s endpoint, KSQLDB_PORT to 443, the key and secret as KSQLDB_BASIC_AUTH_USER and KSQLDB_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD, and KSQLDB_USE_TLS and KSQLDB_USE_ALPN to true. Its ksqlDB management page covers describing sources with their read and write queries, running pull queries and statements, inserting rows from a file, and terminating queries, all under RBAC, tenants, masking and the audit log. The ksqlDB UI arrived in Kpow 91.1.
Where it falls short. Kpow does not provision, resize or delete ksqlDB clusters, show query saturation, or manage Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink, which Confluent now recommends for new stream processing. Kpow governs people working through Kpow, so anyone holding a KsqlAdmin role binding can still reach the cluster directly. ksqlDB support, RBAC, masking, staged mutations and the full audit log need Kpow Enterprise; Community Edition is free for 3 clusters and 10 users, and ksqlDB is an Enterprise feature.
Rank 2 Confluent Cloud Console
confluent.io
74 out of 110 Total
- Cost a year
- $0 licence and nothing to run; included in Confluent Cloud, with ksqlDB billed in CSUs whatever tool is used
- On Confluent Cloud ksqlDB
- Native SQL editor, cluster provisioning and query saturation metrics
- Deployment
- Nothing to deploy
- Out of the data path ×3 weight, this criterion counts 3 times toward the total
- 10 out of 10
- Production access on request ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 2 out of 10
- Audit trail per person ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 4 out of 10
- ksqlDB operations ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 10 out of 10
- Directory and Kafka sign-in
- 8 out of 10
- Many teams, shared clusters
- 4 out of 10
Why these scores for Confluent Cloud Console
- Out of the data path 10 out of 10
- There is nothing to deploy and nothing between clients and brokers, since this is Confluent’s own control plane, which makes it the best on this criterion.
- Production access on request 2 out of 10
- Confluent’s documentation describes one ksqlDB role, KsqlAdmin, which gives full access to every stream, table and persistent query on the cluster, including terminating them, with no read-only ksqlDB role, no approval step, no expiring grant and no masking.
- Audit trail per person 4 out of 10
- Confluent’s audit log reference lists two event methods for ksqlDB clusters, ksql.Authenticate and ksql.Authorize, recorded against each person’s own principal; the statements themselves are not among them, and the log is read from a separate audit cluster that keeps seven days by default.
- ksqlDB operations 10 out of 10
- As Confluent’s own ksqlDB interface it covers provisioning and CSU sizing, a SQL editor with autocompletion, streams, tables and persistent queries, Schema Registry integration, and query saturation and consumer group lag metrics, the deepest native view of the hosted service on this page.
- Directory and Kafka sign-in 8 out of 10
- Engineers sign in with their own Confluent user accounts, through SSO where the organisation sets it up, so no API key is shared.
- Many teams, shared clusters 4 out of 10
- KsqlAdmin is granted per ksqlDB cluster, so separating two teams’ queries means separate ksqlDB clusters, each at least 4 CSUs and at most 15 per environment, and nothing narrower inside one cluster.
What it covers. Confluent’s ksqlDB on Confluent Cloud documentation describes the service as fully hosted, provisioned from the Cloud Console or the Confluent CLI, with a SQL editor, Schema Registry integration and private networking, and priced in Confluent Streaming Units chosen at provisioning: 4 CSUs is the smallest size, 28 the largest, and clusters of 8 CSUs or more are configured for high availability. The Confluent Cloud page scores the console across the rest of the service.
Where it falls short. Access to a ksqlDB cluster is all or nothing: a KsqlAdmin can read, create, insert and terminate, and there is no narrower ksqlDB role. Confluent’s documentation names no masking in the editor, no approval in front of DROP or TERMINATE, and no access that expires, and its audit log records that a person was allowed into the cluster rather than which statement they ran. It manages Confluent Cloud only.
Compare Kpow vs Confluent Control Center
Rank 3 Kafbat UI
70 out of 110 Total
- Cost a year
- $0 licence, about $8,640 in operator time (modelled)
- On Confluent Cloud ksqlDB
- One ksqlDB server per cluster with basic auth and SSL; Confluent Cloud not named
- Sign-in
- OAuth2, OIDC and LDAP, free
- Out of the data path ×3 weight, this criterion counts 3 times toward the total
- 9 out of 10
- Production access on request ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 4 out of 10
- Audit trail per person ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 6 out of 10
- ksqlDB operations ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 5 out of 10
- Directory and Kafka sign-in
- 7 out of 10
- Many teams, shared clusters
- 6 out of 10
Why these scores for Kafbat UI
- Out of the data path 9 out of 10
- It is one stateless container with no database and no proxy, the same pass as Kpow.
- Production access on request 4 out of 10
- RBAC grants actions per resource and a cluster can be set read-only, but there is no approval step, no time-boxed grant, and its masking applies the same way to every viewer.
- Audit trail per person 6 out of 10
- Its audit log names the logged-in user and records reads when the level is set to ALL, but it writes to a topic or the console with no view in the product, so reading the trail is something you build.
- ksqlDB operations 5 out of 10
- Its configuration takes one ksqlDB server per Kafka cluster with a basic authentication username and password and a JKS keystore, which matches how Confluent Cloud’s ksqlDB authenticates, but its documentation does not name Confluent Cloud or describe a link from a query to its consumer group.
- Directory and Kafka sign-in 7 out of 10
- It supports OAuth2 and OIDC, including Microsoft Entra ID, and LDAP or Active Directory, and its documentation does not list SAML.
- Many teams, shared clusters 6 out of 10
- Roles scope permissions per resource and list the clusters they apply to, with no tenant view of a team’s own resources.
On Confluent Cloud ksqlDB. Kafbat UI’s configuration reference lists KAFKA_CLUSTERS_0_KSQLDBSERVER with a basic authentication username and password and SSL keystore settings, so a Confluent Cloud ksqlDB API key goes in as the username and secret. The Kafbat UI review covers its RBAC and release history in detail.
Where it falls short. Confluent Cloud ksqlDB is not named in its documentation, so a team should test the connection before relying on it. There is no way to grant production access for an hour and have it expire or to hold a DROP for approval. Its modelled running cost on one cluster is 6 engineer-hours a month, $8,640 a year at $120 an hour.
Rank 4 AKHQ
62 out of 110 Total
- Cost a year
- $0 licence, about $8,640 in operator time (modelled)
- On Confluent Cloud ksqlDB
- Works with useTls and useAlpn, flags its docs do not list
- Security default
- Disabled until you enable it
- Out of the data path ×3 weight, this criterion counts 3 times toward the total
- 9 out of 10
- Production access on request ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 3 out of 10
- Audit trail per person ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 4 out of 10
- ksqlDB operations ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 5 out of 10
- Directory and Kafka sign-in
- 6 out of 10
- Many teams, shared clusters
- 5 out of 10
Why these scores for AKHQ
- Out of the data path 9 out of 10
- It is one stateless container with no database and no proxy, the same pass as Kpow.
- Production access on request 3 out of 10
- Groups bind actions to resources by regex, but there is no approval step or time-boxed grant, masking is global, and without the JWT signing secret the restriction is in the UI only.
- Audit trail per person 4 out of 10
- Audit events are opt-in to a Kafka topic, reads are not recorded, and there is no view for the trail.
- ksqlDB operations 5 out of 10
- It lists a ksqlDB server per connection with a URL and basic authentication, and Confluent Cloud’s hosted ksqlDB connects once useTls and useAlpn are set, flags that appear in a GitHub issue thread rather than its documentation.
- Directory and Kafka sign-in 6 out of 10
- It supports LDAP, OIDC and header authentication from a proxy, does not list SAML, and ships with security disabled until you enable it.
- Many teams, shared clusters 5 out of 10
- Groups combine resource types with regex patterns on names and clusters, which limits what a role can reach, but there is no tenant view of a team’s own resources.
On Confluent Cloud ksqlDB. AKHQ’s connection configuration takes an optional list of ksqlDB instances, each with a name, a URL and basic authentication. Its connection to Confluent Cloud’s ksqlDB needs useTls and useAlpn, which are described in a GitHub issue thread. The AKHQ review covers the rest.
Where it falls short. Security is off until you configure it, the audit trail is an opt-in topic that does not record reads, and the Confluent Cloud connection rests on flags its documentation does not list. Its modelled running cost on one cluster is 6 engineer-hours a month, $8,640 a year at $120 an hour.
Compare Kpow vs AKHQAKHQ review
Rank 5 The ksqlDB CLI and REST API
53 out of 110 Total
- Cost a year
- $0 licence, about $11,520 in operator time (modelled)
- On Confluent Cloud ksqlDB
- The interface every tool on this page calls, with a ksqlDB API key
- Deployment
- A client on the engineer's machine
- Out of the data path ×3 weight, this criterion counts 3 times toward the total
- 10 out of 10
- Production access on request ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 1 out of 10
- Audit trail per person ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 2 out of 10
- ksqlDB operations ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 6 out of 10
- Directory and Kafka sign-in
- 3 out of 10
- Many teams, shared clusters
- 2 out of 10
Why these scores for The ksqlDB CLI and REST API
- Out of the data path 10 out of 10
- There is nothing to deploy beyond a client, and it talks to the hosted ksqlDB cluster directly, which is the only option here besides the Confluent Cloud Console that scores 10.
- Production access on request 1 out of 10
- Anyone holding a ksqlDB API key acts with the full KsqlAdmin rights of the account that owns it, with no approval step, no expiring grant and no masking.
- Audit trail per person 2 out of 10
- Confluent’s audit log records the authentication and authorization of the key’s owner, and nothing ties a statement to a person when a key is shared.
- ksqlDB operations 6 out of 10
- It runs every statement ksqlDB accepts, including the
LIST STREAMS EXTENDEDandSPOOLsteps Confluent’s migration guide uses, but nothing watches a query’s state or lag and each cluster is a separate connection. - Directory and Kafka sign-in 3 out of 10
- It authenticates with a ksqlDB API key and secret as basic authentication over HTTPS, with no directory sign-in of its own.
- Many teams, shared clusters 2 out of 10
- One endpoint reaches one ksqlDB cluster, with no notion of which team owns which query.
On Confluent Cloud ksqlDB. Confluent’s guide to managing ksqlDB with the Confluent CLI sends a ksqlDB API key and secret as basic authentication to the cluster’s /ksql REST endpoint over HTTPS, the same credentials the ksqlDB CLI and every UI on this page use. The ksqlDB documentation on queries explains the push, pull and persistent queries that every UI on this page sends through the same API.
Where it falls short. It is a toolkit, not a tool: query state and lag have to be polled, failures noticed and dependencies worked out by hand, and the API key grants all of it to whoever holds it. Its modelled running cost is 8 engineer-hours a month, $11,520 a year at $120 an hour.
Compare ksqlDB on Kafka
Rank 6 Conduktor
conduktor.io
65 out of 110 Total
- Cost a year
- 25 Console seats at $1,200 is $30,000 plus $2,880 operator time, so $32,880; Gateway Core adds $60,000 and Gateway Protect, which carries encryption and masking, a further $30,000 (modelled)
- On Confluent Cloud ksqlDB
- ksqlDB clusters by URL; one ksqldbAccess permission per cluster
- Deployment
- Console on PostgreSQL 13+; data-level controls through Gateway, a proxy
- Out of the data path ×3 weight, this criterion counts 3 times toward the total
- 3 out of 10
- Production access on request ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 6 out of 10
- Audit trail per person ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 8 out of 10
- ksqlDB operations ×2 weight, this criterion counts 2 times toward the total
- 7 out of 10
- Directory and Kafka sign-in
- 7 out of 10
- Many teams, shared clusters
- 7 out of 10
Why these scores for Conduktor
- Out of the data path 3 out of 10
- Console needs PostgreSQL 13 or later, and its encryption, data-level masking and Virtual Clusters only work when client traffic goes through Gateway, a proxy in the data path.
- Production access on request 6 out of 10
- Masking can exempt users or groups, which beats every other tool here on who sees unmasked data, and cross-team access requests are approved by the owning team, but no expiring grant is described and topic creation that passes policy is a direct API call.
- Audit trail per person 8 out of 10
- Console logs produce, consume and admin requests across more than 70 event types with user, IP and timestamp, browsable in the UI and exported as CloudEvents.
- ksqlDB operations 7 out of 10
- Conduktor’s ksqlDB documentation describes streams, tables and running queries with their SQL, read and write query counts, terminate, and an editor for queries and statements, but its RBAC reference has a single ksqlDB permission, ksqldbAccess, that grants everything on a cluster, and Confluent Cloud’s hosted ksqlDB is not named.
- Directory and Kafka sign-in 7 out of 10
- Its SSO configuration covers LDAP and OIDC, with guides for Okta, Entra ID and Keycloak, and does not describe SAML.
- Many teams, shared clusters 7 out of 10
- Permissions are set per user or group across clusters, but a user in several groups inherits the most permissive grant, and Virtual Clusters for multi-tenancy need Gateway.
On Confluent Cloud ksqlDB. Conduktor’s Console lists configured ksqlDB clusters with their version and counts of streams, tables and queries, shows the SQL behind each stream, table and query, terminates them, and runs push or pull queries and statements from an editor through ksqlDB’s /query-stream and /ksql endpoints. The Conduktor review covers the rest.
Where it falls short. Console needs PostgreSQL, and its ksqlDB permission is one switch per cluster, the same all-or-nothing grant as KsqlAdmin. Conduktor’s data-level controls, such as encryption, masking of the data itself and virtual clusters for multi-tenancy, run in Gateway, a Kafka proxy that client applications connect through. On AWS Marketplace, Conduktor Enterprise lists Console at $1,200 a seat for the first 100 seats, Gateway Core, which carries virtual clusters, at $60,000 a year, and Gateway Protect, the add-on for encryption and masking, at a further $30,000.
Compare Conduktor review
What teams using Confluent Cloud ksqlDB need
This page is about tools that sit beside ksqlDB on Confluent Cloud, the hosted stream processing service that Confluent runs next to a Confluent Cloud Kafka cluster, and it ranks them for the team that writes, runs and looks after the queries. Confluent’s ksqlDB documentation names Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink as the recommended engine for new stream processing workloads and says ksqlDB remains fully supported for existing applications, so this page is for teams with ksqlDB applications already running. What ksqlDB is and how it works is covered in ksqlDB on Kafka, the rest of Confluent Cloud is scored in the best Kafka UI tools for Confluent Cloud, self-managed ksqlDB in the best Kafka tools for self-managed ksqlDB, and Confluent Platform as a whole in the best Kafka management tools for Confluent Platform. Lenses and Redpanda Console are left off this page because neither lists ksqlDB support.
A ksqlDB statement is not a query in the database sense once it is persistent. The ksqlDB architecture documentation states that the engine parses SQL statements and builds Kafka Streams topologies from them, and Kpow’s ksqlDB documentation notes that every persistent query is powered by a Kafka consumer group. Kafka Streams uses its application ID as the consumer group, so every CREATE STREAM AS SELECT becomes a standing consumer group on the Kafka cluster. Confluent’s monitoring guide for hosted ksqlDB names that group’s lag as an indicator to watch, says to check query saturation when the lag is growing, and gives a cluster with more CSUs as one remedy. A tool that shows a query without its group, or a group without the query behind it, leaves the engineer to join the two by hand.
Out of the data path. Confluent runs the ksqlDB servers and the brokers they read and write, so the hosted queries themselves never pass through anything the customer deploys. What does sit on the customer’s side is every application that writes a ksqlDB source topic or reads a sink topic, and the tool’s own connections. A tool whose data-level controls work only when client traffic passes through a proxy therefore sits in front of those applications, and a tool that needs a database of its own is one more stateful service to run beside a managed one. A management tool needs nothing more than a Kafka client connection and HTTPS to the ksqlDB endpoint on port 443. Kpow is one container with no external database, installed in your own environment and out of the data path. Conduktor Console also connects directly, with a PostgreSQL database of its own; Conduktor’s data-level controls, such as encryption, masking of the data itself and virtual clusters, run in Conduktor Gateway, a Kafka proxy that client applications connect through.
Production access on request. Confluent Cloud grants ksqlDB access through one role. Confluent’s role-based access documentation for ksqlDB states that a principal with the KsqlAdmin role on a ksqlDB cluster has full access to all of its resources, streams and persistent queries included, and can list and terminate the cluster. There is no ksqlDB role that can read a table but not drop it, which falls short of the least privilege an access review asks for. Row data has a second exposure: the ksqlDB processing log documentation states that on Confluent Cloud ksql.logging.processing.rows.include is true, so when a query fails on a record, the row data is written to the processing log by default. Confluent’s documentation sets the “Hide row data in processing log” option when a cluster is created, and user-defined functions are not supported on Confluent Cloud, so a hashing or masking UDF is not available on the hosted service either. What a tool adds is per person: who may only run pull and push queries, who may create or drop a stream, who may insert rows, who may terminate a query, masking of sensitive fields in the results, and access that expires after the task. Those controls are compared across the field in Kafka RBAC tools.
Audit trail per person. Two facts about Confluent Cloud ksqlDB decide where the record has to come from. Confluent’s ksqlDB quick start says a ksqlDB cluster operates under the user account or principal chosen when it is created and uses it to reach Kafka, and recommends a service account for that purpose, so the persistent query an engineer starts runs as that account, not as the engineer. And Confluent’s audit log reference for ksqlDB clusters lists two event methods, ksql.Authenticate and ksql.Authorize, so the log shows that a principal was let into the cluster, not which statement it ran. When several engineers work through one tool with one ksqlDB API key, even that principal is the tool’s. The name of the person who typed TERMINATE or DROP STREAM therefore has to come from the tool. The options are compared in Kafka audit logging tools.
ksqlDB operations. Hosted ksqlDB has limits that shape day-to-day work. Confluent’s documentation lists up to 40 persistent queries per ksqlDB cluster and 15 ksqlDB clusters per environment, 100 push queries, a 1 GB cache shared by all of a cluster’s queries, and a CSU count fixed at provisioning, so moving to a bigger cluster means a migration. Its migration guide recreates streams, tables and types in dependency order and notes that Confluent never upgrades a ksqlDB application to a backward-incompatible release automatically, and ksqlDB will not drop a source while queries still read or write it. Both make the dependency graph the thing an engineer most needs to see: which persistent queries read a stream, which write to it, and what terminating one would stop. Push queries need care of their own, because the ksqlDB documentation on queries describes them as subscriptions that keep sending changes, where a pull query returns the current state and ends; an engineer who wants one answer from a topic is often better served by a bounded search of the topic than by a push query left open.
Directory and Kafka sign-in. A ksqlDB tool on Confluent Cloud holds two credentials: a Kafka API key, OAuth identity or certificate for the Kafka cluster, and a ksqlDB API key for the ksqlDB endpoint, since Confluent scopes keys to one resource. People then sign in through the company directory over SAML, OpenID Connect or LDAP, so a statement is tied to a named person rather than to the key.
Many teams, shared clusters. A ksqlDB cluster on Confluent Cloud is shared by everyone holding KsqlAdmin on it, and with a ceiling of 40 persistent queries per cluster and a smallest size of 4 CSUs, giving each team its own ksqlDB cluster costs capacity as well as money. Each team needs its own view of its own streams, tables and queries on the shared cluster, and permission to touch only those.
No tool here leads on every point: the Confluent Cloud Console has nothing to deploy and the deepest native view of the hosted service, including provisioning and CSU metrics, and Conduktor’s ksqlDB screens are close to Kpow’s. Kpow governs people working through Kpow, so anyone holding a KsqlAdmin role binding or a ksqlDB API key can still reach the cluster directly, and keeping those few is a job for Confluent’s own role bindings.
Over the years, we've sort of reflexively gone for SQL again and again. And I'm not entirely sure that's the right approach for streaming. … I think it's a very leaky abstraction.
Derek Troy-West, Co-founder and CEO of Factor House
Who runs ksqlDB in Kpow
No team has described running Kpow against Confluent Cloud’s hosted ksqlDB in public, so this section reports the nearest public evidence and says where it comes from. NORD/LB’s case study describes ksqlDB development moved into Kpow on Confluent Platform, the self-managed distribution, where ksqlDB speaks the same REST API that Kpow uses on Confluent Cloud. TD Bank runs Kpow across on-premises clusters and Confluent Cloud, as the Confluent Cloud page sets out; this page makes no claim about ksqlDB use there. Kpow’s hosted ksqlDB support itself is documented on the ksqlDB configuration page.
Which customer shows which criterion
- Production access on request
- NORD/LB
- ksqlDB operations
- NORD/LB
-
NORD/LB
- ksqlDB operations
- Production access on request
- ksqlDB development
- Confluent Platform
- Scoped production access
The German regional bank runs Confluent Platform on Confluent’s Kubernetes operator rather than Confluent Cloud, and works with ksqlDB for stream processing. Its case study records that it hit a 3,000-line query limit in its earlier interface; in Erik Schumann’s words, “Kpow doesn’t have this limitation, so we just switched the complete development of KSQL DB queries to Kpow.” People sign in to Kpow and then act through technical users with scoped permissions, which the bank describes as the way it narrows what people can see in production.
Source: NORD/LB case study
How a team runs Kpow with Confluent Cloud ksqlDB
Installing it in your own network. Kpow runs as one Docker container, a Java JAR or from the Helm charts, with no external database, because its snapshots, metrics and audit log live in topics on the Kafka cluster. Confluent’s documentation lists private networking with PrivateLink Attachment for hosted ksqlDB, and a tool that runs in the VPC or VNet that holds those private endpoints reaches ksqlDB the way the applications do, as AWS PrivateLink describes for private subnets with no internet gateway. Where outbound HTTP must go through a corporate proxy, the environment variables reference sends Kpow’s calls to Schema Registry, Kafka Connect and ksqlDB through it with the standard proxy settings.
Creating the key. Kpow’s ksqlDB configuration creates a ksqlDB-scoped API key with confluent api-key create --resource $KSQLDB_ID. Confluent’s documentation says permissions belong to the account that owns a key, so the key for a shared tool should belong to a service account with KsqlAdmin on that ksqlDB cluster, plus the ResourceOwner role that Confluent’s documentation asks for where the ksqlDB cluster uses Schema Registry.
Connecting the ksqlDB cluster. The endpoint from the Confluent Cloud Console goes into KSQLDB_HOST with KSQLDB_PORT=443, the key and secret into KSQLDB_BASIC_AUTH_USER and KSQLDB_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD, and KSQLDB_USE_TLS and KSQLDB_USE_ALPN are set to true. Several ksqlDB clusters for one Kafka cluster are listed with KSQLDB_RESOURCE_IDS in upper case, and KSQLDB_SCHEMA_REGISTRY ties a ksqlDB cluster to the Confluent Cloud Schema Registry connection, so schemas appear inline in the ksqlDB view. With KSQLDB_STARTUP_VALIDATION=false, Kpow starts even when the ksqlDB endpoint cannot be reached, shows an error for it in the UI and keeps trying to reconnect. The Kafka cluster itself connects with an API key, an OAuth identity pool or mTLS, as the Confluent Cloud cluster documentation sets out.
Following a query to its consumer group. For each persistent query, the ksqlDB management view shows its SQL and links to its sink topic, to data inspect on that topic, and to the consumer group that runs it, where consumer group lag shows whether the query is keeping up. For each stream or table, Describe Source lists its fields, its CREATE statement, its key and value schemas, and the persistent queries that read from it and write to it, which is the order a migration has to follow and the list of queries to terminate before a DROP.
Running SQL and inserting rows. The SQL editor runs pull queries and DDL and DML statements with autocompletion and history, and loads SQL from a file. KSQLDB_QUERY_MAX_ROWS caps a pull query at 100 rows by default and KSQLDB_TIMEOUT_MS at 30 seconds. Rows can be typed in or imported from CSV, JSON or EDN files, with the expected schema shown beside the form.
Deciding who may do what. Kpow’s authorization actions split ksqlDB into KSQLDB_QUERY for push and pull queries, KSQLDB_EXECUTE for statements such as CREATE TABLE, KSQLDB_INSERT for inserting rows and KSQLDB_TERMINATE_QUERY, and RBAC applies them to named ksqlDB clusters, so an analyst can query a table without being able to drop it, the split that KsqlAdmin does not make. Tenants extend to ksqlDB, so each team sees only the ksqlDB resources allocated to it, query results pass through data policies that mask sensitive fields, and a temporary policy grants extra access for a set time and then expires.
Signing people in and keeping the record. Engineers sign in through SAML, OpenID Connect or LDAP, and the audit log records every ksqlDB action, from a SELECT to a CREATE TABLE or a TERMINATE, with the person from the directory. A webhook sends those records to Slack, Microsoft Teams or any HTTP endpoint, such as a SIEM collector, which is the per-person statement record that Confluent’s audit log does not keep for ksqlDB.
Kpow live demo
See the Kpow UI before you connect your ksqlDB cluster
The live Kpow demo runs on two Apache Kafka clusters on Amazon MSK. It shows brokers, topics, consumer groups, schema registries and the __oprtr_audit_log topic where Kpow keeps its audit trail, with no signup. It does not include ksqlDB, so connecting your Confluent Cloud ksqlDB cluster to Kpow Enterprise is the step to try next.
For teams choosing a tool for Confluent Cloud ksqlDB.
Try the Kpow demoFAQ
What is the best tool for Confluent Cloud ksqlDB?
On this page’s rubric, Kpow, with 99 of 110 points: it connects to the hosted ksqlDB cluster with a ksqlDB API key over TLS, splits querying, executing, inserting and terminating per person, records every statement with the person who ran it, links each query to its consumer group and sink topic, and runs as one container with no external database. The Confluent Cloud Console is next with the deepest native view, and Kafbat UI is the highest-scoring open-source option.
Does Kpow work with Confluent Cloud ksqlDB?
Yes, in Kpow Enterprise. Its ksqlDB configuration connects to Confluent Cloud’s hosted ksqlDB with a ksqlDB-scoped API key as basic authentication, on port 443 with TLS and ALPN, and supports several ksqlDB clusters per Kafka cluster.
Can an engineer have read-only access to ksqlDB on Confluent Cloud?
Not through Confluent’s own roles. Confluent’s predefined roles include one ksqlDB role, KsqlAdmin, with full access to the cluster’s streams, tables and persistent queries. A tool with its own permissions can narrow that: in Kpow, granting KSQLDB_QUERY without KSQLDB_EXECUTE, KSQLDB_INSERT or KSQLDB_TERMINATE_QUERY lets a person run queries and nothing else.
Why does a ksqlDB query appear as a consumer group?
ksqlDB builds a Kafka Streams topology for each persistent query, as the ksqlDB architecture documentation describes, and Kafka Streams uses its application ID as the consumer group ID. The group’s lag is how a query that is falling behind shows up, and Confluent’s monitoring guide pairs it with query saturation, with a larger CSU size as one remedy.
Does Confluent Cloud ksqlDB write row data to its logs?
By default, yes. The ksqlDB processing log documentation states that on Confluent Cloud ksql.logging.processing.rows.include is true, so a failing record’s row data goes into the processing log. Confluent’s documentation sets “Hide row data in processing log” when a ksqlDB cluster is created, from the Console or with the CLI’s --log-exclude-rows flag.
Is there a free tool for Confluent Cloud ksqlDB?
The Confluent Cloud Console comes with the service. Kafbat UI and AKHQ are open source and both connect to ksqlDB, AKHQ to Confluent Cloud only with flags its documentation does not list. Kpow Community Edition is free on up to 3 clusters and 10 users but does not include ksqlDB, which needs Kpow Enterprise. More free options are compared in the best free Kafka UI tools.
How these tools were scored
Five of the six criteria are the ones Factor House scores on every page for teams that share a Kafka cluster; the sixth is ksqlDB operations. They are listed here in order of weight. Each criterion is scored 0 to 10: 10 where a tool is the only one here doing it or clearly the best, 8 for a clean documented pass, 5 or 6 for partial support or support that needs work the reader must verify, 1 to 4 for a weak or indirect form, and 0 where it is absent. The weights add up to 11, so totals are out of 110.
1. Out of the data path (counts three times). The tool should run in your own environment, reach Kafka as an ordinary client and ksqlDB through its REST API, and keep no data outside your own cluster. Scored lower: tools that need an external database of their own, and tools whose controls work only when application traffic passes through a vendor’s proxy. A self-hosted container with no external database and no proxy scores 9, a tool with a database of its own 6, one with several databases or an agent per cluster 4, and one that needs both a database and a proxy for its controls 3; 10 is kept for options with nothing to deploy at all, which here are the Confluent Cloud Console and the ksqlDB CLI and REST API. This criterion is scored the same way on every Factor House page that uses it, and only its weight changes with the reader.
2. Production access on request (counts twice). Whether an engineer can be granted access to production for one task and have it expire, whether a destructive change can be held for a second person’s approval, and whether sensitive fields can be masked from people who do not need them.
3. Audit trail per person (counts twice). Whether the tool records each action, ksqlDB statements and reads included, against the person from the identity provider, and whether that record can be read in the product and sent to the systems that keep it long term.
4. ksqlDB operations (counts twice). Whether the tool connects to Confluent Cloud’s hosted ksqlDB as documented, runs queries and statements, inserts rows, terminates queries, splits those actions per person, links a persistent query to its consumer group, sink topic and schema, and shows the queries that read and write each source. The Confluent Cloud Console scores 10 as Confluent’s own interface with provisioning and metrics; a tool whose documentation does not name Confluent Cloud ksqlDB, or names it only in an issue thread, scores 5.
5. Directory and Kafka sign-in (counts once). Whether people sign in through SAML, OpenID Connect or LDAP, and whether the tool connects to Kafka with the same settings as any client and to ksqlDB with a ksqlDB API key over TLS.
6. Many teams, shared clusters (counts once). Whether each team can be given its own view of its own topics, consumer groups and ksqlDB resources on a shared cluster, and whether one deployment reaches several clusters.
Costs are modelled for one production Confluent Cloud cluster with its ksqlDB cluster and 25 engineers at $120 per engineer hour, using the same hours per tool class as Factor House’s other comparison pages. Confluent bills the ksqlDB cluster itself in CSUs per hour whichever tool is used, so that cost is left out. Tools with a licence carry the published price plus 2 hours a month to run. The open-source UIs carry 6 hours a month, $8,640 a year, to run, secure and keep current, and scripts against the ksqlDB REST API carry 8 hours a month, $11,520. The Confluent Cloud Console has no licence and nothing to run. Kpow’s $7,380 uses the published price of $4,500 per cluster with 100 users included. Conduktor’s Console is $1,200 a seat on AWS Marketplace, and its Gateway Core and Gateway Protect prices are added for the data-level controls; Conduktor prices Gateway per cluster with a 3-cluster minimum, and the listing does not say how many clusters that figure covers. Kpow Community Edition is free for 3 clusters and 10 users but does not include ksqlDB, so a 25-engineer team using ksqlDB is on Enterprise. For free options compared at any team size, see the best free Kafka UI tools.
The criteria map onto Confluent Cloud ksqlDB’s design in the figure below.
Every option is scored from 0 to 10 on each criterion, from the evidence and sources this page cites, and the reason for each score is on its card. The criteria are weighted: Out of the data path counts three times, Production access on request counts twice, Audit trail per person counts twice, ksqlDB operations counts twice, Directory and Kafka sign-in counts once and Many teams, shared clusters counts once, for a total out of 110. Out of the data path counts three times. Confluent's hosted ksqlDB reads and writes Confluent's brokers inside Confluent, so no customer-run proxy can sit between them, but the applications that write ksqlDB's source topics and read its sink topics are the customer's own clients, and a tool whose data-level controls work only through a proxy puts that proxy in front of all of them, while a tool that needs a database of its own is one more service to run beside a managed one. Production access on request, the per-person audit trail and ksqlDB operations count twice: Confluent grants ksqlDB access as one role per cluster and runs every persistent query under the cluster's own account, so who may run, insert or terminate, and who did, has to come from the tool, and a tool that cannot follow a query to its consumer group and its sources leaves the team in the Confluent Cloud Console. Directory and Kafka sign-in, and shared clusters, count once. This page is published by Factor House, which makes Kpow. Every option is scored on the same rubric and the same sources: Kpow's per-criterion scores are set the same way as every other option's and are not adjusted, and the weights apply to every option alike. Kpow ranks first on its total of 99 out of 110. The other options follow by total. Conduktor is listed last whatever its total; on its total of 65 it would place fourth.