--- title: Confluent Reviews meta\_title: 'Confluent Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta\_description: Filter 114 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Confluent works for a business like yours. aggregate\_rating: rating\_value: 4.4 review\_count: 114 scale: '5' date\_modified: '2026-08-09' parent\_category: name: Big Data url: https://www.g2.com/categories/big-data --- ### Confluent Pros and Cons: Top 5 Advantages and Disadvantages #### Quick AI Summary Based on G2 Reviews Generated from real user reviews Users appreciate the **simplicity and scalability** of Confluent's cloud services, enhancing their experience with Kafka and Flink. [(1 mentions)](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311123&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) Users appreciate the **effortless real-time data integration** through Confluent's managed cloud services, enhancing their workflow significantly. [(1 mentions)](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311173&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) Users appreciate the **wide range of connectors** in Confluent, simplifying real-time data integration and enhancing productivity. [(1 mentions)](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311192&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) Users appreciate the **simplified real-time data integration** with Confluent, benefiting from its managed cloud services and wide connectors. [(1 mentions)](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311202&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) Users appreciate the **ease of use** of Confluent, making data integration and stream processing effortless and efficient. [(1 mentions)](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311276&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) Users note that the **cost estimation can be high** as data volume increases, requiring time to learn the system. [(1 mentions)](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311235&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) Users find Confluent to be **expensive** as costs rise with data volume and features are limited in lower editions. [(1 mentions)](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311185&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) Users face a **steep learning curve** with Confluent, alongside rising costs as data volume increases. [(1 mentions)](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311242&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) Users find a **lack of features** in Confluent, especially with essential tools restricted to the Enterprise edition. [(1 mentions)](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311077&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) Users find the **steep learning curve** challenging, requiring significant time to grasp Confluent's workflow and features. [(1 mentions)](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311263&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) ### 5 Pros or Advantages of Confluent ##### 1. Cloud Computing Users appreciate the **simplicity and scalability** of Confluent's cloud services, enhancing their experience with Kafka and Flink. [ See 1 mentions ](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311123&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) See Related User Reviews ![Verified User](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User") A Verified User Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 4.5/5 "Confluent: Go to platform for Real-Time Data Streaming" What do you like about Confluent? I really liked how Confluent simplified working with Kafka and Flink through managed cloud services like Azure. The simple UI and wide range of connec ##### 2. Cloud Services Users appreciate the **effortless real-time data integration** through Confluent's managed cloud services, enhancing their workflow significantly. [ See 1 mentions ](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311173&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) See Related User Reviews ![Verified User](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User") A Verified User Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 4.5/5 "Confluent: Go to platform for Real-Time Data Streaming" What do you like about Confluent? I really liked how Confluent simplified working with Kafka and Flink through managed cloud services like Azure. The simple UI and wide range of connec ##### 3. Connectors Users appreciate the **wide range of connectors** in Confluent, simplifying real-time data integration and enhancing productivity. [ See 1 mentions ](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311192&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) See Related User Reviews ![Verified User](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User") A Verified User Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 4.5/5 "Confluent: Go to platform for Real-Time Data Streaming" What do you like about Confluent? I really liked how Confluent simplified working with Kafka and Flink through managed cloud services like Azure. The simple UI and wide range of connec ##### 4. Data Integration Users appreciate the **simplified real-time data integration** with Confluent, benefiting from its managed cloud services and wide connectors. [ See 1 mentions ](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311202&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) See Related User Reviews ![Verified User](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User") A Verified User Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 4.5/5 "Confluent: Go to platform for Real-Time Data Streaming" What do you like about Confluent? I really liked how Confluent simplified working with Kafka and Flink through managed cloud services like Azure. The simple UI and wide range of connec ##### 5. Ease of Use Users appreciate the **ease of use** of Confluent, making data integration and stream processing effortless and efficient. [ See 1 mentions ](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311276&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) See Related User Reviews ![Verified User](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User") A Verified User Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 4.5/5 "Confluent: Go to platform for Real-Time Data Streaming" What do you like about Confluent? I really liked how Confluent simplified working with Kafka and Flink through managed cloud services like Azure. The simple UI and wide range of connec ### 5 Cons or Disadvantages of Confluent ##### 1. Cost Estimation Users note that the **cost estimation can be high** as data volume increases, requiring time to learn the system. [ See 1 mentions ](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311235&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) See Related User Reviews ![Verified User](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User") A Verified User Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 4.5/5 "Confluent: Go to platform for Real-Time Data Streaming" What do you dislike about Confluent? The pricing will shoot up as your data volume grows up. Some features are only available in Enterprise edition. Also one must spend lot of time to und ##### 2. Expensive Users find Confluent to be **expensive** as costs rise with data volume and features are limited in lower editions. [ See 1 mentions ](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311185&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) See Related User Reviews ![Verified User](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User") A Verified User Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 4.5/5 "Confluent: Go to platform for Real-Time Data Streaming" What do you dislike about Confluent? The pricing will shoot up as your data volume grows up. Some features are only available in Enterprise edition. Also one must spend lot of time to und ##### 3. Initial Difficulties Users face a **steep learning curve** with Confluent, alongside rising costs as data volume increases. [ See 1 mentions ](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311242&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) See Related User Reviews ![Verified User](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User") A Verified User Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 4.5/5 "Confluent: Go to platform for Real-Time Data Streaming" What do you dislike about Confluent? The pricing will shoot up as your data volume grows up. Some features are only available in Enterprise edition. Also one must spend lot of time to und ##### 4. Lack of Features Users find a **lack of features** in Confluent, especially with essential tools restricted to the Enterprise edition. [ See 1 mentions ](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311077&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) See Related User Reviews ![Verified User](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User") A Verified User Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 4.5/5 "Confluent: Go to platform for Real-Time Data Streaming" What do you dislike about Confluent? The pricing will shoot up as your data volume grows up. Some features are only available in Enterprise edition. Also one must spend lot of time to und ##### 5. Learning Curve Users find the **steep learning curve** challenging, requiring significant time to grasp Confluent's workflow and features. [ See 1 mentions ](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/reviews?filters%5Bsentiment_snippet%5D=2311263&qs=pros-and-cons#reviews) See Related User Reviews ![Verified User](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User") A Verified User Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 4.5/5 "Confluent: Go to platform for Real-Time Data Streaming" What do you dislike about Confluent? The pricing will shoot up as your data volume grows up. Some features are only available in Enterprise edition. Also one must spend lot of time to und ## Top-Rated Alternatives [ ![Cloudera](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/hd_favicon/dcfb9e6879febb34cef773ddde921835/cloudera.svg "Cloudera") Cloudera 4.1/5(136) ](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudera/reviews) [ ![Lenses](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/hd_favicon/00711a899e586e752321ee33312a1509/lenses.svg "Lenses") Lenses 4.2/5(17) ](https://www.g2.com/products/lenses/reviews) [ ![Apache Kafka](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/large_detail/large_detail_809aa88d3571ee805a47d8fb156ba412/apache-kafka.jpg "Apache Kafka") Apache Kafka 4.5/5(132) ](https://www.g2.com/products/apache-kafka/reviews) [ View All Alternatives ](https://www.g2.com/products/confluent/competitors/alternatives) ![Zack R.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Zack R.") ZR Zack R. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 5/11/2023 "Kafka made easy" 5/5 What do you like best about Confluent? Confluent provides as much or as little assistance as needed to get you up and running with Kafka without the complexity and operational burden of running it yourself. We prototype using local dockerized Kafka services and flip over to the managed equivalents in our live environments. Even on a lower tier plan we see excellent uptime and have had no significant disruptions. When we have had questions Confluent has been able to answer them and provide suggestions both within their offerings and outside of them. Deployed and configured through Terraform to make infrastructure setup consistent. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Confluent? If you are looking specifically for managed Kafka there is really no downside I see to using Confluent. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Confluent solving and how is that benefiting you? Kafka serves as the event-stream backbone of our data applications. Confluent provides managed Kafka services that keep our platform running without the distraction of managing Kafka directly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite on behalf of seller ![Somashekhar K.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Somashekhar K.") SK Somashekhar K. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 11/8/2023 "Confluent makes running kafka clusters easy at scale" 5/5 What do you like best about Confluent? Confluent makes running Kafka clusters very easy all the things are taken care of as per demand (number of brokers to run, etc.) ops team does not need to worry about the broker going down as it is automatically taken care of by confluent itself and traffic is routed accordingly Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Confluent? The pricing model it a little confusing and configuring connectors is little bit of pain Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Confluent solving and how is that benefiting you? No need to self manage Kafka clusters once cluster is setup most of the things (availability, reliability) are taken care by confluent Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerSource: Organic ![Mohsin R.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Mohsin R.") MR Mohsin R. Software Engineer Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 10/16/2023 "Confluent is one of the best platforms for secure data streaming" 3.5/5 What do you like best about Confluent? Confluent provides a great deal of comfort and convenience to software developers looking to build secure and sustainable applications, I really liked the distributed systems including Kafka and KSQL DB which not only saved quality time but also made me a better developer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Confluent? I think somewhat the documentation was a bit less detailed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Confluent solving and how is that benefiting you? By creating a centralised system in Apache Kafka, message and big data streaming can become very easy. It allows developers to utilise quality time more on the business logic rather than staying concerned about data security and privacy. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerSource: Organic RP Rohit P. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 11/30/2023 "Heads on woth native Kafka" 2/5 What do you like best about Confluent? We don't need to worry about zookeeper Easy to setup and do configurations very fast Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Confluent? Docker compose file is not that much feasible, broker is not starting in one go need to restart again and again. That's the main reason we switched to Native Kafka Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Confluent solving and how is that benefiting you? Easy to setup on my server, changing configuration is also not challenging like in native. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite MM Mithun M. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 3/9/2023 "Best managed kafka service for any scale" 5/5 What do you like best about Confluent? - Confluent cloud-managed Kafka service is the best in the industry. We have been using their managed Kafka service for more than 4 years now - It abstracts the complexity of managing the Kafka clusters and helps us focus on building business applications rather than managing the infrastructure. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Confluent? There are no downsides I can think of. If you are an enterprise customer and need a reliable Kafka infrastructure without the overhead of maintaining one yourself, confluent cloud is the go to solution. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Confluent solving and how is that benefiting you? - Confluent kafka enables us to build real-time data applications without need of maintaining the kafka cluster ourselves. - This is a huge time saver for application teams as they can focus on building their application than maintaining the cluster itself. - Since it is managed service, it can be scaled up or scaled down easily - It is able to handles millions of messages per minute without any performance issues Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite RK Rishabh K. Business Analyst Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 11/17/2023 "Good Data streaming architecture" 4/5 What do you like best about Confluent? 1. Complete stack of data steaming architecture biggest upside 2. On the spot security matrix capable enough to carry 50million + counts 3. AI enhanced enterprise security Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Confluent? 1. Lots of issues with data governance. 2. Mircoservices integration are still lathargic Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Confluent solving and how is that benefiting you? Users threads matrix control and it is helping us make sure our analysis is accurate and according to business kpis Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Verified User in Education Management](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Education Management") UE Verified User in Education Management Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 8/8/2023 "It's a great tool" 4.5/5 What do you like best about Confluent? I like the speed of the queues and record, everything went well with the connectors and KSQL. KSQL seems like a very helpfull tool to handle the streams and makes more easier review the topics. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Confluent? I didn't like the fact that I'm not able to see which record was successfully sent to a destination, when it fails I'm able to see the details in the DLQ topic but when it's successful I'm not able to see it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Confluent solving and how is that benefiting you? Confluent is the current solution for a huge migration of data, we're changing our source of truth, and confluent helps us with the migration, and the powerfull KSQL performs as ETL Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite on behalf of seller ![Amit B.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Amit B.") AB Amit B. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 11/29/2023 "Easy Kafka platform Integration and better total cost of ownership" 3.5/5 What do you like best about Confluent? Highly scalable and easy to integrate with current architecture. Provides a lot of features on top of apache kafka. Easy to roll out implementations across environments and provides good customer support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Confluent? Ease of migration from current kafka ecosystem to confluent can be made better over time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Confluent solving and how is that benefiting you? Event streaming and microservice communication. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite on behalf of seller ![Verified User in Computer Software](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Computer Software") AC Verified User in Computer Software Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 5/11/2023 "Not cheap, but good service, support and UI" 5/5 What do you like best about Confluent? The service has been stable and reliable thus far, and communication with sales and support teams has been good. Overall good documentation - a few things here and there have not been up to date or detailed, but in most cases it's clear and sufficient. The UI is easy to use and provides helpful information regarding application performance. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Confluent? We have run into the issue of some configuration options which would have been useful for us not being available in managed connectors. However, I must note that their sales and support teams have been helpful in communicating regarding this issue and proactive in suggesting alternatives and in opening feature requests. We have also had initial struggles setting up connectivity with our existing infrastructure in AWS. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Confluent solving and how is that benefiting you? We have used Confluent Cloud thus far to replace an existing Elasticsearch indexing flow using commands by an event-driven approach using Kafka, which is more robust and performant. We are now moving on to other applications, also involving event stream processing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite on behalf of seller RB Rian B. Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 3/16/2023 "Many Built-in Tools and Detailed Documentation and Learning Opportunities" 4.5/5 What do you like best about Confluent? Confluent provides many standard solutions to accelerate the time to market and development of proofs of concepts. These tools include connectors to commonly used software and easy-to-understand documentation on developing commonly used data streams using KSQL. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Confluent? I wouldn't say I liked Confluent's approach to partner enablement learning. I had a previous Confluent training account that couldn't be used for partner enablement learning since my company is a Confluent partner. The workaround is logging into the partner portal and then going to the training account; if you try to go to the training account, it won't recognize the partner credentials. A minor annoyance that doesn't severely inhibit learning Confluent. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Confluent solving and how is that benefiting you? Streaming data for real-time insight into the client's traditionally static, batch-based architecture. Confluent allows for creating a central nervous system of data for the entire enterprise, eliminating isolated data silhos. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. 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