# Aiven for Apache Kafka Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra > With the help of Capterra, learn about Aiven for Apache Kafka Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other Database products and more. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/167938/Parachute-Health/reviews --- # Aiven for Apache Kafka Software Review 2026: Features, Reviews, Integrations, Pros & Cons Last updated on March 13, 2026 Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Integrations](#integrations)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews) Aiven for Apache Kafka ## What is Aiven for Apache Kafka? Aiven for Apache Kafka is a scalable, fully-managed event streaming system across all major clouds. Aiven was the first to launch a managed service for Apache Kafka in 2017 and now ensures zero downtime of operations and the industry’s best SLA of 99.99%. With Aiven for Apache Kafka, you can seamlessly integrate your Apache Kafka services with other external and internal sources and sinks. Aiven offers an all-inclusive pricing (incl. networking and traffic costs) for predictable TCO. ## What is Aiven for Apache Kafka used for? [Database](https://www.capterra.com/database-management-software/) Overall rating Based on 69 user reviews Reviews sentiment Positive 99% Neutral 1% Negative 0% Starting price $200 Flat Rate, Per Month Free trial available Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Do you work for Aiven for Apache Kafka?[Manage this product listing](https://digitalmarkets.gartner.com/get-listed/claim-bx?url=https://aiven.io&name=Aiven for Apache Kafka) ## Compare with a popular alternative Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status. ### Aiven for Apache Kafka 4.6 (69) VS. [4.6 (2,222)](https://www.capterra.com/p/146652/Airtable/reviews/) Starting Price $200 Flat Rate, Per Month Starting Price $20 Per User, Per Month Free Trial Free Version Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version Ease Of Use 4.4 (69) Ease Of Use 4.4 (1,974) Value For Money 4.1 (52) Value For Money 4.5 (1,505) Customer Service 4.5 (47) Customer Service 4.4 (1,431) ## Aiven for Apache Kafka alternatives [Microsoft SQL Server](https://www.capterra.com/p/1417/SQL-Server/) [4.6 (1,974)](https://www.capterra.com/p/1417/SQL-Server/reviews/) Starting price $13748.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 97% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/1417/SQL-Server/) [MySQL](https://www.capterra.com/p/11482/MySQL/) [4.6 (2,094)](https://www.capterra.com/p/11482/MySQL/reviews/) Starting price $2000.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 96% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/11482/MySQL/) Highest Rated [Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/) [4.7 (2,259)](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/reviews/) Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 96% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/) [MongoDB](https://www.capterra.com/p/127374/MongoDB/) [4.7 (468)](https://www.capterra.com/p/127374/MongoDB/reviews/) Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 99% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/127374/MongoDB/) [View all alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/167938/Aiven-Kafka/alternatives/) ## Features Features with the highest number of reviews are displayed first. Those that have no reviews appear next, sorted alphabetically. Access Controls/Permissions 5.0 (1) 100.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems Data Connectors 5.0 (1) 100.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Connect to big data sources Data Storage Management 5.0 (1) 100.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Manage and store data in a database SSL Security 5.0 (1) 0.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Security protocol that ensures secure, encrypted communication over the internet, safeguarding sensitive data from unauthorized access API Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases Data Migration Move from one database to another, or upgrade the version of database software being used Aiven for Apache Kafka 9 features Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases Connect to big data sources Move from one database to another, or upgrade the version of database software being used Process of copying and storing data in more than one site or node Manage and store data in a database Receive data and information in real time Security protocol that ensures secure, encrypted communication over the internet, safeguarding sensitive data from unauthorized access Set up connections to third-party platforms to improve business processes Get Advice We can help you find the software with the features you need. Features 4.1 (69) 4.1 Based on 69 reviews ## Pricing Value for money 4.1 (52) Free Trial [View pricing plan details](https://www.capterra.com/p/167938/Aiven-Kafka/pricing/) Startup $200.00 Flat Rate,Per Month It includes: - Data Encryption - High Availability - Performance Graph - Schema Registry - Switch Between Plans - VPC Peering in AWS Business $500.00 Flat Rate,Per Month It includes: - Data Encryption - High Availability - Kafka Connect - Performance Graph - Schema Registry - Switch Between Plans - VPC Peering in AWS Premium $1,900 Flat Rate,Per Month It includes: - Data Encryption - High Availability - Kafka Connect - Own Cloud Account Integration - Performance Graph - Schema Registry - Switch Between Plans - VPC Peering in AWS Value for money 4.1 (52) 4.1 Based on 52 reviews ## Integrations [ Datadog](https://www.capterra.com/p/135453/Datadog-Cloud-Monitoring/)[ Aiven for PostgreSQL](https://www.capterra.com/p/168136/PostgreSQL/)[ Terraform](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/)[ Prometheus](https://www.capterra.com/p/209529/Prometheus/) Connect with a Capterra advisor for a free 15-minute consultation Get a personalized software list aligned to your business needs with guidance from our expert advisors. Our team has helped 1 million+ businesses like yours find options that fit their needs. ## Support, customer service and training options Customer Service 4.5 (47) Support - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - 24/7 (Live rep) - Chat Training - In Person - Live Online - Webinars - Documentation - Videos Deployment - Web - Android - iPhone/iPad Typical users - Freelancers - Small businesses - Mid size businesses - Enterprises Customer Service 4.5 (47) 4.5 Based on 47 reviews ## User reviews Overall rating 4.6 Based on 69 reviews Filter by rating 5(41) 4(27) 3(1) 2(0) 1(0) Mentioned topic Sorted by most recent AM Ayman Moukhtar Attia A. Senior Backend Engineer Computer Software ### "Simple, efficient" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 December 5, 2022 Pros Ease of use, visibility of broker info and subscribers, ease of publishing topics, general usability Cons I wish it decoded and encoded binary messages automatically, or have a way to convert it to JSON while publishing or receiving, it would increase the usability Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. JK Juhani K. CIO Information Technology and Services ### "Time saving solution" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 9/10 November 23, 2022 Rock solid, great value for money. We will never go back to self-hosted Kafka :) Pros Great documentation, very comprehensive integrations. Cons The built in log feature is very basic, although it can integrate with more complete products. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AU Anonymous User ACCOUNTANT Computer Games ### "master of stremaing data" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 August 23, 2021 Its very good Pros As first time using kafka its very easy, useful and not complicated Cons In general kafka is stable ,and his simple interface makes me comfort to work on it Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. JS Jose S. Lead data engineer Financial Services ### "Its Kafka" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 9/10 September 21, 2020 Pros It has a nice UI, though in the end of the day it is Kafka Cons Connection from a different AWS AZ is not trivial Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. RD Rony D. Software Developer Financial Services ### "Basic Kafka" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 3.0 3.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 6/10 August 18, 2020 Pros I am a basic level user of Kafka comes with the standard stuff that we use. Cons Does not have KSQL enabled by default which is a shame. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. RB Robert B. Engineering Manager Publishing ### "My developers are happy but it remains our teams highest vendor cost" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 3.0 3.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 July 6, 2020 Pros I haven't heard any real complaints about Aiven Kafka from my team (albeit we had problems with Aiven as Redis provider after switching from Redis Labs, and had to move to AWS ElastiCache). I like that there's a out of the box datadog integrations, 2-factor-auth, an REST API (I used it to get billing data). Cons We are planning on downgrading the plan as it is quite expensive and our teams highest monthly vendor cost currently, but on the other hand I haven't really compared with any alternatives yet. We are also working on setting up autoscaling, so I could have wished for there to be a more easy way or guides for upfront scaling. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AU Anonymous User DevOps eng. Information Technology and Services ### "Up and ready in less than 5 minutes!" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 June 26, 2020 Perfect, I'm able to maintain 5 Kafka Clusters, everywhere, uptodate, without spending lot of time. The time to market is perfect. Pros Aiven is prod-ready in 5 minutes... Grab an account, pop your instances, and that's all! Integrated with Datadog, Hot patching, All-in-one (schema registry, kconnect, ...). Cons Kafka clusters are quite expensive, but still cheaper than running kafka by yourself Alternatives considered [Confluent Platform](https://www.capterra.com/p/191177/Confluent-Platform/) Reasons for choosing Aiven for Apache Kafka Aiven is a multi product platform, so I can run PGSQL, ES and Redis using the same platform Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. MB Mikolaj B. Developer Financial Services ### "My review" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 3.0 3.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 7/10 May 25, 2020 I like the ease of setup and overall experiance Pros General ease of use of tool compared to self hosting solution. Cons Hard to debug any issues with Kafka that appear Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. RR Rotem R. Application Security Expert Computer Software ### "Awesome Grafana as a service" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 May 21, 2020 Pros I wanted to have Grafana without the pains of setting up the server on my own. Found your service and its great. Easy to use and to setup without the need in hosting and do the nasty things by yourself. Cons The price is a bit high, but when considering the value - it worth it. Reasons for choosing Aiven for Apache Kafka Looked for a service that provides Grafana as a service and this was a good and fair option. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. MO Mohamed O. Software Engineer Utilities ### "FOR THE MANY NOT THE FEW!" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 9/10 April 9, 2020 Pros Honestly, it took me a while to get the hang of Kafka, I came from database background and I found it a bit of a steep learning curve, given we introduced schema registry as part of our initial implementation. As the business adoption grew I got forced into joining the round and I think the speed of Kafka is its biggest Pro. Cons I think the UI could be improved, The schema view on the UI is also a little different from the avro format. dark mode would be nice! Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. TK Tommy K. Software Developer Computer Games ### "Easy to get started with" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 3.0 3.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 April 9, 2020 Pros Ease of use, compared to on-premise Kafka. Good support from Aiven. Cons We are just starting to use the product, but we've run into one minor bug, and I have some concerns on performance so far - but performance issues are probably not caused be Aiven, but rather Kafka client lib/configuration. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. CL clarence l. Software Engineer Utilities ### "It's works" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 6/10 March 19, 2020 Pros Save us having to manage parts our own infrastructure. I started out as a front-ender and now having to do more and more dev ops. It's nice to have more of our infrastructure managed by someone else we feel trust towards. Cons Haven't come across anything Aiven specific that's been a pain. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. SF syed faizan a. Full Stack Software Engineer E-Learning ### "It's a good managed service" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 March 1, 2020 Pros A good dashboard. Good availability. A good dashboard. Good availability. Cons nothing so far all good going. nothing so far all good going. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AU Anonymous User Site Reliability Engineer Information Technology and Services ### "Good managed service" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 February 29, 2020 Very positive. It is my first experience with a managed Kafka service and I would recommend it over managing a cluster internally. Pros I don't have to manage a Kafka cluster. The terraform provider has also proven to be very useful Cons We have experienced some issues with data being lost however this was quickly addressed and was put right by Aiven Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. BS brian s. Senior SRE Computer Software ### "terraform plus aiven is good" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 February 20, 2020 Pros the terraform provider was useful but it required manual installation VPC peering is good and projects is a good way to separate things. feature set is good without being overwhelming Cons the terraform provider for kafka is missing the SASL option, I also wish it was a default terraform plugin instead of requiring custom installation Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. Response from Vendor February 27, 2020 Hi Brian, Thanks for the review; we're glad that you're happy with our service! As to your comments regarding SASL and custom installation, I wanted to let you know that both are on our roadmap and we will keep you updated when they are complete. LS Leonard S. Data Scientist Information Technology and Services ### "Great so far" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 February 12, 2020 I've built applications for consuming kafka topics and I had to set up a new project and user for this. It was a seamless process and everything worked out of the box. Benefits I've realized so far is that me as a developer can get started without the involvement of devops people if we hosted our own cluster. Pros I like the simple, intuitive UI. Awesome metrics and monitoring and the possibility to create users and credentials. Cons Hmm it's hard to say I've really liked it so far! Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. SW Steven W. Technical Experience Lead Apparel & Fashion ### "Good product for clusters, would like more topic introspection" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 3.0 3.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 7/10 February 10, 2020 Pros The clusters and topics are easy to set up. The metrics are nice to look at and tell you just what you'd like to know. Cons I get errors when coming back to tabs that just say simple things like \`Network Error\` and a big red banner. More importantly, I wish I could view messages on topics. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. Response from Vendor February 17, 2020 Hi Steven, Thanks for your review and feedback. We're actually in the process of improving the messaging within the console (I'm assuming that's what you're referencing), and constantly improving its functionality. I'll have one of our developers reach out to you directly to get a little more detail from you. Thanks again! Yoel S. Architect Logistics and Supply Chain ### "Great service" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 9/10 December 23, 2019 Pros Overall, great service. Really thought through. Makes setting up services a breeze. Cons It would be nice to have easier options for bring your own cloud services. This would be helpful for setting up master/master cross region. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. MK Manjunath K. Performance and Devops Engineer Information Technology and Services ### "Aiven Kafka Monitoring" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 3.0 3.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 December 8, 2019 Overall its good to quickly implement kafka for a fast paced environments and migrations. Pros Easy to use, Configurable and with a built in setup of monitoring. Cons Some of the parameters like consumer lag are not added in the monitoring graphs. Alternatives considered [Confluent Platform](https://www.capterra.com/p/191177/Confluent-Platform/) Reasons for choosing Aiven for Apache Kafka Honestly it's my managers call. They did not have any conclusions why we choose this. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. Pat P. Director of Customer Engagement Computer Software ### "Problem-free hosting for data-oriented services" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 November 27, 2019 I was able to quickly configure StreamSets Data Collector to move data between Kafka, Cassandra and Elasticsearch on Aiven. The biggest hurdle was figuring out the Kafka client settings for the TLS client certificate. Once that was working, everything else was very painless. Pros Easy activation of services - I had Kafka, Cassandra and Elasticsearch all running in a few minutes. Cons Self-signed certificates make client configuration a little awkward. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. RP Ruben P. System Administrator Apparel & Fashion ### "Aiven Kafka review" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 November 1, 2019 So far so good Pros Ease of use, good documentation, API, Terraform integration, aiven-client Cons Handling SSL handshake integrations, basically Alternatives considered [Confluent Platform](https://www.capterra.com/p/191177/Confluent-Platform/) Reasons for choosing Aiven for Apache Kafka Price on Aiven is more competitive Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. MG Mark G. Software Engineer Financial Services ### "Aiven Kafka" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 October 21, 2019 Very good so far. Deploying a new evolving architecture to new customers, so the ability to change cluster sizes on demand was useful. The level of support has also been really good. Pros Good support, good UI, and saves having to host own instances. Can switch sizing too when deployed. Cons A few UI bugs, and a UI which is being changed behind the scenes - this has led to a few issues and lost time when configuring a new connector. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. LN Lalli N. Software Developer Computer Software ### "Aiven Kafka Review" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 9/10 October 14, 2019 Pros Good documentation and a lot of examples. Cons I have not encountered any problems yet. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. SB Stephane B. Production Engineer Utilities ### "Kafka without the trouble of managing it" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 3.0 3.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 October 10, 2019 Pros Reliability, simple and rich API, Terraform module... Aiven makes Kafka (and other services) easy to set up and manage. Cons Can occasionally be a bit slow to build/provision, a few missing API endpoints (a bit specific I must admit) Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. MB Mukesh B. Intermediate DevOps Engineer Research ### "Ease and easy to use" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 3.0 3.0 Likelihood to Recommend 9/10 October 8, 2019 good Pros It's easy to use and easy to sign up Also we can setup multiple accounts under single console which makes it easy to access too Cons Do you guys have disaster recovery in place? Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. Popular comparisons [Microsoft SQL Server vs Aiven for Apache Kafka](https://www.capterra.com/compare/1417-167938/SQL-Server-vs-Aiven-Kafka)  Independent research methodology Capterra's researchers use a mix of verified reviews, independent research and objective methodologies to bring you selection and ranking information you can trust. While we may earn a referral fee when you visit a provider through our links or speak to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/proprietary-data-research/) How Capterra verifies reviews Capterra carefully verified over 2.5 million+ reviews to bring you authentic software experiences from real users. Our human moderators verify that reviewers are real people and that reviews are authentic. They use leading tech to analyze text quality and to detect plagiarism and generative AI. 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