Apache Beam vs Apache Storm
Apache Beam
beam.apache.orgApache Storm
storm.apache.orgSide by side
| Figure | Apache Beam | Apache Storm |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Big Data Analytics Software | 9.1 (#1) | 8.0 (#15) |
| Spec score · Streaming Analytics Software | 9.0 (#1) | 8.0 (#8) |
| Spec score · Stream Processing Software | 9.0 (#2) | 8.1 (#9) |
| License | Apache Beam is distributed by the Apache Software Foundation under the Apache License version 2.0. | Apache Storm is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. |
| Security | Apache release files include OpenPGP signatures and SHA-512 checksums so users can verify downloaded files. | Storm supports pluggable Kerberos/SASL authentication and SimpleACLAuthorizer authorization, both disabled by default. |
| Support | Beam users can get community support through the user mailing list, Stack Overflow, and the Beam Slack channel. | Users can get help through the user mailing list at [email protected]. |
| Use cases | The same Beam model supports both batch and streaming processing for production data workloads. | Storm supports realtime analytics, online machine learning, continuous computation, distributed RPC, and ETL. |
Plans
In their own words
Apache Beam
Apache Beam is an open-source programming model for building data-processing pipelines across batch and streaming workloads. The same model can support both patterns in production, while runners provide different execution back ends, including Dataflow, Flink, Spark, and the Direct Runner. SDKs and quickstarts cover Java, Python, Go, and TypeScript. Pipeline building blocks include ParDo, GroupByKey, Flatten, and Combine, alongside windowing and triggering. Beam I/O connectors supply read and write transforms for external storage in batch or streaming pipelines, with catalog examples such as BigQuery, Snowflake, Apache Parquet, and Apache Iceberg. Beam Playground provides a way to try examples and transforms without a local installation. The software is free and open source; the listed plan is free, but execution costs depend on the runner and infrastructure selected. It targets data and software developers building pipelines on supported back ends. APIs may change before the first stable 1.x release, and semantic-versioning practice has exceptions.
Apache Storm
Apache Storm is a distributed system for computing over unbounded data streams in real time. It uses spouts, bolts, and topologies to assemble multi-stage computations, supporting realtime analytics, online machine learning, continuous computation, distributed RPC, and ETL. The project describes Storm as scalable and fault-tolerant, with guaranteed data processing, and reports a benchmark above one million tuples per second per node. Integrations include Apache Kafka, HDFS, JDBC databases, JMS, and Redis. Developers can work in local mode in-process or submit topologies to a remote cluster. Storm supports stateful processing and lists JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and C# among supported languages. It is free under Apache License, Version 2.0; source and binary distributions are available, along with Maven Central and an official Docker image. The current release is 3.1.0. Security options include Kerberos/SASL authentication, SimpleACLAuthorizer authorization, and TLS for Thrift RPC and worker messaging; authentication and authorization options are disabled by default.