Apache Flink CDC vs Canal
Apache Flink CDC
github.comCanal
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Apache Flink CDC | Canal |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Change Data Capture Software | 8.2 (#5) | 8.7 (#3) |
| Deployment | The documentation describes downloading and extracting Flink CDC and connector JARs, then running it with an Apache Flink deployment. | The README says Canal provides native Docker image support. |
| License | The repository states that Flink CDC is distributed under the Apache 2.0 License. | The repository identifies its license as Apache-2.0. |
| Purpose | Flink CDC is a distributed data integration tool for real-time and batch data, built on Apache Flink. | Canal parses MySQL database incremental logs and provides incremental data subscription and consumption. |
| Security | The repository links to a security policy, but its contents were not available in the opened page. | The v1.1.8 release notes list SSL/TLS connections to source MySQL and RabbitMQ SSL authentication support. |
| Support | The project directs users to its user mailing list for support and questions, and to Flink JIRA for problems. | The project asks users to report bugs and feature requests through GitHub issues. |
Plans
In their own words
Apache Flink CDC
Apache Flink CDC is a distributed data integration tool for real-time and batch workloads, built on Apache Flink. It supports full database and sharded-table synchronization, schema evolution and data transformation. With its YAML Pipeline API, users can declare sources, sinks, routing, transformations and schema evolution rules. SQL and DataStream APIs are also available for defining CDC sources and custom Flink streaming applications. Listed pipeline connectors include Doris, Elasticsearch, Fluss, Hudi, Iceberg, Kafka, MaxCompute, MySQL, OceanBase, Oracle, Paimon, PostgreSQL and StarRocks. SQL and DataStream source connectors also include SQL Server, MongoDB, TiDB, Db2 and Vitess. Flink CDC 3.6 is listed as compatible with Flink 1.20 and 2.2; version 3.6.0 requires JDK 11 or later. Deployment is self-hosted: download and extract Flink CDC and connector JARs, then run them with an Apache Flink deployment. It is free under the Apache 2.0 License and lists Linux, macOS, Windows and self-hosted environments as platforms.
Canal
Canal is a free, self-hosted project that parses MySQL binary logs so applications can subscribe to and consume database changes incrementally. It acts like a MySQL replica, requesting binlog data from a master and parsing the events. Listed uses include database mirroring and real-time backup, index maintenance, cache refresh, and business-logic processing. The README lists source versions MySQL 5.1.x, 5.5.x, 5.6.x, 5.7.x, and 8.0.x. Canal can send change records to Kafka and RocketMQ; the quick start also lists RabbitMQ and Pulsar server modes. Its Protocol Buffers 3.0 client-server design has clients for Java, C#, Go, and Python. Canal Admin provides a web interface for managing configuration, tasks, and logs, and the project lists native Prometheus monitoring. Docker images and a Docker QuickStart are available, but the default setup runs only one Canal instance per Docker instance. The project is licensed under Apache-2.0.