Apache Pulsar vs Redpanda
Apache Pulsar
pulsar.apache.org
Redpanda
redpanda.comSide by side
| Figure | Apache Pulsar | Redpanda |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · Schema Registry Software | 8.2 (#6) | 8.4 (#3) |
| Spec score · Event Streaming Platforms | 8.1 (#7) | 8.4 (#5) |
| Spec score · Distributed Systems | 8.1 (#12) | 8.4 (#10) |
| Spec score · Message Queue (MQ) Software | 8.1 (#12) | 8.4 (#8) |
| Deployment | Pulsar can run in Docker or Kubernetes, and the project offers a Helm chart for Kubernetes deployment. | Redpanda can run as Serverless, fully managed BYOC on AWS, GCP, or Azure, or self-managed on bare metal, virtual machines, Kubernetes, or Docker. |
| Security controls | Pulsar provides encryption, pluggable authentication, and authorization controls, but these are not enabled by default. | Redpanda lists RBAC, ACLs, TLS/mTLS, SAML/OIDC, FIPS compliance, SOC 2 controls and audit logging among its security capabilities. |
| What it does | Apache Pulsar is an open-source, distributed messaging and streaming platform built for the cloud. | Redpanda is a Kafka-compatible streaming data platform for real-time applications, analytics and agentic workloads. |
Plans
Redpanda
- Community EditionFree
- Bring Your Own CloudPriced on request
- Enterprise EditionPriced on request
- ServerlessPriced on request
In their own words
Apache Pulsar
Apache Pulsar is a free, open-source distributed messaging and streaming platform built for cloud use. It supports message consumption with less than 10 ms latency and up to one million unique topics in a cluster. Configurable replication across geographic regions and automatic client failover to healthy clusters support multi-region deployments. Tenants and policies control access to data and actions, and can isolate brokers to limit noisy-neighbor effects. Maintained client libraries are available for Java, Go, Python, C++, Node.js, and C#. Built-in connectors move data to and from systems including Kafka, RabbitMQ, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, and Elasticsearch. Pulsar Functions process messages with user-defined logic in Java, Python, or Go. Tiered storage can offload data from BookKeeper to blob storage such as S3 for unlimited retention. It can run in Docker or Kubernetes, with a Helm chart for Kubernetes. Encryption, authentication, and authorization are available but are not enabled by default. The 5.0.0-M2 milestone is for early testing and feedback, not production use.
Redpanda
Redpanda is an event-streaming platform for storing real-time events in ordered topics that can be replayed, with access through the Apache Kafka API. Its Kafka compatibility is intended to let existing applications and tools continue without rewrites or changes. The platform uses a native C++ architecture, runs as a single binary, and has no external dependencies. Redpanda Connect supplies more than 300 pre-built connectors for sources, sinks, processors, databases, APIs, cloud services, and AI pipelines. Native Apache Iceberg support and Iceberg topics let streams be materialized into lakehouse-ready tables. Deployment options include Serverless, managed BYOC on AWS, GCP, or Azure, and self-managed installations on bare metal, virtual machines, Kubernetes, or Docker. Redpanda also lists stream processing, a schema registry, both delivery guarantees, and client support for Java, C/C++, Go, Python, Rust, and Node.js. The maker states that its platform delivers 10x lower tail latencies than open-source Kafka.