AutoMQ vs Redpanda
AutoMQ
automq.com
Redpanda
redpanda.comSide by side
| Figure | AutoMQ | Redpanda |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $300/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 4 |
| Spec score · Event Streaming Platforms | 8.4 (#3) | 8.4 (#5) |
| Connectors | Managed Connector runs Kafka Connect workers in the customer's Kubernetes environment and supports tested system plugins or custom Kafka Connect plugins. | Redpanda Connect provides more than 300 pre-built connectors for sources, sinks, processors, databases, APIs, cloud services, and AI pipelines. |
| Deployment | AutoMQ Software can be deployed on premises, in private or public clouds, using a binary, Helm, or Docker Compose. | Redpanda can run as Serverless, fully managed BYOC on AWS, GCP, or Azure, or self-managed on bare metal, virtual machines, Kubernetes, or Docker. |
| Founded | 2022 | 2019 |
| Headquarters | Hong Kong | San Francisco, California, United States |
| What it does | AutoMQ is Kafka-compatible streaming software that runs Kafka on cloud object storage. | 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
AutoMQ
AutoMQ is Kafka-compatible streaming software that runs Kafka on cloud object storage. It supports S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage, MinIO, and Ceph, and can be deployed on premises or in private and public clouds by binary, Helm, or Docker Compose. AutoMQ states sub-10ms P99 latency and automatic scaling with traffic, including partition rebalancing across brokers. Table Topic can materialize Kafka topics as Iceberg or Delta Lake tables without ETL pipelines, for direct querying with Spark, Trino, or Flink. Managed Connector runs Kafka Connect workers in a customer’s Kubernetes environment, with logs and monitoring for throughput, task health, failures, and anomalies. The platform lists stream processing, schema registry, exactly-once delivery, a maximum 90-day retention period, and 300 connectors. Supported client languages include Java, C/C++, Go, Python, and NodeJS. Pro costs $300 a month; Enterprise pricing is by contact. There is no free plan, but a 30-day free trial requires no credit card.
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.