AWS Glue Schema Registry vs Estuary
AWS Glue Schema Registry
docs.aws.amazon.comEstuary
estuary.devSide by side
| Figure | AWS Glue Schema Registry | Estuary |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $0.50/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 9 |
| Spec score · ETL and ELT Tools | 7.9 (#10) | 9.2 (#1) |
| Automation | Supported features include schema auto-registration, schema sourcing via metadata, IAM compatibility, and optional ZLIB compression. | CI/CD workflows use flow.yaml specifications, refresh tokens and flowctl catalog publish commands, with connector secrets encrypted automatically on publish. |
| Integrations | The documentation describes integrations with Apache Kafka, Amazon MSK, Kinesis Data Streams, Amazon Managed Service for Apache Flink, AWS Lambda, AWS Glue streaming, and Apache Kafka Streams. | Estuary advertises more than 200 prebuilt connectors across databases, warehouses, SaaS apps, and cloud platforms, including Snowflake, BigQuery, Kafka, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. |
| Schema evolution | Supports eight compatibility modes: NONE, DISABLED, BACKWARD, BACKWARD_ALL, FORWARD, FORWARD_ALL, FULL, and FULL_ALL. | Estuary automatically infers and manages schemas and can apply compatible downstream schema changes. |
| Security | Client API communication uses TLS encryption over HTTPS, and schemas are encrypted at rest with an AWS KMS service-managed key. | Official documentation states encryption in transit and at rest, immutable infrastructure, a zero-trust network model and role-based access control. |
Plans
Estuary
- FreeFree
- Pay-as-you-go$100 a month
- AnnualPriced on request
- DeveloperFree
- FreeFree
- Cloud$0.50 a month
- Cloud PAYG$0.50 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
- Private/BYOCPriced on request
In their own words
AWS Glue Schema Registry
AWS Glue Schema Registry is a free cloud service for centrally discovering, controlling, and evolving schemas used by streaming applications. It supplies serializers and deserializers so producers and consumers can share schema definitions during data exchange. Supported formats are Avro v1.11.4, JSON Schema Draft-04, Draft-06, and Draft-07, plus Protocol Buffers proto2 and proto3; Protobuf extensions and groups are not supported. Eight compatibility modes are available: NONE, DISABLED, BACKWARD, BACKWARD_ALL, FORWARD, FORWARD_ALL, FULL, and FULL_ALL. Features include automatic registration, metadata-based schema sourcing, IAM compatibility, and optional ZLIB compression. Documented integrations cover Apache Kafka, Amazon MSK, Kinesis Data Streams, Amazon Managed Service for Apache Flink, AWS Lambda, AWS Glue streaming, and Apache Kafka Streams. Client API traffic uses TLS over HTTPS, and schemas are encrypted at rest with an AWS KMS service-managed key. Registry ARNs organize permissions for schema operations.
Estuary
Estuary is a managed data integration platform for combining change data capture, batch, streaming, and app synchronization for analytics, operations, and AI. It supports transformations while data is moving, using SQL, Python, or TypeScript, and describes delivery as exactly once with end-to-end latency under 100 milliseconds. More than 200 prebuilt connectors cover databases, warehouses, SaaS apps, and cloud platforms, including Snowflake, BigQuery, Kafka, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. Customers can store data in their own cloud bucket for a duration they choose, and select public, private, or Bring Your Own Cloud deployment. Estuary lists SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, HITECH, CCPA, and GDPR among its compliance standards, and says data is encrypted in transit and at rest. It is available through API, self-hosted, and web options. The indefinite free tier is limited to 10 GB per month and two concurrent connector instances; paid plans start at $100 a month.