Buf Schema Registry vs Lenses
Buf Schema Registry
buf.buildLenses
lenses.ioSide by side
| Figure | Buf Schema Registry | Lenses |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $0.50/mo | $0.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 6 |
| Spec score · Schema Registry Software | 8.3 (#4) | 8.1 (#9) |
| Deployment | Enterprise offers self-hosted, on-prem deployments, while Pro provides a managed private BSR instance. | Lenses can be deployed in a cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environment. |
| Headquarters | United States | London, United Kingdom |
| Support | The pricing page lists Community Slack support and email support with a 48-business-hour response SLA for Teams, Pro, and Enterprise. | The pricing page includes Team Support in the Team plan and Enterprise Support in the Multi-Kafka Enterprise plan. |
Plans
Buf Schema Registry
- CommunityFree
- Teams$0.50 a month
- Pro$5 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
Lenses
- K2K CommunityFree
- Lenses DevX Community EditionFree
- K2K add-on$1 a month
- Lenses DevX Team Edition$4 a year
- K2K EnterprisePriced on request
- Lenses DevX Multi-Kafka EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Buf Schema Registry
Buf Schema Registry (BSR) is a Protobuf-aware registry for managing API schemas, dependencies, and client access as APIs change. Teams publish Protobuf files as versioned modules and resolve dependencies declared in buf.yaml. BSR generates hosted SDKs for supported languages and browsable documentation from schema versions and comments. Server-side lint and breaking-change policies can reject updates or hold them for review. The registry also shows which modules depend on another, helping teams identify affected consumers before deprecation. A GitHub Action handles build, lint, formatting, breaking-change checks, and publishing; the Buf CLI can connect to other CI/CD systems. RPC APIs are available through Connect, gRPC, and gRPC-Web. Community costs nothing and includes one private repository limited to 100 types plus unlimited public repositories. Teams costs $0.50 a month per type and includes a 30-day trial. Pro costs $5 a month per type with a $3000/month minimum spend. Enterprise pricing is custom.
Lenses
Lenses describes its Operating Fabric as a platform for building, governing, and operating Kafka applications with engineers and AI agents. Users can discover streaming data across domains with SQL, prepare it for consumption, and deploy data streams independently. It connects to Confluent Platform, Confluent Cloud, Amazon MSK, Redpanda, and self-managed Apache Kafka, and can run in cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments. Work interfaces include a Web App, VS Code Extension, Lenses MCP, and Lenses CLI. Lenses says OAuth 2.1 gives agents scoped, short-lived, revocable, and audited access. It also lists open-source Kafka connectors for systems including Amazon S3, Azure Event Hubs, GCP Storage, Cassandra, MongoDB, Redis, and Elasticsearch; the connectors are Apache 2.0 licensed and have enterprise support. The DevX Community Edition supports up to five free users, while SQL Studio supports up to two Kafka clusters. A trial key is available through the guided demo. Team Edition is listed from $4,000 per year and supports up to 15 users with SSO/SAML, RBAC, and Team Support.