Buf Schema Registry vs WarpStream BYOC Schema Registry
Buf Schema Registry
buf.buildWarpStream BYOC Schema Registry
warpstream.comSide by side
| Figure | Buf Schema Registry | WarpStream BYOC Schema Registry |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $0.50/mo | $0.03/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 4 |
| Spec score · Schema Registry Software | 8.3 (#4) | 7.3 (#15) |
| Deployment | Enterprise offers self-hosted, on-prem deployments, while Pro provides a managed private BSR instance. | Customers can create a Schema Registry Virtual Cluster in the WarpStream console or through the API, and deploy its agent using the same binary as Kafka Agents. |
| Headquarters | United States | Mountain View, California, United States |
| Purpose | The BSR is a Protobuf-aware registry for tracking and evolving APIs, managing dependencies, and helping clients consume APIs. | The BYOC Schema Registry stores and serves schemas used to serialize, deserialize, and validate Kafka records through a REST server compatible with Confluent's Schema Registry API. |
Plans
Buf Schema Registry
- CommunityFree
- Teams$0.50 a month
- Pro$5 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
WarpStream BYOC Schema Registry
- Dev$0.03 a month
- Fundamentals$0.17 a month
- Pro$0.52 a month
- 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.
WarpStream BYOC Schema Registry
WarpStream BYOC Schema Registry stores and serves schemas for Kafka records through a REST server compatible with Confluent’s Schema Registry API. It supports Avro and protobuf, while WarpStream Agents validate records and can reject invalid data or emit metrics. The stateless, zero-disk registry stores schemas in the customer’s object storage, and WarpStream says they remain in that cloud account. Schema Linking migrates schemas from a Confluent-compatible registry while preserving IDs and compatibility rules. Authentication options include Basic Authentication, TLS and mutual TLS. Customers create a Schema Registry Virtual Cluster in the console or API, then deploy an agent using the Kafka Agents binary; agents emit logs and metrics. Each registry allows 100,000 schema versions and each schema 1 MB, with support-requested increases. Plans are Dev at $0.03 a month, Fundamentals at 0.17 USD, Pro at 0.52 USD, and Enterprise with no listed price. Cluster minutes use 15-minute billing intervals.