DataStax Astra Streaming vs Lightstreamer
DataStax Astra Streaming
docs.datastax.comLightstreamer
lightstreamer.comSide by side
| Figure | DataStax Astra Streaming | Lightstreamer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 5 |
| Spec score · Event Streaming Platforms | 7.8 (#13) | 7.9 (#11) |
| Integrations | Included sink connectors support Astra DB and Cassandra, Kafka, AWS Kinesis, Cloud Storage, Elasticsearch, BigQuery, JDBC databases, and Snowflake. | Ready-made connectors integrate with Kafka, MQTT, and JMS; named examples include Confluent Cloud, Amazon MSK, Redpanda, AWS IoT Core, IBM MQ, and ActiveMQ. |
| Security | Shared tenants use Pulsar authentication and authorization alongside Astra organization RBAC, with tenant-scoped roles and permissions. | The broker supports TLS with configurable cipher suites, client and server certificates, mutual authentication, and custom authentication and authorization through a Metadata Adapter. |
| Support | The documentation directs customers to IBM Support for requests such as private connectivity and unavailable regions. | Every license includes unlimited technical support tickets and unlimited upgrades; 24×7 support is available as an additional option. |
Plans
DataStax Astra Streaming
- Free tierFree
- Paid Astra Streaming plansPriced on request
Lightstreamer
- Demo LicenseFree
- Annual subscription — Per Client LicensePrice not published
- Annual subscription — Per Server LicensePrice not published
- PAYG — Per Client-Hour LicensePrice not published
- PAYG — Per Core-Hour LicensePrice not published
In their own words
DataStax Astra Streaming
DataStax Astra Streaming is a managed cloud service for streaming data and processing event streams, powered by Apache Pulsar. It provides messaging for streaming, publish-subscribe workflows, and queuing, and supports real-time event processing and change data capture. Users manage Pulsar tenants and resources such as topics, connectors, functions, and subscriptions through the Astra Portal, APIs, or related tools. Applications connect through open-source Apache Pulsar client APIs; the service runs Pulsar 3.1 and recommends that API version or higher. Included connectors cover Astra DB and Cassandra, Kafka, AWS Kinesis, Cloud Storage, Elasticsearch, BigQuery, JDBC databases, Snowflake, and selected source systems including Debezium-supported databases. Connections use authentication, authorization, and TLS. Shared clusters have defined tenant, namespace, topic, message-size, and throughput limits. Custom source and sink connectors are not supported, and experimental connectors are not fully supported or tested. A free tier is listed at free; paid pricing is usage-based and varies by region and usage.
Lightstreamer
Lightstreamer is an event broker for delivering real-time data to web and mobile applications, including across proxies, firewalls, disconnections, and network congestion. Intelligent Streaming adjusts data flow to network conditions and can resample or combine updates to keep users synchronized. Messaging options include publish/subscribe, request/response, client-to-server messaging, and fine-grained item and field subscriptions. StreamSense chooses WebSockets or HTTP connections for each client, including through restrictive firewalls and legacy proxies.
Ready-made connectors cover Kafka, MQTT, and JMS, with named examples including Confluent Cloud, Amazon MSK, Redpanda, AWS IoT Core, IBM MQ, and ActiveMQ. Custom adapters can be built with Java, Python, Node.js, .NET, and TCP sockets. Lightstreamer supports TLS, certificates, mutual authentication, and custom authentication and authorization. It can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud, with Helm, Docker, and Kubernetes support. Monitoring options include a web dashboard, configurable logs, JMX, Prometheus, and Grafana integrations. The free Non-Production Limited License requires a Production License and a server restart after at most 210 minutes of uptime.