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Choose the Right Data Streaming Platform.
Most platforms focus on streaming data, Condense focuses on understanding it. It’s not just managed Kafka; it’s Kafka with context. Infused with domain intelligence, Condense transforms raw streams into decisions, automations, and impact, because the right Kafka platform should understand what it’s moving
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Unbiased Simplified Comparison
How does Condense compare against Apache Kafka?
TL;DR
Condense and Apache Kafka (OSS) represent the choice between deploying a finished application and managing raw infrastructure. Apache Kafka OSS is a distributed engine that moves bytes reliably, but it requires you to build, scale, and maintain the entire ecosystem including separate clusters for any data processing. Condense is a unified streaming platform that wraps the Kafka engine with an autonomous execution layer, allowing you to run business logic directly on the stream without managing the underlying "plumbing."
Condense: The Vertical Data Platform for Real-Time Businesses
Accelerate the path from idea to production
Rapidly realize and deploy industry use cases
Enterprise scale with native governance
Optimize TCO through vertical industry-first approach
Why Switch to Condense?
Unified Platform vs. Infrastructure Sprawl
OSS Kafka is a "broker-only" technology. To build a real-world application, you must manually integrate and manage separate clusters for Kafka Connect, Schema Registry, Flink/Spark (for logic), and Prometheus/Grafana (for monitoring).
"Zero-Hop" Performance
In OSS Kafka processing typically happens in external microservices or Flink clusters. Data must travel from the broker over the network to the processor and often back again, adding significant network latency and egress costs.
Condense allows you to deploy your Java, Python, or Go logic local to the data. By running code on the same substrate as the broker, Condense eliminates the network "hop," delivering sub-millisecond end-to-end latency for mission-critical alerts.
Managed BYOC (Sovereignty without the Ops)
In OSS Kafka you own the code, but you also own the 3 AM "broker down" phone calls. Scaling, patching, and rebalancing are manual, high-risk operations.
Vertical Intelligence (The Mobility/IoT Advantage)
OSS Kafka is a generic "dumb pipe." It has no idea what a VIN (Vehicle Identification Number), a geofence, or a telematics packet is. You have to write every line of that domain logic from scratch.
Condense ships with Vertical Blueprints. It includes pre-built, domain-aware modules for Mobility (Trip Formation, Driver Scoring) and IoT (VSS Mapping). This allows teams to go live in days rather than the months required to build these patterns on OSS.
TCO Reduction
In OSS Kafka the license is "free," the Total Cost of Ownership is massive. You need a dedicated team of 3–5 specialized SREs to manage a production-grade Kafka ecosystem.
Condense reduces TCO by up to 60%. It eliminates the need for a specialized Kafka Ops team and uses a flat, predictable vCPU-based pricing model. There are no "hidden taxes" for throughput, partitions, or data egress within your VPC.
