Kafka Hosting vs Condense: Clusters in Someone Else’s Cloud or a Full Kafka Platform in Yours?
Kafka pricing vs Condense: From Cluster Costs to Complete Streaming Platform TCO
Condense deploys a Kafka‑based streaming platform into your own AWS, Azure, or GCP account (BYOC), with managed Kafka, low‑code pipelines, connectors, and security included.
Condense gives you managed Kafka in your own cloud, a low‑code pipeline builder, connectors, and built‑in security so you ship real‑time apps faster
Condense gives you managed Kafka in your own cloud, a low‑code pipeline builder, connectors, and built‑in security so you ship real‑time apps faster
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Hosted Kafka: Useful, but still just Infrastructure
Automatic upgrades, backups, and basic monitoring/alerting.
Security primitives: TLS, ACLs, IP filters, basic compliance
Condense: Kafka hosting plus the missing platform layer
Condense is designed to attack these hidden costs by giving you a full streaming platform on managed Kafka, not just cheaper brokers.
Condense (Kafka based platform)
Typical Kafka Hosting
Where It Runs
Your AWS/Azure/GCP account (BYOC)
Provider's cloud account
What You Get
Pipelines, connectors, transforms, observability
Clusters, topics, basic UI/monitoring
Who Builds Platform
Condense (platform included)
Your team (services, glue, governance))
You’ve outgrown ‘just hosted Kafka’ if…
You’re maintaining a web of microservices around Kafka
You’re maintaining a web of microservices around Kafka
Cloud‑Native Managed Kafka
Multiple apps and teams each own bespoke consumers, routing logic, and error handling on top of hosted Kafka, making diagrams and incident response painful.
You’re adding tool after tool around your cluster
You’re adding tool after tool around your cluster
Pipelines with Kafka Connect and Sinks
Schema, connectors, schedulers, and observability all live in separate products, stitched together around a hosted cluster.
Security Kafka inside your own boundary
Security Kafka inside your own boundary
Pipelines with Kafka Connect and Sinks
You need Kafka and streaming pipelines to run fully inside your own accounts, integrated with existing IAM, VPC, and audit tooling.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is Condense just another Kafka hosting provider like Cloud Kafka?
No. Kafka hosting providers mainly give you clusters; Condense gives you a Kafka‑based streaming platform deployed into your own cloud, with pipelines, connectors, and governance included.
Is Condense just another Kafka hosting provider like Cloud Kafka?
No. Kafka hosting providers mainly give you clusters; Condense gives you a Kafka‑based streaming platform deployed into your own cloud, with pipelines, connectors, and governance included.
Is Condense just another Kafka hosting provider like Cloud Kafka?
No. Kafka hosting providers mainly give you clusters; Condense gives you a Kafka‑based streaming platform deployed into your own cloud, with pipelines, connectors, and governance included.
Can Condense replace my existing hosted Kafka service?
Yes. You can migrate topics and workloads from existing hosted Kafka into Condense’s managed Kafka in your account, or integrate gradually while building new pipelines on Condense.
Can Condense replace my existing hosted Kafka service?
Yes. You can migrate topics and workloads from existing hosted Kafka into Condense’s managed Kafka in your account, or integrate gradually while building new pipelines on Condense.
Can Condense replace my existing hosted Kafka service?
Yes. You can migrate topics and workloads from existing hosted Kafka into Condense’s managed Kafka in your account, or integrate gradually while building new pipelines on Condense.
Can Condense work alongside my current Kafka host?
Yes. Condense can consume/produce from your hosted Kafka and act as the pipeline/control plane while you phase over or keep some workloads where they are.
Can Condense work alongside my current Kafka host?
Yes. Condense can consume/produce from your hosted Kafka and act as the pipeline/control plane while you phase over or keep some workloads where they are.
Can Condense work alongside my current Kafka host?
Yes. Condense can consume/produce from your hosted Kafka and act as the pipeline/control plane while you phase over or keep some workloads where they are.
How does pricing compare to basic Kafka hosting?
Hosted Kafka is usually priced per cluster size and throughput; Condense focuses on platform value, often lowering total cost by bundling Kafka, pipelines, and observability instead of paying for multiple tools around a hosted cluster.
How does pricing compare to basic Kafka hosting?
Hosted Kafka is usually priced per cluster size and throughput; Condense focuses on platform value, often lowering total cost by bundling Kafka, pipelines, and observability instead of paying for multiple tools around a hosted cluster.
How does pricing compare to basic Kafka hosting?
Hosted Kafka is usually priced per cluster size and throughput; Condense focuses on platform value, often lowering total cost by bundling Kafka, pipelines, and observability instead of paying for multiple tools around a hosted cluster.
Conclusion
If you are testing Aiven’s Kafka/PostgreSQL playgrounds and considering Aiven as your streaming backbone, compare that to a Kafka‑based streaming platform that lives inside your own cloud, with pipelines, connectors, and governance included
