Apache Kafka® is available under the Apache License v2.0, and is completely free.  The license is extremely permissive, allowing for users to include Kafka in consumer products and edit the code.

Confluent Kafka is available either free under their community license (not open source) or a paid version.  The paid version of Confluent Kafka includes additional features such as a control center.  

We have an entire post dedicated to comparing Apache Kafka vs. Confluent Kafka. Check it out if you’re interested in learning more about their similarities and differences.  

Additionally, read about our Confluent Alternative solution. for more information on your options, especially if you data volume meets or exceeds 500 Mb/sec.

At Dattell, we support the free version of Kafka, Apache Kafka.

Choosing a free software, like Kafka, does not mean compromising performance.  For instance, read here about how Kafka guarantees message order.

Read more about why companies choose free, open source software here.