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A Cloud Guru vs Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

A Cloud Guru
Ranking in AWS Marketplace
13th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Training (1st), eLearning (2nd)
Apache Kafka on Confluent C...
Ranking in AWS Marketplace
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the AWS Marketplace category, the mindshare of A Cloud Guru is 0.2%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is 0.8%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AWS Marketplace
 

Featured Reviews

Justin Wheeler - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides high-quality course content to study different tools and technologies
The certification courses are typically divided into multiple sections. At the end of each section, there are exam tips for that section. I would like to go through all the different exam tips the day before my exam. It'd be nice if there were a way to go through all the different exam tips more easily. Right now, I have to find every video, play it for however long it is, skip ahead until I find the next one, and then play that one. The solution could include a playlist-type feature where I can select the ones I want to play. Having an exam tips section for the certification courses would be helpful. It would be good if there were a way to subscribe to new content when it comes out. Right now, I have to check the tool daily to see if they upload new content. It does not have a newsletter I could subscribe to and get updates on when new courses drop. I've also seen that A Cloud Guru is not as fast at dropping new courses and making updates as some competitors like Udemy. Cloud Academy normally updates for new exams faster than A Cloud Guru. However, A Cloud Guru's quality is higher. After acquiring A Cloud Guru, Pluralsight has imported all the A Cloud Guru courses into the Pluralsight mobile app. When I click on the A Cloud Guru videos on the Pluralsight mobile app, I'm not authorized to view them even though I have subscriptions to Pluralsight and A Cloud Guru. I'm not sure if that's an A Cloud Guru bug or something from Pluralsight's side. I haven't dug too much into it because I normally go on my computer and navigate to the A Cloud Guru website, which works fine. Pluralsight and A Cloud Guru offer many similar courses and overlapping content. It can be hard for a user to tell whether to go to Pluralsight or A Cloud Guru for a particular course or content. The acquisition also introduced some confusion.
Ritik Varshney - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced data streaming with reliable features and good analytics
Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud provides an enhanced level of reliability and resources compared to Apache Kafka alone. It offers more features which are beneficial for our clients, including cluster linking, schema registry, error handling, and dead-letter queues. It significantly improves customer and publisher satisfaction, especially with topic integration and data streaming.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution's most valuable feature is the hands-on experience it provides through very good labs."
"The solution has labs that help to learn different technologies. The main value of using it is learning new technologies."
"The most valuable feature is practical learning."
"A Cloud Guru has labs; we don't have to create them. It helps to be trained on multiple topics."
"A Cloud Guru offers courses for any industry. It is a user-friendly platform that offers courses in Excel, Python, C#, and more."
"The hands-on labs are really helpful."
"The content is very easy to understand because they break it down in a way that anyone can understand."
"The platform is user-friendly and can be used by absolute beginners and more advanced users."
"Kafka and Confluent Cloud have proven to be cost-effective, especially when compared to other tools. In a recent BI integration program over the past year, we assessed multiple use cases spanning ship-to-shore and various Azure integrations. Our findings revealed that Confluent Kafka performed exceptionally well, standing out alongside Genesys and Azure Event Hubs. While these three are top contenders, the choice among other tools depends on the specific use case and project requirements. The customer initially used tools like SMQs, FITRA, and Stream for real-time data processing. However, after our recommendation, Confluent Cloud proved to be a superior choice, capable of replacing these three tools and simplifying their data infrastructure. This shift to a single tool, Confluent Cloud, streamlined their operations, making maintenance and management more efficient for their internal projects."
"Kafka provides handy properties that allow us to directly configure the data, whether to keep it or discard it after use."
"Confluent Cloud handles data volume pretty well."
"In case of huge transactions on the web or mobile apps, it helps you capture real-time data and analyze it."
"Overall, I think it's a good experience. Apache Kafka can be quite complex and difficult to maintain on your own, so using Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud makes it much easier to use it without worrying about setup and maintenance."
"The state-saving feature is very much appreciated. It allows me to rewind a certain process if I see an error and then reprocess it."
"The product's installation phase is pretty straightforward for us since we know how to use it."
"Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is more reliable and frequent to use compared to Apache Kafka."
 

Cons

"I would appreciate more interactive features where users can receive immediate feedback on their actions."
"It'd be nice if there were a way to go through all the different exam tips more easily."
"There could be some performance improvements."
"A Cloud Guru should incorporate fewer updates."
"There is room for improvement in the portal. It can be more user-friendly."
"The solution could work on their marketing and advertising. Many people know about platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, and Coursera, but I only learned about A Cloud Guru through my company. They could focus on making their product more widely known."
"A Cloud Guru's videos are not effective for knowledge transfer."
"Instead of covering a broad section of the exam and then offering labs, it would be better to provide targeted exercises right after the relevant lecture, such as creating an EC2 instance."
"Some areas for improvement in Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud include issues faced during migration with Kubernetes pods."
"Regarding real-time data usage, there were challenges with CDC (Change Data Capture) integrations. Specifically, with PyTRAN, we encountered difficulties. We recommended using our on-premises Kaspersky as an alternative to PyTRAN for that specific use case due to issues with CDC store configuration and log reading challenges with the iton components."
"There are some premium connectors, for example, available in Confluent, which you cannot access in the marketplace, so there are some limitations."
"There could be an in-built feature for data analysis."
"The administration port could be more extensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"Maybe in terms of Apache Kafka's integration with other Microsoft tools, our company faced some challenges."
"There's one thing that's a common use case, but I don't know why it's not covered in Kafka. When a message comes in, and another message with the same key arrives, the first version should be deleted automatically."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's cloud content is expensive. Compared to other vendors, it is expensive."
"You need an annual license to use the platform. Its pricing is fine—good knowledge comes at a price—and doesn't include any extra costs."
"A Cloud Guru is more expensive than other options on the market."
"The solution’s pricing is moderate."
"It is not expensive."
"I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The pricing is good compared to other premium e-learning platforms."
"I think the pricing is fair, but Confluent requires a little bit more thinking because the price can go up really quickly when it comes to premium connectors."
"I consider that the product's price falls under the middle range category."
"Regarding pricing, Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is not a cheap tool. The right use case would justify the cost. It might make sense if you have a high volume of data that you can leverage to generate value for the business. But if you don't have those requirements, there are likely cheaper solutions you could use instead."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
8%
Educational Organization
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are A Cloud Guru's certification options?
Here's how you can publish an A Cloud Guru certificate on your LinkedIn profile: Log in to your A Cloud Guru account. Go to the Certificates page. Click the Export button next to the certificate ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for A Cloud Guru?
Since I'm interested in training certification, the solution is valuable for my career development. A Cloud Guru is more expensive than other options on the market. Whizlabs is a substantially chea...
What needs improvement with A Cloud Guru?
It would be better if the product provided one-on-one tutoring or office hours for certain products. I haven't seen that in A Cloud Guru. The only thing that really annoys me is that I have to log ...
What do you like most about Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
Kafka and Confluent Cloud have proven to be cost-effective, especially when compared to other tools. In a recent BI integration program over the past year, we assessed multiple use cases spanning s...
What needs improvement with Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
The ability to implement request-response communication on Apache Kafka ( /products/apache-kafka-reviews ) needs improvement. The schema registry is a bit misleading in terms of its location and ho...
What is your primary use case for Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
We send events to Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud ( /products/apache-kafka-on-confluent-cloud-reviews ) for microservices and in an event-driven system. We are building an event-driven system, and ...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about A Cloud Guru vs. Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.