Aiven Platform vs Amazon MSK comparison

Aiven and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are both solutions in the Streaming Analytics category. Aiven is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.5, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.4. Aiven holds a 1.3% mindshare in SA, compared to Amazon Web Services (AWS)’s 7.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Aiven users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users who would recommend it.

Aiven Platform

Read 2 Aiven Platform reviews

1,034 Views
427 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon MSK

Read 11 Amazon MSK reviews

4,132 Views
3,122 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Aiven Platform

Amazon MSK

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Aiven Platform and Amazon MSK based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and others in Streaming Analytics.

To learn more, read our detailed Streaming Analytics Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Streaming Analytics

March 2025

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Helped 845,040 peers since 2012

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

Aiven Platform

Ranking in Streaming Analytics

13th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Amazon MSK

Ranking in Streaming Analytics

5th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Aiven Platform is 1.3%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon MSK is 7.7%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Streaming Analytics

Featured Reviews

njadm

CTO and Co-Founder at PeerSpot

Seamlessly handle database upgrades and minimize downtime disruptions

One of the most valuable features of Aiven Platform is that it handles the upgrades for us seamlessly, saving us time that would be spent on routine upgrades. It also provides reliable backups. The ability to minimize disruption during upgrades is very important since any database downtime would mean system-wide disruptions.

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FNU AKSHANSH

Senior Data Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

Streamlines our processes, and we don't need to configure any VPCs; it's automatic

We don't have many use cases involving ingesting large amounts of data and scaling up and down. We have a clear understanding of our data volume, which remains relatively constant throughout the week. While we're aware of other features Amazon MSK offers, we feel confident in our current setup. If our requirements change significantly in the future, we'll reassess our needs and consider adopting Amazon MSK.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the most valuable features of Aiven Platform is that it handles the upgrades for us seamlessly, saving us time that would be spent on routine upgrades."

"What I like best about the tool is that the process for the services is faster compared to other methods. It's easier to use because Aiven for Apache Kafka handles the maintenance, so we have less to manage. We only use Kafka to manage its connectivity."

"The scalability and usability are quite remarkable."

"The solution's technical support was helpful."

"It provides installations, scaling, and other functionalities straight out of the box."

"It offers good stability."

"It is a stable product."

"Overall, it is very cost-effective based on the workflow."

"Amazon MSK has good integration because our team has been undergoing significant changes. Coupling it with MSK within AWS is helpful. We don't have to set up additionals or monitor external environments. This"

"MSK has a private network that's an out-of-box feature."

More Amazon MSK pros

Cons

"I would really like to see Aiven Platform add a user interface for database backups, as this would eliminate the need for a third-party solution."

"One challenge we face is when we want to update the version, for example, from 3.6 to 3.7. It will spawn new nodes, and then there's rebalancing and syncing from other brokers. There's high CPU usage during this process, so the solution can't be used for a while, causing some downtime in our services. To tackle this challenge, we schedule maintenance updates during low-traffic periods when there's less risk and fewer users use the services."

"It does not autoscale. Because if you do keep it manually when you add a note to the cluster and then you register it, then it is scalable, but the fact that you have to go and do it, I think, makes it, again, a bit of some operational overhead when managing the cluster."

"The cost of using Amazon MSK is high, which is a significant disadvantage, as the increase in cloud costs by 50% to 60% does not justify the savings."

"Horizontal scale-out is actually not easy, making it an area where improvements are required."

"It would be really helpful if Amazon MSK could provide a single installation that covers all the servers."

"Amazon MSK could improve on the features they offer. They are still lagging behind Confluence."

"One of the reasons why we prefer Kafka is because the support is a little bit difficult to manage with Amazon MSK."

"It should be more flexible, integration-wise."

"In my opinion, there are areas in Amazon MSK that could be improved, particularly in terms of configuration. Initially setting it up and getting it connected was quite challenging. The naming conventions for policies were updated by AWS, and some were undocumented, leading to confusion with outdated materials. It took us weeks of trial and error before discovering new methods through hidden tutorials and official documentation."

More Amazon MSK cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The platform has better pricing than one of its competitors."

"The price of Amazon MSK is less than some competitor solutions, such as Confluence."

"When you create a complete enterprise-driven architecture that is deployable on an enterprise scale, I would say that the prices of Amazon MSK and Confluent Platform become comparable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Media Company

Real Estate/Law Firm

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Aiven for Apache Kafka?

One challenge we face is when we want to update the version, for example, from 3.6 to 3.7. It will spawn new nodes, and then there's rebalancing and syncing from other brokers. There's high CPU usa...

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What is your primary use case for Aiven for Apache Kafka?

I use Aiven for Apache Kafka to handle services dependent on each other. Instead of API calls, we use it for asynchronous processing of all our services. That's the general way we use it.

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What advice do you have for others considering Aiven for Apache Kafka?

Apache Kafka is really good for streaming data or messaging services. It's comparable to other messaging services. Overall, I'd rate Aiven for Apache Kafka an eight out of ten.

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What do you like most about Amazon MSK?

Amazon MSK has significantly improved our organization by building seamless integration between systems.

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What needs improvement with Amazon MSK?

The cost of using Amazon MSK is high, which is a significant disadvantage, as the increase in cloud costs by 50% to 60% does not justify the savings. There were no other notable issues.

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What is your primary use case for Amazon MSK?

We used Amazon MSK to manage high-volume third-party data entering our system. It served as a buffer when our system was unable to consume data at high speeds in real-time. The data initially went ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Confluent vs Aiven Platform

Compared 53% of the time

Talend Data Streams vs Aiven Platform

Compared 15% of the time

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Azure Stream Analytics vs Amazon MSK

Compared 34% of the time

Confluent vs Amazon MSK

Compared 22% of the time

Google Cloud Dataflow vs Amazon MSK

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon Kinesis vs Amazon MSK

Compared 10% of the time

Apache Pulsar vs Amazon MSK

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Streaming Analytics

March 2025

Download Aiven Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Amazon MSK

March 2025

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Also Known As

No data available

Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka

Overview

Aiven for Apache Kafka is a robust data streaming platform utilized for real-time analytics, event-driven architectures, and message brokering, enhancing data processing across systems. It features scalable operations, excellent data replication, and comprehensive monitoring, significantly improving organizational efficiency and decision-making processes through high-level data management capabilities.

Aiven

Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (Amazon MSK) is a fully managed service that enables you to build and run applications that use Apache Kafka to process streaming data. Amazon MSK provides the control-plane operations, such as those for creating, updating, and deleting clusters.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and others in Streaming Analytics. Updated: March 2025.

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