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Amazon MSK vs Azure Stream Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.9
Amazon MSK provides positive ROI by reducing integration time, minimizing licensing costs, and supporting flexible, cost-efficient experimentation with large data volumes.
Sentiment score
7.4
Azure Stream Analytics delivers 10% ROI with quick cloud deployment, minimal upfront costs, and efficient solutions for simple scenarios.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.9
Amazon MSK customer service is generally praised for accessibility and responsiveness, but expertise and cost can vary by plan.
Sentiment score
6.8
Azure Stream Analytics support is helpful, with mostly positive feedback, though communication gaps and perceived quality decline exist.
Amazon's support is excellent.
There is a big communication gap due to lack of understanding of local scenarios and language barriers.
They've managed to answer all my questions and provide help in a timely manner.
Any time I needed assistance, they were helpful.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Amazon MSK offers efficient manual scalability, rated six to nine by users, suitable for different organizational needs.
Sentiment score
7.8
Azure Stream Analytics offers scalable, cloud-based connectivity; efficiently supporting growth and data transformations despite potential cost increases.
The functionality for scaling comes out of the box and is very effective.
Maintenance requires a couple of people, however, it's not a full-time endeavor.
Azure Stream Analytics is scalable, and I would rate it seven out of ten.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Amazon MSK is stable with high user ratings, though concerns exist due to its newness and some Windows-specific issues.
Sentiment score
6.7
Azure Stream Analytics is stable, with satisfied users noting challenges like diagnosing failures; Microsoft support and updates enhance reliability.
They require significant effort and fine-tuning to function effectively.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon MSK needs better integration, configuration ease, improved documentation, cost reduction, and feature enhancements to compete and integrate effectively.
Azure Stream Analytics requires pricing clarity, better support, enhanced data handling, query flexibility, and improved UI for user satisfaction.
The increase in cloud costs by 50% to 60% does not justify the savings.
There's setup time required to get it integrated with different services such as Power BI, so it's not a straight out-of-the-box configuration.
A cost comparison between products is also not straightforward.
Although customers can invite Microsoft Taiwan office staff for introductions, there are not many useful case references, suggesting room for improvement in market support.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon MSK is cost-effective for large workloads but can be expensive for smaller use cases, needing careful evaluation.
Azure Stream Analytics offers competitive, pay-as-you-go pricing per hour, but billing reports can be confusing for some users.
Once we started using Kafka, our cloud costs rose by 50% to 60%.
The Azure solution is better now, and competitors, even within Microsoft, may offer solutions that could make it cheaper.
We sell the data analytics value and operational value to customers, focusing on productivity and efficiency from the cloud.
Regarding the cost of Azure Stream Analytics, I believe the price is reasonable for the tool.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon MSK offers seamless AWS integration, cost-efficiency, simplified setup, and reliable performance for CDC pipelines and asynchronous data collection.
Azure Stream Analytics offers real-time analytics, Azure integration, scalable data management, easy setup, and efficient SQL-like query processing.
The scalability and usability are quite remarkable.
It's very accurate and uses existing technologies in terms of writing queries, utilizing standard query languages such as SQL, Spark, and others to provide information.
Clients can choose and subscribe to the service items they need, making it more flexible than IBM solutions, especially in data analytics or data governance.
The native connectors and integration with other Microsoft products.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon MSK
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
6th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Azure Stream Analytics
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Amazon MSK is 6.8%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure Stream Analytics is 9.2%, down from 12.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

FNU AKSHANSH - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
SantiagoCordero - PeerSpot reviewer
Native connectors and integration simplify tasks but portfolio complexity needs addressing
There are too many products in the Azure landscape, which sometimes leads to overlap between them. Microsoft continuously releases new products or solutions, which can be frustrating when determining the appropriate features from one solution over another. A cost comparison between products is also not straightforward. They should simplify their portfolio. The Microsoft licensing system is confusing and not easy to understand, and this is something they should address. In the future, I may stop using Stream Analytics and move to other solutions. I discussed Palantir earlier, which is something I want to explore in depth because it allows me to accomplish more efficiently compared to solely using Azure. Additionally, the vendors should make the solution more user-friendly, incorporating low-code and no-code features. This is something I wish to explore further.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Retailer
5%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon MSK?
Amazon MSK has significantly improved our organization by building seamless integration between systems.
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.
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 ...
Which would you choose - Databricks or Azure Stream Analytics?
Databricks is an easy-to-set-up and versatile tool for data management, analysis, and business analytics. For analytics teams that have to interpret data to further the business goals of their orga...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Stream Analytics?
Regarding the cost of Azure Stream Analytics, I believe the price is reasonable for the tool.
What needs improvement with Azure Stream Analytics?
There were challenges with Azure Stream Analytics. When I initially started, the learning curve was difficult because I didn't have knowledge of the service. There's setup time required to get it i...
 

Also Known As

Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka
ASA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Rockwell Automation, Milliman, Honeywell Building Solutions, Arcoflex Automation Solutions, Real Madrid C.F., Aerocrine, Ziosk, Tacoma Public Schools, P97 Networks
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon MSK vs. Azure Stream Analytics and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.