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Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud vs n8n 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
4.7
Confluent Cloud's Kafka offers cost-effective scalability and reliability, enhancing data processing and schema management despite higher costs.
Sentiment score
4.7
n8n boosts ROI by automating tasks cost-effectively, enhancing productivity, and reducing the need for external developers.
Returns depend on the application you deploy and the amount of benefits you are getting, which depends on how many applications you are deploying, what are the sorts of applications, and what are the requirements.
Chief Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
n8n provides a strong return on investment and is very helpful and cost-optimized.
Cloud Engineering and Automation Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
They can save costs because they can reduce the hiring process for external developers for this type of automation that they can do themselves.
ERP recommendation specialist at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
I believe the return on investment from using n8n is good because employees who previously worked on the specific problems I've automated can now focus on other, more interesting tasks.
AI and Automation Engineer at PeerSpot
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Apache Kafka support on Confluent Cloud is praised for timely and competent assistance, with high user satisfaction ratings.
Sentiment score
4.2
n8n support experiences vary; some find it helpful, while others rely on online resources, with community support praised.
I was getting prompt responses, and it was nicely handled regarding the support.
Lead Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I would rate them eight if 10 was the best and one was the worst.
Chief Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I describe the support team as knowledgeable, helpful, and responsive.
ERP recommendation specialist at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
I can reach out to members of the community, ask questions, and usually within a week, they're answered.
Solutions Architect at Bear Systems
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
5.8
Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is scalable and flexible, though some users report reliability issues when scaling.
Sentiment score
6.6
n8n supports moderate scalability, managing increased workloads with configuration, but technical expertise is needed for optimal large-scale performance.
According to me, it is quite scalable in terms of all the data it can handle and stream.
Lead Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The standard solution allows for about five workflows at the same time, and it is scalable since I can upgrade my plan for more executions and workflows if needed.
AI and Automation Engineer at PeerSpot
One approach might take a day to go through all of it and another approach might take fifteen minutes to go through all of it.
Solutions Architect at Bear Systems
It is crucial to have a technical team to support you with real experience in n8n and large-scale implementations.
ERP recommendation specialist at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.0
Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is stable and reliable, with occasional issues in high traffic and dashboard access.
Sentiment score
6.8
n8n is stable with minor CPU and connection issues, praised for reliability and low self-hosting costs by experienced users.
n8n deployments are some of the cheapest that I've come across; the monthly cost for n8n deployment self-hosted rarely exceeds five dollars.
Solutions Architect at Bear Systems
I have not had any downtime with n8n.
Business automation Expert at INSTRUTECH LIMITED
n8n is stable, though the part that can be less stable is that you must stay connected to many APIs.
AI and Automation Engineer at PeerSpot
 

Room For Improvement

Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud needs improvements in integrations, user interface, cost, monitoring, and configuration for enhanced functionality.
n8n needs improved user experience, scalability, documentation, integrations, and features for non-technical users and team collaboration.
If it were easier to configure clusters and had more straightforward configuration, high-level API abstraction in the APIs could improve it.
Partner at SouJava
Regarding additional improvements, I would say probably around error handling, where when we encounter errors specific to our response structures and everything, or the tables or anything of that nature, it would be better if we were prompted with better error handling mechanisms.
Lead Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Observability and monitoring are areas that could be enhanced.
Chief Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Documentation is really good.
Automations Engineer at Ad Up
Even though I can connect to different platforms with the HTTP node, it would be easier for people who are not technically advanced to connect with the internal integrations.
Business automation Expert at INSTRUTECH LIMITED
I would appreciate having more AI integrated into n8n, specifically an AI agent to help me better understand how to build workflows and assist when I encounter errors.
AI and Automation Engineer at PeerSpot
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise users of Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud find pricing accessible but warn of potential cost surges with added features.
Enterprise users appreciate n8n's scalable pricing, low infrastructure costs, and free open source version with unlimited runs.
I thought Confluent would stop me when I crossed the credits, but it did not, and then I got charged.
Lead Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The open source version is free.
Business automation Expert at INSTRUTECH LIMITED
I feel that the price is right as I'm using the standard version, which allows for about one thousand five hundred executions per month, which is sufficient for me and my organization.
AI and Automation Engineer at PeerSpot
For cloud environments, I noticed that depending on the number of nodes used and the number of executions, the basic plan might not be enough.
ERP recommendation specialist at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
 

Valuable Features

Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud enables scalable, efficient real-time data processing with seamless platform integration and advanced management features.
n8n offers flexible, integrative low-code automation, supports 500+ apps, enhances productivity, and appeals to developers with its open-source nature.
These features are important due to scalability and resiliency.
Chief Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The Kafka Streams API helps with real-time data transformations and aggregations.
Partner at SouJava
The best features Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud offers would be the connection with various external systems through various languages such as Python and C#.
Lead Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
My clients know that the information is not leaking or being sold to anybody.
Business automation Expert at INSTRUTECH LIMITED
You can use expressions anywhere. Expressions are basic JavaScript functions or JavaScript code that you can put in any node to pass data dynamically.
Automations Engineer at Ad Up
n8n has positively impacted my organization by making our work faster and automated, eliminating the need to do everything manually.
Cloud Engineering and Automation Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache Kafka on Confluent C...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Streaming Analytics (12th)
n8n
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Workload Automation (11th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (15th), AI-Agent Builders (2nd), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (15th), AI Scheduling & Coordination (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

AF
Lead Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Has unified log streams from multiple systems and accelerated issue tracking through streamlined setup
I think Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud can be improved by probably working more around Confluent or the tool. In my opinion, it should utilize the response structures in a better way or be able to detect if there is any variable or if there is any data structure that is mismatched, as it would be easier than us manually having to put in the exact name in order for it to match the response. Regarding additional improvements, I would say probably around error handling, where when we encounter errors specific to our response structures and everything, or the tables or anything of that nature, it would be better if we were prompted with better error handling mechanisms. I do not think there are any other improvements Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud needs, aside from error handling and response structures.
NR
ERP recommendation specialist at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
Automation has transformed complex workflows and has empowered non‑technical teams to build flows
Regarding improvements for n8n, I would highlight two areas. First, while there is a growing community, the ecosystem of pre-built nodes for niche or proprietary systems still lags behind some commercial competitors. I often have to build custom HTTP request nodes or create my own node packages, which is doable but adds to project timelines. Second, features for team collaboration and lifecycle management are still evolving. Moving workflows from development to staging to production can be a manual export-import process, and native Git integration and more robust user roles for larger client teams would be a game-changer. Regarding needed improvements, I believe much of the existing documentation is not peer-reviewed. There is definitely a big community, but if the documentation or tutorials were approved or at least had a badge from n8n, customers would feel that this meets the standards of n8n editors themselves, which would give more confidence in the flows.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Insurance Company
5%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
I think Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud can be improved by probably working more around Confluent or the tool. In my opinion, it should utilize the response structures in a better way or be able to...
What is your primary use case for Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
I have used Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud for one of my projects with regard to log monitoring. My main use case for Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud in that project was mainly streaming of the lo...
What advice do you have for others considering Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud?
My advice to others looking into using Apache Kafka on Confluent Cloud is that it is easier and has a low learning curve. If there is any use case regarding streaming, I would suggest starting off ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for n8n?
My experience with pricing and setup costs has been good. I feel that the price is right as I'm using the standard version, which allows for about one thousand five hundred executions per month, wh...
What needs improvement with n8n?
I wrote a message to n8n regarding a problem I faced, but I cannot recall what it was. Currently, most products nowadays include walkthrough or guide videos, short videos of 20 to 30 seconds that i...
What is your primary use case for n8n?
I worked on n8n, and Morgan messaged me on LinkedIn to review and provide feedback about the n8n product. I have used n8n for almost six months and built a personal project with it. My main goal wa...
 

Also Known As

No data available
n8n.io n8n
 

Overview

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