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Apache Kafka vs TIBCO Streaming comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 25, 2025

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

Apache Kafka
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
TIBCO Streaming
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
26th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
CEP (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Apache Kafka is 3.7%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO Streaming is 0.7%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Streaming Analytics Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Apache Kafka3.7%
TIBCO Streaming0.7%
Other95.6%
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

Snehasish Das - PeerSpot reviewer
Data streaming transforms real-time data movement with impressive scalability
I worked with Apache Kafka for customers in the financial industry and OTT platforms. They use Kafka particularly for data streaming. Companies offering movie and entertainment as a service, similar to Netflix, use Kafka Apache Kafka offers unique data streaming. It allows the use of data in…
MK
Good stability and scalability with the capability to combine with Spotfire
The ability for StreamBase to combine with Spotfire is its most valuable aspect. The ability to handle data in motion and the entirety of data at the same time is very good. If you don't integrate the two together it's just a monitoring tool, but if they're combined together it becomes a powerful analytical tool. When you can combine live data from streaming data sources with standing data from the customer's primary database then you can calculate some KPIs or thresholds based on the previous information. We can do data science, machine learning methods or just clever queries. You can view all this online. If a KPI hits a redline, you can send alerts, which is the solution's most functional feature.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Kafka allows you to handle huge amounts of data and classify it into different categories. If you have huge amounts of data, Kafka is a very good solution for data classification."
"The most valuable features are the stream API, consumer groups, and the way that the scaling takes place."
"A great streaming platform."
"Apache Kafka is very fast and stable."
"It is a stable solution...A lot of my experience indicates that Apache Kafka is scalable."
"I appreciate that Apache Kafka is fast and secure thanks to implementing it with AWS, allowing me to secure it on a high level."
"The most valuable feature is the documentation, which is good and clear."
"This is a system for email and other small devices. There has been a relay of transactions continuously over the last two years it has been in production."
"The ability for StreamBase to combine with Spotfire is its most valuable aspect. The ability to handle data in motion and the entirety of data at the same time is very good. If you don't integrate the two together it's just a monitoring tool, but if they're combined together it becomes a powerful analytical tool."
 

Cons

"More Windows support, I believe, is one area where it can improve."
"Pulsar gives more scalability to an even grouping, but Apache Kafka is used more if you want to send something in a time series-based. If this does not matter to you then Pulsar could be more customizable. Apache Kafka is nothing but a streaming system with local storage."
"would like to see real-time event-based consumption of messages rather than the traditional way through a loop. The traditional messaging system works by listing and looping with a small wait to check to see what the messages are. A push system is where you have something that is ready to receive a message and when the message comes in and hits the partition, it goes straight to the consumer versus the consumer having to pull. I believe this consumer approach is something they are working on and may come in an upcoming release. However, that is message consumption versus message listening."
"Stability of the API and the technical support could be improved."
"The management tool could be improved."
"It's not possible to substitute IBM MQ with Apache Kafka because the JMS part is not very stable."
"As an open-source project, Kafka is still fairly young and has not yet built out the stability and features that other open-source projects have acquired over the many years. If done correctly, Kafka can also take over the stream-processing space that technologies such as Apache Storm cover."
"There is a lot of information available for the solution and it can be overwhelming to sort through."
"The solution should be more user-friendly for developers. Right now, you need a strong programmer to tune the solution. It's complicated product. I'm not sure if it can be done via self-service with BI. Because I'm from BI, I want more simplicity."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would not subscribe to the Confluent platform, but rather stay on the free open source version. The extra cost wasn't justified."
"The price of the solution is low."
"Apache Kafka is an open-source solution."
"I was using the product's free version."
"The solution is open source; it's free to use."
"The solution is open source."
"This is an open-source version."
"This is an open-source solution and is free to use."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Retailer
5%
Financial Services Firm
24%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Performing Arts
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise47
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What are the differences between Apache Kafka and IBM MQ?
Apache Kafka is open source and can be used for free. It has very good log management and has a way to store the data used for analytics. Apache Kafka is very good if you have a high number of user...
What do you like most about Apache Kafka?
Apache Kafka is an open-source solution that can be used for messaging or event processing.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Kafka?
Its pricing is reasonable. It's not always about cost, but about meeting specific needs.
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Also Known As

No data available
TIBCO Streambase CEP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Uber, Netflix, Activision, Spotify, Slack, Pinterest
Blendtec, Brembo, CargoSmart, Hunt Oil, Autodata, Bank of Montreal
Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Confluent and others in Streaming Analytics. Updated: September 2025.
868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.