Confluent Cloud
VerifiedFully managed, cloud-native Apache Kafka service with consumption-based pricing and 120+ connectors.
- Deployment Cloud Based
- Starting price $0/month base
- Free trial Available
- Best for Startups, SMEs, Enterprises
What is Confluent Cloud?
Confluent Cloud is a fully managed, cloud-native service for Apache Kafka, built and operated by the original creators of Apache Kafka. It runs on Confluent's proprietary Kora engine and handles cluster provisioning, scaling, patching, and upgrades so teams can stream and process event data in real time without operating Kafka brokers themselves.
The service uses consumption-based pricing across Basic, Standard, Enterprise, and Freight cluster tiers, with a free Basic tier that scales to zero when idle. Confluent Cloud includes more than 120 pre-built connectors, a schema registry, Apache Flink and ksqlDB stream processing, and Cluster Linking for bridging to existing Kafka deployments, plus support for Avro, Protobuf, and JSON Schema formats. Confluent is headquartered in Mountain View, California.
Key Features of Confluent Cloud
Confluent Cloud lists 10 documented features, including Fully managed Apache Kafka service built on the proprietary Kora engine, Consumption-based pricing with a serverless Basic tier that scales to zero and 99.99% uptime SLA on Enterprise-tier production clusters. The list below covers what the product does rather than how it is marketed.
- Fully managed Apache Kafka service built on the proprietary Kora engine
- Consumption-based pricing with a serverless Basic tier that scales to zero
- 99.99% uptime SLA on Enterprise-tier production clusters
- 120+ pre-built connectors to databases, data warehouses, and cloud storage via Confluent Hub
- Built-in Schema Registry supporting Avro, Protobuf, and JSON Schema
- Native Apache Flink integration for real-time stream processing
- ksqlDB support for SQL-based stream processing
- Cluster Linking for migrating or bridging existing Kafka clusters without downtime
- Stream governance tools including data lineage, catalog, and audit logs
- Role-based access control (RBAC) and customer-managed encryption keys on higher tiers
Confluent Cloud Pricing
Confluent Cloud lists 4 plans without published figures. Pricing is quoted on request.
Basic
$0/month base
Up to 5 TB storage, 1,500 partitions
Serverless, scales to zero when idle. First eCKU free, then $0.14 per eCKU-hour plus data in/out and storage charges. 99.5% SLA.
Standard
From approximately $385/month
Infinite storage, 2,500 partitions
$0.75 per eCKU-hour. Production-ready with 99.9-99.99% uptime SLA, includes Apache Flink and ksqlDB access.
Enterprise
From approximately $895/month
Infinite storage, up to 96,000 partitions
$1.75-$2.25 per eCKU-hour. Adds private networking, customer-managed encryption keys, audit logs, and 99.99% SLA.
Freight
From approximately $2,300/month
Up to 50,000 partitions
$2.25 per eCKU-hour, minimum 2 eCKUs. Specialty cluster tier optimized for high-throughput, cost-efficient data movement.
Confluent Cloud Specifications
Confluent Cloud is available on web app. It offers an API, has a free trial and has a free plan.
- cloud based
- web app
- startups
- smes
- enterprises
- phone
- live support
- training
- tickets
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