No. 7 of 24 ·Stream Processing Software

Kafka Streams

Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.6

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Kafka Streams is ranked #7 of 24 in stream processing software on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

Kafka Streams plans and pricing

All plans

Apache Kafka Streams Free available for download by anyone · no formal or commercial support apache.org · 30 Sept 2026

Compared on stream processing software

Free plan: Yes
Deployment model: self-hosted
SQL processing: No
Stateful processing: Yes
Event-time windows: Yes
Supported languages: Java, Scala

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The record

Purpose: Kafka Streams is a client library for building applications and microservices whose input and output data are stored in Kafka clusters.
Processing: Kafka Streams processes and analyzes data stored in Kafka, including event-time processing, windowing, and real-time application-state queries.
Scalability: Applications can run on one machine for a proof of concept and scale across multiple machines for high-volume production workloads.
Deployment: Kafka Streams applications can be deployed to containers, virtual machines, bare metal, or cloud environments.
Programming: Kafka Streams supports standard Java and Scala applications.
Processing semantics: Kafka Streams supports exactly-once processing semantics.
Architecture: Kafka Streams requires no separate processing cluster and uses Kafka as its internal messaging layer.
APIs: The Streams DSL provides operations such as map, filter, join, and aggregations, while the Processor API supports custom processors and state stores.
State: Kafka Streams supports fault-tolerant local state for stateful operations such as windowed joins and aggregations.
Security: Kafka Streams natively integrates with Kafka security features, including encryption in transit, client authentication, and client authorization.
Integrations: Kafka's ecosystem includes tools for stream processing, Hadoop integration, monitoring, and deployment, and Kafka Connect provides connectors for external systems.
Support: The Kafka project provides user, developer, JIRA, and commit mailing lists for community support and project communication.
License: Apache Software Foundation software is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.
Commercial support: The Apache Software Foundation says it does not sell its software or provide formal or commercial support for its packages.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Stream Processing Software in 2026#7 of 24

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Sources

kafka.apache.org/43/streams/introduction/· checked 30 Sept 2026
kafka.apache.org/43/streams/core-concepts/· checked 30 Sept 2026
kafka.apache.org/43/streams/developer-guide/security/· checked 30 Sept 2026
kafka.apache.org/43/getting-started/ecosystem/· checked 30 Sept 2026
kafka.apache.org/community/contact/· checked 30 Sept 2026
apache.org/licenses/· checked 30 Sept 2026
apache.org/foundation/faq.html· checked 30 Sept 2026
apache.org/security/· checked 30 Sept 2026
kafka.apache.org/streams/· checked 28 Sept 2026