No. 11 of 20 ·Change Data Capture Software

Maxwell's Daemon

Linux · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Two barsScore 6.3

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely1 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Maxwell's Daemon is ranked #11 of 20 in change data capture software on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, Self-hosted. There is a free plan.

Maxwell's Daemon plans and pricing

All plans

Free Free No paid plans or usage limits stated on the opened pages maxwells-daemon.io · 3 Oct 2026

Compared on change data capture software

Deployment model: self-hosted
Capture method: log-based
Schema evolution: Yes
Initial snapshot: Yes

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The record

What it does: Maxwell reads MySQL binlogs and writes database changes as JSON to Kafka, Kinesis, and other streaming platforms.
Use cases: The site lists ETL, database change auditing, cache building or expiring, search indexing, and inter-service communication as use cases.
Output integrations: Documented producers include Kafka, Kinesis, SQS, SNS, NATS, Google Cloud Pub/Sub, BigQuery, RabbitMQ, and Redis.
Filtering: Maxwell can filter by database, table, and column values, and supports JavaScript filters for custom row filtering and data changes.
Encryption: When enabled, Maxwell encrypts messages with AES/CBC/PKCS5PADDING using a user-provided key, then base64-encodes values.
Monitoring: Metrics can be exposed through logging, JMX, HTTP, or Datadog, and HTTP endpoints include metrics, Prometheus, health check, ping, and diagnostics.
Deployment: The quick start documents running Maxwell from the command line or Docker and provides a binary distribution and Homebrew installation command.
Requirements: The compatibility page lists JRE 11 or above, MySQL 5.1, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, or 8, and Kafka 0.8.2 or greater when using Kafka.
Notable limitation: With binlog_row_image=MINIMAL, UPDATE and DELETE output may be incomplete, and INSERT output omits column default values.
High availability: The documentation describes client-side high availability as experimental and alpha quality, and says at least three Maxwell nodes are needed for leader elections.
Support and source: The quick start directs users to GitHub for source code and bug tracking.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Change Data Capture Software in 2026#11 of 20

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Sources

maxwells-daemon.io· checked 3 Oct 2026
maxwells-daemon.io/producers/· checked 3 Oct 2026
maxwells-daemon.io/filtering/· checked 3 Oct 2026
maxwells-daemon.io/encryption/· checked 3 Oct 2026
maxwells-daemon.io/monitoring/· checked 3 Oct 2026
maxwells-daemon.io/quickstart/· checked 3 Oct 2026
maxwells-daemon.io/compat/· checked 3 Oct 2026
maxwells-daemon.io/high_availability/· checked 3 Oct 2026