Redpanda vs. Amazon MSK: Which is better?
Simpler operations, high performance, and responsive support. Learn why companies are choosing Redpanda over Amazon MSK to power mission-critical data streams with confidence.
Customers that made the switch
Why Redpanda?
Redpanda makes real-time data processing easy. Streamlined architecture, great performance, and developer-friendly tools—all without external dependencies. Build more, spend less, and be agile with the unified platform that simplifies building real-time applications.
Single Binary Architecture
Redpanda’s streamlined, single-binary architecture eliminates the need for multiple specialized components, seamlessly providing native Kafka functionality without the usual complexity.
Exceptional Latency & Scale
With Redpanda, experience 10x lower average latencies and a reduced hardware footprint, delivering the power to scale effortlessly to GB/s throughput.
Cost-Effective Solution
Redpanda provides 3-6x greater cost efficiency compared to traditional Kafka infrastructure, lowering both infrastructure and operational costs for your team.
24x7 Expert Support
Enjoy round-the-clock support from dedicated account managers, a direct Slack channel, helpdesk access, and solutions experts always ready to assist.
Key feature breakdown
 Redpanda Serverless | Redpanda BYOC |  Amazon MSK | Amazon MSK Serverless | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deploy | ||||
| Deployment Model |  Fully managed | Fully managed |  Limited automation for Standard brokers; Express brokers are fully managed, but less customizable | Fully managed |
| Provisioning Time | Instant (pre-provisioned) | Tens of minutes | Mixed provisioning: Slow for Standard brokers, faster (but more expensive) for Express | Minutes |
| Operate | ||||
| Operational Overhead | None | Minimal, fully managed with native Raft implementation (no ZooKeeper or KRaft) |  Standard requires ZooKeeper or KRaft, more maintenance | Minimal, fully managed |
| Maintenance | None | Automated updates, customer-defined maintenance window | Depends: Standard requires manual intervention; Express is automated, but can't control maintenance window | None |
| SLA | 99.9% | 99.99% | 99.9% uptime, exclusions for Apache Kafka, ZooKeeper, etc | 99.9% uptime, similar exclusions |
| Scale | ||||
| Scalability | Automatic scaling | BYOC supports multi-GB/s write & read throughput, but in defined service tiers | Broker trade-offs: Manual & slow for Standard with partition sprawl issues; Express is faster but higher price-performance | Automatic scaling |
| Performance | Better price-performance across 5K max partitions | Low latency, optimized C++ engine; integrated auto partition balancing | Higher latency, JVM-based Kafka; Standard requires Cruise Control for auto partition rebalancing | Limited to 2.4K partitions |
| Pricing | Pay-go pricing, with $0.10/hour base cost; discounts + expert support via annual commitment | Higher costs for multi-AZ but reduced in single-AZ; BYOC uses existing discounts and committed spend | Tiered Storage costs 3x more than Redpanda, with higher per-instance costs for Express; discounts for large orgs + no cross-AZ fees | Pay-go pricing with $0.75/hour base cost; support staffed by cloud generalists |
| Innovate | ||||
| Data Sovereignty | No control over underlying infrastructure | Full control over infrastructure, BYOC option for compliance on AWS, GCP, Azure | AWS-owned Tiered Storage, MSK not available in GCP or Azure | No control over underlying infrastructure |
| Roadmap Recap | Uses the same core engine as Redpanda BYOC, but some enterprise features not supported (e.g., AWS PrivateLink) | 2024: Apache Iceberg integration, native connectors for Snowpipe Streaming & PostgreSQL CDC, ultra low-latency write caching mode | 2024: Express brokers, scale down of Standard brokers, KRaft support | 2023: Added Asia regions |
Take A Deep Dive
Start building with Redpanda
You'll find it's easy to install and simple to get up and running with our lightening-fast streaming data platform.
Try free on Marketplace | Instant Serverless clusters
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Looking to improve application performance and simplify data pipelines? Give Redpanda a try or get in touch with us to learn more.
Try free on Marketplace | Instant Serverless clusters
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