Streamkap vs Debezium: Managed CDC vs Self-Hosted Open Source

This comparison is unique because Streamkap is built on Debezium. You’re not choosing between different CDC technologies—you’re choosing between managing that technology yourself or having it managed for you.

Debezium is the gold standard for open-source Change Data Capture, powering CDC at companies like Netflix, Uber, and Goldman Sachs. It’s incredibly capable but requires significant expertise to deploy and operate. Streamkap packages Debezium with managed Kafka and Flink, giving you enterprise-grade CDC without the operational complexity.

Quick Comparison: Same Technology, Different Experience

Aspect	Streamkap	Debezium (Self-Hosted)
CDC Engine	Debezium (managed)	Debezium (DIY)
Deployment	Fully managed SaaS	Self-hosted
Setup Time	Minutes	Days to weeks
Kafka Cluster	Included, managed	You provision and manage
Schema Registry	Included	You provision and manage
Kafka Connect	Managed	You manage
Monitoring	Built-in dashboards	Build your own
Scaling	Automatic	Manual
Upgrades	Automatic	Manual
Maintenance	Zero	Ongoing (4-10 hrs/week)
Cost	$600+/month	Infra + ops time
Best For	Fast time-to-value, no ops	Full control, air-gapped

Understanding Debezium

What Debezium Does

Debezium is an open-source distributed platform for Change Data Capture. It captures row-level changes in databases by reading transaction logs:

• PostgreSQL: Reads the Write-Ahead Log via logical replication
• MySQL/MariaDB: Reads the binary log (binlog)
• SQL Server: Uses Change Tracking or CDC features
• MongoDB: Reads the oplog or change streams
• Oracle: Uses LogMiner or XStream
• Db2: Uses SQL replication

Debezium runs as Kafka Connect source connectors, publishing change events to Kafka topics. It’s battle-tested, handling billions of events daily at major enterprises.

The Debezium Stack

To run Debezium in production, you need:

[Source Databases]
       ↓
[Kafka Connect Cluster] ← Debezium Connectors
       ↓
[Kafka Cluster] ← ZooKeeper or KRaft
       ↓
[Schema Registry] ← Avro schemas
       ↓
[Sink Connectors or Consumers]
       ↓
[Destinations]

Each component requires provisioning, configuration, monitoring, and maintenance.

The Self-Hosted Debezium Experience

Running Debezium in production is a significant undertaking. Let’s walk through what it actually involves.

Infrastructure Requirements

Minimum Production Setup:

Component	Nodes	Specs	Purpose
Kafka Brokers	3	8 CPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD	Message storage
ZooKeeper	3	2 CPU, 4GB RAM	Cluster coordination
Kafka Connect	2-3	4 CPU, 16GB RAM	Run Debezium
Schema Registry	2	2 CPU, 4GB RAM	Schema management

Estimated Infrastructure Cost: $2,000-5,000/month (cloud VMs)

Setup Process

A typical Debezium deployment involves:

Week 1: Infrastructure

• Provision Kafka cluster (or use managed Kafka)
• Set up ZooKeeper or configure KRaft
• Deploy Schema Registry
• Configure networking, security groups
• Set up monitoring infrastructure

Week 2: Kafka Connect

• Deploy Kafka Connect workers
• Configure distributed mode
• Set up connector plugins
• Configure converters and transforms

Week 3: Debezium Configuration

• Configure source database for CDC (replication slots, binlog, etc.)
• Create Debezium connector configurations
• Handle initial snapshots
• Test failover and recovery

Week 4: Productionization

• Set up monitoring and alerting
• Configure log aggregation
• Document runbooks
• Load testing and tuning

Total Time to Production: 3-4 weeks (with experienced team)

Ongoing Operations

Once running, Debezium requires continuous attention:

Daily Tasks:

• Monitor connector status and lag
• Check for replication slot growth (PostgreSQL)
• Review error logs

Weekly Tasks:

• Capacity planning review
• Performance tuning
• Security patch assessment

Monthly Tasks:

• Version upgrades
• Infrastructure updates
• Disaster recovery testing

Estimated Ongoing Effort: 4-10 hours per week

Common Operational Challenges

Teams running Debezium commonly encounter:

1. Replication Slot Bloat (PostgreSQL)

   • Slots can consume disk space if not properly managed
   • Requires monitoring and cleanup procedures

2. Connector Failures

   • Network issues, schema changes, permission problems
   • Requires alerting and manual intervention

3. Snapshot Management

   • Initial snapshots can take hours for large tables
   • Coordinating snapshots with production load

4. Schema Evolution

   • Breaking schema changes require careful handling
   • Schema Registry compatibility management

5. Scaling Challenges

   • Adding Kafka Connect workers
   • Rebalancing connector tasks
   • Kafka partition management

The Streamkap Experience

Streamkap wraps the same Debezium technology in a fully managed platform.

Setup Process

Step 1: Create Source (5 minutes)

• Select database type
• Enter connection details
• Streamkap validates connectivity and permissions

Step 2: Configure Tables (5 minutes)

• Select tables to capture
• Choose initial snapshot mode
• Configure schema evolution handling

Step 3: Create Destination (5 minutes)

• Select destination type
• Enter credentials
• Streamkap configures optimal loading

Total Time to Production: 15-30 minutes

What’s Included

Everything you’d need to build yourself:

• Debezium CDC: Same battle-tested connectors
• Managed Kafka: Dedicated, secure, auto-scaled
• Schema Registry: Automatic schema management
• Monitoring: Real-time dashboards, alerting
• Scaling: Automatic based on throughput
• Upgrades: Zero-downtime rolling updates

What You Don’t Have To Do

With Streamkap, you never:

• Provision or manage Kafka clusters
• Configure ZooKeeper or KRaft
• Deploy Kafka Connect workers
• Manage Debezium connector configs
• Handle replication slot cleanup
• Debug connector failures at 2 AM
• Plan capacity and scaling
• Coordinate version upgrades

Feature Comparison

CDC Capabilities

Both use identical Debezium connectors, so CDC capabilities are equivalent:

Feature	Streamkap	Debezium
PostgreSQL CDC	✓ (via Debezium)	✓
MySQL CDC	✓ (via Debezium)	✓
SQL Server CDC	✓ (via Debezium)	✓
MongoDB CDC	✓ (via Debezium)	✓
Oracle CDC	✓ (via Debezium)	✓
Initial Snapshots	✓	✓
Schema Evolution	✓ (automatic)	✓ (manual config)
Exactly-Once Delivery	✓	✓

Operational Features

The operational experience differs dramatically:

Feature	Streamkap	Debezium
Setup Time	Minutes	Weeks
Infrastructure Management	Zero	Full responsibility
Monitoring Dashboard	Built-in	Build yourself
Alerting	Included	Configure yourself
Auto-Scaling	Automatic	Manual
Upgrades	Automatic	Manual
Support	Included	Community/paid

Stream Processing

Feature	Streamkap	Debezium
SQL Transforms	Built-in (Flink)	SMTs only
Python Transforms	Built-in	Not available
Complex Routing	Visual + code	SMT configuration
Aggregations	Flink streaming	External (ksqlDB, Flink)

Debezium offers Single Message Transforms (SMTs) for basic transformations. For anything complex, you need additional infrastructure (Flink, ksqlDB).

Streamkap includes Apache Flink for sophisticated stream processing without additional setup.

Cost Comparison

Self-Hosted Debezium Costs

Infrastructure (cloud-based):

Component	Monthly Cost
Kafka Cluster (3 nodes)	$1,000-2,000
ZooKeeper (3 nodes)	$200-400
Kafka Connect (3 nodes)	$500-1,000
Schema Registry (2 nodes)	$200-400
Monitoring/Logging	$200-500
Total Infrastructure	$2,100-4,300

Operations:

Task	Hours/Month	Cost (@$100/hr)
Monitoring/Troubleshooting	8-16	$800-1,600
Upgrades/Maintenance	4-8	$400-800
Capacity Planning	2-4	$200-400
Total Operations	14-28 hrs	$1,400-2,800

Total Self-Hosted Cost: $3,500-7,100/month

Alternative: Managed Kafka + Debezium

Using Confluent Cloud or AWS MSK reduces some burden:

Component	Monthly Cost
Managed Kafka	$1,500-3,000
Kafka Connect (self-managed)	$500-1,000
Schema Registry (managed)	Included or $200
Ops time (reduced)	$700-1,400
Total	$2,900-5,600

Better, but you still manage Kafka Connect and Debezium.

Streamkap Costs

Plan	Monthly Cost	Capacity
Starter	$600	10GB/month
Scale	$1,800	150GB/month
Enterprise	Custom	Unlimited

All-inclusive: Kafka, Debezium, Flink, monitoring, support.

ROI Analysis

For a mid-sized deployment (50GB/month CDC data):

Approach	Monthly Cost	Time to Production
Self-hosted Debezium	$4,000-6,000	3-4 weeks
Managed Kafka + Debezium	$3,500-5,000	2-3 weeks
Streamkap Scale	$1,800	Days

Streamkap is often 2-3x cheaper when you factor in true total cost of ownership.

When to Choose Self-Hosted Debezium

Debezium DIY makes sense when:

1. You need full control: Specific network configurations, custom security policies, or unique deployment requirements that SaaS can’t accommodate.

2. Air-gapped environments: Regulatory or security requirements prohibit cloud SaaS solutions.

3. You’re already running Kafka: If you have an existing Kafka platform with dedicated operations team, adding Debezium is incremental.

4. Custom connector development: You need to modify Debezium source code or develop custom connectors.

5. Learning and experimentation: Understanding Debezium internals is valuable, and self-hosted is great for learning.

6. Extreme scale requirements: Processing millions of events per second with custom optimizations.

When to Choose Streamkap

Streamkap is the better choice when:

1. Time-to-production matters: Start streaming CDC data in minutes, not weeks.

2. You don’t want to manage infrastructure: No Kafka clusters, no Connect workers, no ZooKeeper.

3. You lack Kafka expertise: Streamkap doesn’t require Kafka knowledge to operate.

4. Predictable costs are important: Fixed monthly pricing vs. variable infrastructure + ops costs.

5. You need stream processing: Built-in Flink for SQL/Python transforms without additional infrastructure.

6. Reliability is critical: 99.9%+ SLA with automatic failover and recovery.

7. You want Debezium without the pain: Same battle-tested CDC technology, zero operational burden.

Migration: From DIY Debezium to Streamkap

If you’re running Debezium and considering Streamkap:

Assessment

• Inventory current Debezium connectors
• Document custom configurations (SMTs, etc.)
• Measure current throughput and latency

Migration Steps

1. Parallel Deployment: Set up Streamkap alongside existing Debezium
2. Configure Sources: Point Streamkap at the same databases
3. Snapshot: Streamkap captures current state
4. Validation: Compare data between both systems
5. Cutover: Switch consumers to Streamkap
6. Decommission: Shut down self-hosted infrastructure

What Translates

Debezium Concept	Streamkap Equivalent
Kafka topics	Kafka topics (included)
Connector configs	Source/Destination configs
Simple SMTs	SQL transforms
Complex SMTs	Python transforms
Monitoring	Built-in dashboards

What Changes

• No Kafka cluster management
• No Connect worker management
• Configuration via UI instead of JSON
• Built-in monitoring replaces custom dashboards

Conclusion: Same Engine, Different Vehicle

Debezium is exceptional technology—battle-tested, performant, and reliable. The question isn’t about CDC capability; it’s about operational model.

Self-hosted Debezium gives you complete control at the cost of significant operational investment. It’s the right choice for organizations with existing Kafka expertise, specific compliance requirements, or the need for deep customization.

Streamkap delivers the same Debezium-powered CDC without the infrastructure burden. For teams that want to focus on using data rather than managing pipelines, Streamkap provides a faster path to production at lower total cost.

Both approaches deliver enterprise-grade CDC. The difference is where you spend your time and money—on infrastructure operations or on deriving value from your real-time data.

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