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Streamkap vs Debezium (DIY)

Streamkap uses the same Debezium CDC engine you trust, but fully managed. Get Debezium's power without operating Kafka Connect clusters.

TL;DR: Choose Streamkap for Debezium without the ops. Choose DIY only if you have dedicated platform engineering resources.

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Same
CDC Engine

Debezium under the hood

0
Ops Overhead

Fully managed vs self-managed

Minutes
Setup Time

vs weeks for DIY

Same Debezium, Zero Ops

Streamkap uses the same Debezium CDC engine you know and trust. We handle the Kafka Connect clusters, schema registry, monitoring, and scaling so you can focus on your data.

Same Debezium connectors
Same configuration options
Zero infrastructure to manage
Debezium
Apache Kafka
Schema Registry
Apache Flink

What You Manage with DIY Debezium

With DIY Debezium, you're responsible for deploying and managing multiple components:

Kafka cluster (3+ brokers minimum)
Zookeeper ensemble (or KRaft)
Kafka Connect cluster (workers)
Schema Registry
Monitoring stack (Prometheus, Grafana)
Connector deployments and configs

Ongoing Operations

DIY Debezium requires ongoing maintenance and operational expertise:

Kafka partition rebalancing
Connect worker scaling
Connector offset management
Schema compatibility checks
Version upgrades across components
Disaster recovery and backup
Security patching

Feature Comparison

Feature
Streamkap
Self-Managed Debezium
CDC engine
Debezium
Debezium
Kafka
Managed & included
You deploy & manage
Schema Registry
Managed & included
You deploy & manage
Connector management
UI/API/Terraform
REST API + YAML
Scaling
Automatic
Manual Kafka Connect scaling
Monitoring
Built-in dashboards
Build your own
Stream processing
Flink built-in
Deploy separately
Failure recovery
Automatic
Manual intervention
Upgrades
Zero downtime
Planned maintenance
Setup time
Minutes
Weeks
Team required
None dedicated
Platform engineers
Support
Enterprise SLAs
Community forums

Total Cost of Ownership

DIY Debezium has hidden costs beyond infrastructure

Cost Item
DIY Debezium
Streamkap
Infrastructure (Kafka, Connect, etc.)
$2,000-10,000/mo
Included
Platform engineer time
$15,000-25,000/mo
None
Initial setup (one-time)
4-8 weeks engineering
Hours
Monitoring & alerting
Build + maintain
Included

Which Should You Choose?

Choose Streamkap if you:

  • Want Debezium without the ops
  • No dedicated platform team
  • Need to move fast
  • Prefer managed services
  • Need enterprise support
  • Want built-in stream processing
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Consider Self-Managed Debezium if you:

  • Have dedicated platform team
  • Need complete control
  • Specific compliance requirements
  • Existing Kafka expertise
  • Custom connector modifications
  • Air-gapped environments

Get Debezium without the ops

Same CDC technology. Fully managed. Start in minutes with a free 30-day trial.

Start Free Trial
Talk to Sales