Apache Flink vs PubSub+ Event Broker comparison

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10,053 views|6,824 comparisons
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874 views|658 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Apache Flink and PubSub+ Event Broker based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Streaming Analytics solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Apache Flink vs. PubSub+ Event Broker Report (Updated: May 2024).
772,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It provides us the flexibility to deploy it on any cluster without being constrained by cloud-based limitations.""The product helps us to create both simple and complex data processing tasks. Over time, it has facilitated integration and navigation across multiple data sources tailored to each client's needs. We use Apache Flink to control our clients' installations.""Allows us to process batch data, stream to real-time and build pipelines.""The event processing function is the most useful or the most used function. The filter function and the mapping function are also very useful because we have a lot of data to transform. For example, we store a lot of information about a person, and when we want to retrieve this person's details, we need all the details. In the map function, we can actually map all persons based on their age group. That's why the mapping function is very useful. We can really get a lot of events, and then we keep on doing what we need to do.""Another feature is how Flink handles its radiuses. It has something called the checkpointing concept. You're dealing with billions and billions of requests, so your system is going to fail in large storage systems. Flink handles this by using the concept of checkpointing and savepointing, where they write the aggregated state into some separate storage. So in case of failure, you can basically recall from that state and come back.""Apache Flink's best feature is its data streaming tool.""Apache Flink is meant for low latency applications. You take one event opposite if you want to maintain a certain state. When another event comes and you want to associate those events together, in-memory state management was a key feature for us.""With Flink, it provides out-of-the-box checkpointing and state management. It helps us in that way. When Storm used to restart, sometimes we would lose messages. With Flink, it provides guaranteed message processing, which helped us. It also helped us with maintenance or restarts."

More Apache Flink Pros →

"The topic hierarchy is pretty flexible. Once you have the subject defined just about anybody who knows Java can come onboard. The APIs are all there.""In my assessment of Solace against other products — as I was responsible for evaluating various products and bringing the right tool into companies in the past — I worked with multiple platforms like RabbitMQ, Confluent, Kafka, and various other tools in the market. But I found the event mesh capability to be a very interesting as well as fulfilling capability, towards what we want to achieve from a digital-integration-strategy point of view... It's distributed, yet it is intelligently connected. It can also span and I can plug and play any number of brokers into the event mesh, so it's a great deal. That's a differentiator.""Going from something where we had outages and capacity issues constantly to a system that was able to scale with the massive market data and messaging spikes that happened during the initial stages of the COVID crisis in March, we were able to scale with 40 plus percent growth in our platform over the course of days.""The way we can replicate information and send it to several subscribers is most valuable. It can be used for any kind of business where you've got multiple users who need information. Any company, such as LinkedIn, with a huge number of subscribers and any business, such as publishing, supermarket, airline, or shipping can use it.""We've built a lot of products into it and it's been quite easy to feed market data onto the systems and put entitlements and controls around that. That was a big win for us when we were consolidating our platforms down. Trying to have one event bus, one messaging bus, for the whole globe, and consolidate everything over time, has been key for us. We've been able to do that through one API, even if it's across the different languages.""The most useful features has been the WAN optimization and probably the HybridEdge, which requires some third-party adapters or plugins. The idea that we can position Solace as a protocol-agnostic message transport fabric is key to our company having all manners of asynchronous messaging protocols from MQ, Kafka, JMS, etc. I really like the WAN optimization: Send once over a WAN, then distribute locally as many times as there are subscribers.""As of now, the most valuable aspects are the topic-based subscription and the fanout exchange that we are using.""We like the seamless flexibility in protocol exchange offering without writing a code."

More PubSub+ Event Broker Pros →

Cons
"Amazon's CloudFormation templates don't allow for direct deployment in the private subnet.""We have a machine learning team that works with Python, but Apache Flink does not have full support for the language.""In a future release, they could improve on making the error descriptions more clear.""The machine learning library is not very flexible.""Apache Flink should improve its data capability and data migration.""There is a learning curve. It takes time to learn.""In terms of stability with Flink, it is something that you have to deal with every time. Stability is the number one problem that we have seen with Flink, and it really depends on the kind of problem that you're trying to solve.""The state maintains checkpoints and they use RocksDB or S3. They are good but sometimes the performance is affected when you use RocksDB for checkpointing."

More Apache Flink Cons →

"The licensing and the cost are the major pitfalls.""Some of the feature's gaps with some of the open-source vendors have been closed in a lot of ways. Being more agile and addressing those earlier could be an area for improvement.""If you create one event in the past, you cannot resend it.""The deployment process is complex.""One of the areas of improvement would be if we could tell the story a bit better about what an event mesh does or why an event mesh is foundational to a large enterprise that has a wide diversity of applications that are homegrown and a small number off the shelf.""The integrations could improve in PubSub+ Event Broker.""The section on observability pertains to understanding the functioning of an event crash. Instead of focusing on how the crash occurs, attention is given to the observable aspects, such as a memory pipeline where one person pushes messages and another reads them. However, this pipeline often encounters issues, such as the reader being unavailable, causing the system to become stuck and preventing the messages from moving forward. This can lead to the pipeline being permanently stalled.""For improvements, I would suggest increasing the max payload size to a limit of 100MB or more. The current max payload size is limited to 5MB."

More PubSub+ Event Broker Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "This is an open-source platform that can be used free of charge."
  • "The solution is open-source, which is free."
  • "Apache Flink is open source so we pay no licensing for the use of the software."
  • "It's an open-source solution."
  • "It's an open source."
  • More Apache Flink Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "There are different tiers where you can choose what would work for you. As a customer, you need to know roughly how many messages a month you will use."
  • "We have been really happy with the product licensing rates. It has been free for us, up to a 100,000 transactions per second, and all we have to do is pay for support. Making their product available and accessible to us has not been a problem at all."
  • "Having a free version is critical for our technology operations use case. This is primarily because our technology operations team is a cost center in our company. They are not profit drivers and having a free version for installation will probably meet our needs. Even for production, it'll support up to a 100,000 messages per second. I don't think in technology operations that we have that many events and alerts from our detection tools. Even if I have 20 or 30 event detection products out there, they're only going to publish the things which are critical or warnings. I don't think we'll ever reach a 100,000 messages per second."
  • "Having a free version of the solution was a big, important part of our decision to go with it. This was the big driver for us to evaluate Solace. We started using it as the free version. When we felt comfortable with the free version, that is when we bought the enterprise version."
  • "The pricing and licensing were very transparent and well-communicated by our account manager."
  • "We are looking for something that will add value and fit for purpose. Freeware is good if you want to try something quickly without putting in much money. However, as far as our decision is concerned, I don't think it helps. At the end of the day, if we are convinced that a capability is required, we will ask for the funding. Then, when the funding is available, we will go for an enterprise solution only."
  • "The licensing is dependent on the volume that is flowing. If you go for their support services, it will cost some more money, but I think it is worth it, especially if you are just starting your journey."
  • "It could be cheaper. Its licensing is on a yearly basis."
  • More PubSub+ Event Broker Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The product helps us to create both simple and complex data processing tasks. Over time, it has facilitated integration and navigation across multiple data sources tailored to each client's needs. We… more »
    Top Answer:Flink is free, it's open source. Flink is open source.
    Top Answer:Apache Flink should improve its data capability and data migration.
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature of PubSub+ Event Broker is the scaling integration. Prior to using the solution, it was done manually with a file, and it can be done instantly live.
    Top Answer:The section on observability pertains to understanding the functioning of an event crash. Instead of focusing on how the crash occurs, attention is given to the observable aspects, such as a memory… more »
    Ranking
    5th
    out of 39 in Streaming Analytics
    Views
    10,053
    Comparisons
    6,824
    Reviews
    7
    Average Words per Review
    423
    Rating
    7.7
    10th
    out of 39 in Streaming Analytics
    Views
    874
    Comparisons
    658
    Reviews
    6
    Average Words per Review
    557
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Flink
    Solace Virtual Message Router, Solace Cloud, Solace Message Router Appliance
    Learn More
    Overview

    Apache Flink is an open-source batch and stream data processing engine. It can be used for batch, micro-batch, and real-time processing. Flink is a programming model that combines the benefits of batch processing and streaming analytics by providing a unified programming interface for both data sources, allowing users to write programs that seamlessly switch between the two modes. It can also be used for interactive queries.

    Flink can be used as an alternative to MapReduce for executing iterative algorithms on large datasets in parallel. It was developed specifically for large to extremely large data sets that require complex iterative algorithms.

    Flink is a fast and reliable framework developed in Java, Scala, and Python. It runs on the cluster that consists of data nodes and managers. It has a rich set of features that can be used out of the box in order to build sophisticated applications.

    Flink has a robust API and is ready to be used with Hadoop, Cassandra, Hive, Impala, Kafka, MySQL/MariaDB, Neo4j, as well as any other NoSQL database.

    Apache Flink Features

    • Distributed execution of streaming programs on clusters of computers
    • Support for multiple data sources and sinks: this includes Hadoop file systems, databases, and other data sources
    • Streaming SQL query engine with support for windowing functions
    • Low latency query execution in milliseconds
    • Runs in a distributed fashion: it can be deployed on multiple machines or nodes to increase performance and reliability of data processing pipelines.
    • Powerful API that supports both batch and streaming applications
    • Runs on clusters of commodity hardware with minimal configuration
    • Can be integrated with other technologies, such as Apache Spark for complex data mining

    Apache Flink Benefits

    • Ease of use: Flink has an intuitive API and provides high-level abstractions for handling data streams. Even beginners in the field can work with the platform with ease.
    • Fault tolerance: Flink can automatically detect and recover from failures in the system.
    • Scalability: Flink scales to thousands of nodes. It can run on clusters of any size and the user does not have to worry about managing the cluster.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Apache Flink stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its low latency and its user-friendly interface. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

    The head of data and analytics at a computer software company notes, “The top feature of Apache Flink is its low latency for fast, real-time data. Another great feature is the real-time indicators and alerts which make a big difference when it comes to data processing and analysis.”

    Ertugrul A., manager at a computer software company, writes, “It's usable and affordable. It is user-friendly and the reporting is good.

    Solace PubSub+ Event Broker is a serverless, scalable technology that efficiently streams events throughout all sorts of environments: within the cloud, on-premises, and IoT. The technology is based on the publish/subscribe model of communication. The “+” in the solution’s name alludes to its support of a wide spectrum of message exchange patterns beyond the publish/subscribe model; it supports queueing, streaming, and request/reply. The “+” also alludes to the fact that the solution supports a range of different qualities of service. PubSub+ Event Broker can be managed and monitored with a single administration interface.

    PubSub+ Event Broker uses robust, battle-tested, and reliable event broker technology. It allows users to tie their architectures together to benefit from the best of all technologies, including legacy ESBs/messaging, DB system of record on-prem, cloud-native services, and Kafka clusters as endpoints.

    PubSub+ Event Broker lets you connect event brokers to form an event mesh (an architecture layer) which allows you to route events in a dynamic way between applications, regardless of where those applications are deployed (for example, from public-cloud, private-cloud, or no-cloud).

    PubSub+ Event Broker Benefits

    PubSub+ Event Broker is the only unified event broker technology available as software, hardware, and a managed service. All options offer the same functionality and management experience.

    • Software: Simple to use in clouds, containers and iPaaS/PaaS.
    • Hardware: A turnkey appliance with low TCO that gives you robust performance and capacity.
    • Managed service: Cloud based version is managed by Solace, allowing you to accomplish event broker services in minutes and scale to any level.

    PubSub+ Event Broker Capabilities

    • Orchestrates and connects microservices
    • Pushes events from on-premises systems of record to cloud services
    • Enables digital transformation across LoBs and IoT

    PubSub+ Event Broker Features

    • Federated architecture: Routing across geographically distributed cloud and on-premises environments, self-learning routing, bandwidth-efficient routing over wide area networks.
    • APIs and protocols: Native support for AMQP, Node.js, WebSocket, MQTT, JMS, Paho, Qpid,numerous messaging APIs and free open-source Kafka connectors.
    • Advanced messaging capabilities: Message caching, replay, prioritization, and dead message queues.
    • Management and governance: Centralized administration, automated disaster recovery, authentication, authorization and encryption of information, built-in high availability, and proactive monitoring, including integration with existing monitoring tools.
    • Capacity and performance: High-capacity throughput persistent and non-persistent messaging in fanout scenarios, optimized for low latency, and numerous concurrent IoT connections.

    Reviews from Real Users

    PubSub+ Event Broker stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to communicate with numerous subscribers and its scalability. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

    Jitendra J., a websphere MQ specialist at a maritime company, notes, “The way we can replicate information and send it to several subscribers is most valuable. It can be used for any kind of business where you've got multiple users who need information. Any company, such as LinkedIn, with a huge number of subscribers and any business, such as publishing, supermarket, airline, or shipping can use it.”

    The head of enterprise architecture and digital innovation at a tech vendor writes, “This solution reduces the latency to access changes in real-time and the effort required to onboard a new subscriber. It also reduces the maintenance of each of those interfaces because now the publisher and subscribers are decoupled. Event Broker handles all the communication and engagement.”

    Another PeerSpot user, who is a senior project manager at a financial services firm, describes, "Going from something where we had outages and capacity issues constantly to a system that was able to scale with the massive market data and messaging spikes that happened during the initial stages of the COVID crisis in March, we were able to scale with 40 plus percent growth in our platform over the course of days."

    Sample Customers
    LogRhythm, Inc., Inter-American Development Bank, Scientific Technologies Corporation, LotLinx, Inc., Benevity, Inc.
    FxPro, TP ICAP, Barclays, Airtel, American Express, Cobalt, Legal & General, LSE Group, Akuna Capital, Azure Information Technology, Brand.net, Canadian Securities Exchange, Core Transport Technologies, Crédit Agricole, Fluent Trade Technologies, Harris Corporation, Korea Exchange, Live E!, Mercuria Energy, Myspace, NYSE Technologies, Pico, RBC Capital Markets, Standard Chartered Bank, Unibet 
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Retailer6%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm60%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Pharma/Biotech Company10%
    Maritime Company10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm34%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Retailer6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise53%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise70%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise7%
    Large Enterprise71%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise8%
    Large Enterprise74%
    Buyer's Guide
    Apache Flink vs. PubSub+ Event Broker
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Flink vs. PubSub+ Event Broker and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    772,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Apache Flink is ranked 5th in Streaming Analytics with 15 reviews while PubSub+ Event Broker is ranked 10th in Streaming Analytics with 15 reviews. Apache Flink is rated 7.6, while PubSub+ Event Broker is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Apache Flink writes "A great solution with an intricate system and allows for batch data processing". On the other hand, the top reviewer of PubSub+ Event Broker writes "Event life cycle management changes the way a designer or architect will design a topic and discover what is available". Apache Flink is most compared with Spring Cloud Data Flow, Amazon Kinesis, Databricks, Azure Stream Analytics and Apache Pulsar, whereas PubSub+ Event Broker is most compared with Apache Kafka, IBM MQ, ActiveMQ, VMware Tanzu Data Services and Confluent. See our Apache Flink vs. PubSub+ Event Broker report.

    See our list of best Streaming Analytics vendors.

    We monitor all Streaming Analytics reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.