Apache Kafka vs. Apache Derby vs. SQLite

Apache Kafka is well-suited for most data-streaming use cases. Amazon Kinesis and Azure EventHubs, unless you have a specific use case where using those cloud PaAS for your data lakes, once set up well, Apache Kafka will take care of everything else in the background. Azure EventHubs, is good for cross-cloud use cases, and Amazon Kinesis - I have no real-world experience. But I believe it is the same.

If you need a SQL-capable database-like solution that is file-based and embeddable in your existing Java Virtual Machine processes, Apache Derby is an open-source, zero cost, robust and performant option. You can use it to store structured relational data but in small files that can be deployed right alongside with your solution, such as storing a set of relational master data or configuration settings inside your binary package that is deployed/installed on servers or client machines.

Incentivized

SQLite is a lightweight and efficient database management system. With SQLite, performance increases as memory are added. It's reliable and well-tested before release. SQLite handles memory allocation and I/O errors gracefully. SQLite provides bug lists and code-change chronologies. All bugs are disclosed, and it's compatible with iOS, Android, MAC, and Windows. SQLite is open-source, allowing developers to tailor it to their specific needs.

Incentivized

• Really easy to configure. I've used other message brokers such as RabbitMQ and compared to them, Kafka's configurations are very easy to understand and tweak.
• Very scalable: easily configured to run on multiple nodes allowing for ease of parallelism (assuming your queues/topics don't have to be consumed in the exact same order the messages were delivered)
• Not exactly a feature, but I trust Kafka will be around for at least another decade because active development has continued to be strong and there's a lot of financial backing from Confluent and LinkedIn, and probably many other companies who are using it (which, anecdotally, is many).

Incentivized

• Apache Derby is SMALL. Compared to an enterprise scale system such as MSSQL, it's footprint is very tiny, and it works well as a local database.
• The SPEED. I have found that Apache Derby is very fast, given the environment I was developing in.
• Based in JAVA (I know that's an obvious thing to say), but Java allows you to write some elegant Object Oriented structures, thus allowing for fast, Agile test cases against the database.
• Derby is EASY to implement and can be accessed from a console with little difficulty. Making it appropriate for everything from small embedded systems (i.e. just a bash shell and a little bit of supporting libraries) to massive workstations.

Incentivized

• Our products are using SQLite in embedded Linux and in Windows software.
• It is truly a stable cross-platform database.
• The fact that it is a zero-configuration database engine, it is particularly a nice advantage when you work in the embedded world.
• Being a single database file, it provides ease for those who need to quickly transfer data to someone else, or quickly browse data.

Incentivized

• Sometimes it becomes difficult to monitor our Kafka deployments. We've been able to overcome it largely using AWS MSK, a managed service for Apache Kafka, but a separate monitoring dashboard would have been great.
• Simplify the process for local deployment of Kafka and provide a user interface to get visibility into the different topics and the messages being processed.
• Learning curve around creation of broker and topics could be simplified

• It may not scale as well as some more mature database products.
• Used it primarily from the command line with openjpa and jdbc, and from third-party clients such as Squirrel.
• May benefit by providing more sophisticated tools to optimize query performance.

Incentivized

• Although it is excellent at what it does, you should be really careful and plan accordingly if you know that your database is going to scale at a huge level because it is not suitable of databases which are of Enterprise level and demands top-notch security and protection.
• If your project involves multiple people working on the same database simultaneously, then that becomes a big problem, because it only allows single write at one time. You really need to be forward thinking in a manner to predict if this database will cater to all the needs of your project.
• The most common difficulty with this is the lack of some of the basic functionality which is present in the other premier databases like Joints, Stored Procedure calls, Security and permission grants. If you do require all those things then you are better off not using this software.
• Lastly, if you are using this in an Andriod App development cycle then also your options are limited because it does not integrate with PostgreSQL and MYSQL.

Incentivized

Kafka is quickly becoming core product of the organization, indeed it is replacing older messaging systems. No better alternatives found yet

Incentivized

Apache Kafka is highly recommended to develop loosely coupled, real-time processing applications. Also, Apache Kafka provides property based configuration. Producer, Consumer and broker contain their own separate property file

Incentivized

I have given this rating cause its irreplaceable in some of the areas like no more installation need except from a single library. I find dialect is simple in use cases. its suitable for any professionals with various skill levels. its easily connect with various os and devices. very less maintenance or administration required.

Incentivized

Support for Apache Kafka (if willing to pay) is available from Confluent that includes the same time that created Kafka at Linkedin so they know this software in and out. Moreover, Apache Kafka is well known and best practices documents and deployment scenarios are easily available for download. For example, from eBay, Linkedin, Uber, and NYTimes.

Incentivized

I haven't needed support yet.

Incentivized

I used other messaging/queue solutions that are a lot more basic than Confluent Kafka, as well as another solution that is no longer in the market called Xively, which was bought and "buried" by Google. In comparison, these solutions offer way fewer functionalities and respond to other needs.

Incentivized

SQLite is another open-source zero-cost file-based SQL-capable database solution and is a good alternative to Apache Derby, especially for non-Java-based solutions. We chose Apache Derby as it is Java-based, and so is the solution we embedded it in. However, SQLite has a similar feature set and is widely used in the industry to serve the same purposes for native solutions such as C or C++-based products.

Incentivized

We looked at other traditional RDBMS products, but found them to be cumbersome to deploy. They take up more space, and consume more computing resources than SQLite does. While the performance or direct integration to our primary applications may have been better or easier if we had gone with a traditional RDBMS, the performance of SQLite has been more than acceptable. The performance and speed to deploy made SQLite a much more attractive option for us than a traditional RDBMS.

Incentivized

• Positive: Get a quick and reliable pub/sub model implemented - data across components flows easily.
• Positive: it's scalable so we can develop small and scale for real-world scenarios
• Negative: it's easy to get into a confusing situation if you are not experienced yet or something strange has happened (rare, but it does). Troubleshooting such situations can take time and effort.

Incentivized

• Being Open source, the resources spent on the purchase of the product are ZERO.
• Contrary to popular belief, open source software CAN provide support, provided that the developers/contributors are willing to answer your emails.
• Overall, the ROI was positive: being able to experiment with an open source technology that could perform on par with the corporate products was promising, and gave us much information about how to proceed in the future.

Incentivized

• No licensing fees has a net increase on ROI
• The active community has kept support costs low, further increasing ROI
• The wide range of supported platforms and high level of compatibility has increased ROI by reducing time spent porting the database model to any platform specific solutions.

Incentivized