Spring-Kafka vs. Spring-Cloud-Stream (Kafka)

Question

Using Kafka as a messaging system in a microservice architecture what are the benefits of using spring-kafka vs. spring-cloud-stream + spring-cloud-starter-stream-kafka ?

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Answer 1

Spring Cloud Stream with kafka binder rely on Spring-kafka. So the former has all functionalities supported by later, but the former will be more heavyweight. Below are some points help you make the choice:

1. If you might change kafka into another message middle-ware in the future, then Spring Cloud stream should be your choice since it hides implementation details of kafka.
2. If you want to integrate other message middle with kafka, then you should go for Spring Cloud stream, since its selling point is to make such integration easy.
3. If you want to enjoy the simplicity and not accept performance overhead, then choose spring-kafka
4. If you plan to migrate to public cloud service, then use spring cloud stream which is part of spring cloud family.