Aiven for Apache Kafka®
Aiven for Apache Kafka® is a fully managed Apache Kafka service for building event-driven applications, data pipelines, and stream processing systems.
Use an AI assistant connected to Aiven MCP to create Kafka services, manage topics, and view cluster details from clients such as Cursor and Claude Code.
You create Kafka services as Standard Kafka or Classic Kafka. New customers create Standard Kafka services. Classic Kafka remains available for existing customers. Free and Developer tier services use Classic Kafka.
- Standard Kafka overview: diskless topics, object storage, and usage-based sizing on Aiven Cloud
- Classic Kafka overview: fixed plans, local broker storage, optional tiered storage, and BYOC
Service tiers and deployment models
- Free: Evaluate and experiment with limited throughput and storage.
- Developer: A paid Classic Kafka tier between Free and Professional, with higher limits than Free and optional Kafka Connect billed separately.
- Professional: Production workloads, with Kafka Connect on Standard and Classic Kafka services (plan-dependent).
Kafka services run on Aiven Cloud or Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC). Standard Kafka is available on Aiven Cloud only. On BYOC, Classic Kafka is available, with diskless topics as an optional add-on.
Replication with MirrorMaker 2
Aiven for Apache Kafka® MirrorMaker 2 provides managed replication between Kafka clusters, regions, or cloud providers, including between Standard Kafka and Classic Kafka services. Use it for migration, disaster recovery, and multi-region architectures.
Data integration with Kafka Connect
Aiven for Apache Kafka® Connect provides managed source and sink connectors. On Classic Kafka, Kafka Connect is optional on the Developer tier (billed separately) and supported on the Professional tier. On Standard Kafka, Kafka Connect is available on the Professional tier.