head to head · open source
kafka vs ess-helm
kafka has 34,133 GitHub stars, 15,659 forks, 574 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ess-helm has 999 stars, 154 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kafka leads on adoption by 3,317% (34,133 vs 999 stars). kafka is written in Java under Apache-2.0; ess-helm is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. kafka has attracted 46% as many forks as stars, ess-helm 15%. kafka was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| kafka | ess-helm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 999 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-11-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 154 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kafka if
- You weight community size — 34K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ess-helm if
- You want the ess-helm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ess-helm fits your workflow better
About kafka
Apache Kafka is an open source distributed event streaming platform used by thousands of companies for high performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission critical applications. You need to have Java installed. We build and test Apache Kafka with Java versions 17 and 25. The release parameter in javac is set to 11 for the clients and streams modules, and 17 for the rest, ensuring compatibility with their respective minimum Java versions. Similarly, the release parameter in scalac is set to 11 for the streams modules and 17 for the rest. Scala 2.13 is the only supported version in…
read the full kafka overview →
About ess-helm
The official Matrix stack from Element for non commercial use Element Server Suite Community Edition (ESS Community) allows you to deploy a Matrix stack using the provided Helm charts and a Kubernetes distribution of your choice, even if you don't have Kubernetes knowledge. It is provided for non commercial community use cases with quality in mind and aims to be as easy to use as possible. ESS Community enables you to very quickly deploy a solid Matrix stack fully supporting Matrix 2.0 and gives you the flexibility to make it your own. Below you will find a quick setup guide that gives you everything needed to…
read the full ess-helm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kafka or ess-helm more popular?
kafka has 34,133 GitHub stars and ess-helm has 999. kafka has the larger community by that measure.
Are kafka and ess-helm free?
Both are open source. kafka is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ess-helm under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kafka and ess-helm?
kafka is written in Java and ess-helm in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, kafka or ess-helm?
Choose kafka if you want the larger community (34,133 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ess-helm if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.