Get Started with Kafka¶
Apache Kafka® is a distributed event streaming platform. This topic provides some links to help you get started using Kafka either on your local computer or in the cloud.
For more about what Kafka is, see Introduction to Apache Kafka. If you want to learn more about how Kafka is designed, and the various architecture decisions that went into designing Kafka, see the Kafka Design Overview section.
Quick start options¶
There are numerous ways to get started using Kafka. You can:
Use Confluent Cloud. With Confluent Cloud, you can run Kafka on the cloud provider of your choice; no downloads required. See the Quick Start for Confluent Cloud to get started.
This quick start provides steps using the Confluent Cloud Console, the Confluent CLI or REST APIs to create a cluster, topics and move data through the topics. When you use Confluent Cloud, some of the Kafka concerns are abstracted away for you, and you won’t need specialized hardware. It is free to get started with Confluent Cloud.
Download and run Confluent Platform on your computer, particularly if your use cases require that you use Kafka on-premises. You have a couple of choices:
- Use the Confluent Platform CLI Quick Start. This quick start walks you through the steps to download and run Kafka as a part of Confluent Platform. You will create topics and a producer and consumer, all using a command-line interface.
- Use the Confluent Platform Quick Start (with Control Center). This quick start that features Confluent Control Center, a web-based UI and one of Confluent Platform’s commercial features. The quick start walks you through the steps to download and run Kafka as a part of Confluent Platform, and you will create topics and a producer with Control Center.
To understand the relationship between Confluent Platform and Kafka, see Kafka Basics on Confluent Platform and Confluent Platform License Types.
Download and run the latest Kafka release from the Kafka site. The Apache Quick Start walks you through the steps to download, extract, and run Kafka, using some of the tools described in the Kafka Command-Line Interface (CLI) Tools topic. In addition, you will create a producer and consumer, all using various command-line tools.