RisingWave vs ksqlDB - RisingWave: Open-Source Streaming Database

RisingWave is a full-functioned,distributed Streaming database while KsqlDB is a SQL-like interface for Kafka Streams with limited streaming and analytical capabilities. KsqlDB's architecture cannot handle demanding enterprise workloads.

Resources

Seamlessly Scale as Your Event-driven Applications
Outgrow KsqlDB Capabilities

PostgreSQL

RisingWave speaks PostgreSQL-style SQL, enabling users to dive into stream processing in much the same way as operating a PostgreSQL database.

Lack of Composability

RisingWave support composable multi-stage data pipelines which KsqlDB lacks. Essentially, KsqlDB can only be used for very basic use cases.

Connectivity and Integration

RisingWave provides built-in diverse data connectors. In contrast, KsqlDB is limited to Apache Kafka integration.

Struggling with Missing SQL Functionalities?

RisingWave

RisingWave is a PostgreSQL-compatible system that allows you to query Kafka and other event streams with full PostgreSQL-style SQL, providing advanced capabilities that ksqlDB cannot.

KsqlDB

KsqlDB, on the other hand, has limited SQL capabilities. Many advanced features like joins beyond simple equi-joins, complex windowing functions, and subqueries are missing.

RisingWave

Ksqldb

Want Streaming SQL for More Than Just Confluent Kafka?

RisingWave brings streaming SQL to a wide array of event streaming systems. It integrates not only with Confluent but also with Amazon MSK, Amazon Kinesis, Google Pub/Sub, NATS, Redpanda, and many more.

Afraid of High Costs or Limited Scalability?

RisingWave

RisingWave adopts a decoupled compute and storage architecture, allowing you to scale compute and storage independently. This ensures better performance at a lower cost as your data volume grows.

KsqlDB

The open-source version of KsqlDB is restricted under the Confluent Community License and the commercial offering is tightly coupled to Confluent Cloud.

Get the Full Breakdown: A Side-by-Side Comparison Between RisingWave and KsqlDB

Architecture Comparison

Deployment and Scalability

Data Sources and Sinks

Ecosystem and Tooling

RisingWave’s PostgreSQL compatibility and advanced architecture make it more powerful and flexible for handling complex data workloads. It also provides superior fault tolerance and consistency, ensuring your data is always accurate and recoverable.

	KsqlDB	RisingWave
SQL Compatibility	Basic SQL, limited features	PostgreSQL-compatible SQL with advanced features for complex queries
Separation of Compute/Storage	Compute and storage tied to Kafka	Decoupled architecture for independent compute and storage scaling
State Backend	RocksDB via Kafka	Native tiered storage for optimized performance and scalability
Data Consistency	At-least-once and exactly-once via Kafka Streams	Supports exactly-once semantics, out-of-order processing, and snapshot reads
Fault Tolerance	Relies on Kafka, no checkpointing	Checkpointing and consistent snapshots for fast recovery
High Availability	Supported	Supported, with more flexible recovery mechanisms

RisingWave

SQL Compatibility	PostgreSQL-compatible SQL with advanced features for complex queries
Separation of Compute/Storage	Decoupled architecture for independent compute and storage scaling
State Backend	Native tiered storage for optimized performance and scalability
Data Consistency	Supports exactly-once semantics, out-of-order processing, and snapshot reads
Fault Tolerance	Checkpointing and consistent snapshots for fast recovery
High Availability	Supported, with more flexible recovery mechanisms

The Future of Stream Processing is Here

RisingWave delivers the flexibility, performance, and scalability that ksqlDB lacks. With its advanced SQL capabilities, easy deployment, and rich ecosystem, RisingWave is the ultimate choice for stream processing in real-time, allowing you to manage complex data workloads effortlessly.