Kafka as a Database: When Should You Use It for Streaming Data?
Apache Kafka isn’t a traditional relational or NoSQL database, but it can function as a database for streaming data. By storing events durably, enabling replay, and supporting real-time processing through Kafka Streams and ksqlDB, Kafka is ideal for event sourcing, data pipelines, and microservices communication. However, it’s not suited for transactional workloads, long-term archival, or general-purpose CRUD operations. The best approach is to use Kafka alongside open-source databases like PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, Redis, or TimescaleDB to build modern, scalable data infrastructures that balance real-time event streaming with persistent storage.