I'm looking for recommendations for a simple UI -based tool that will help
- viewing lists of Kafka topics,
- viewing Consumer groups for each topics
- viewing messages for a topic
- post test messages to a topic
The audience would be developers who are using Kafka and could use a simple tool within their test environments.
I found a couple of tools:
- Kafka Tool
- Yahoo Kafka-manager Also, based on replies here and elsewhere:
- Confluent Control Center (if using Confluent Kafka)
- Kafdrop HT: @ekoutanov
- Kadeck HT: @benjaminbuick_19
I'm looking for recommendations of more tools
Top comments (12)
Kadeck - Kafka UI for Desktop and Web
If you are looking for a free comprehensive Apache Kafka UI / topic browser to analyse your data in Apache Kafka and to monitor and test your applications, give Kadeck a try.
Kadeck is for single developers and teams alike:
Kadeck Desktop runs as native desktop application on Mac OS, Win, Linux.
Kadeck Teams runs as a web service (docker container) in your cloud / infrastructure.
Included are 12 codecs, attribute filters (filtering structured data objects by attributes), using javascript for complex queries and data transformation, the ability to easily start a local broker instance from within Kadeck, security protocols, support for record headers (and types!), a variety of data ingestion capabilities and so much more.
Manage Kafka ACLs, Schemas, Quotas, Kafka Connect, and more through an intuitive UI with dark and light mode :-)
The web version includes role-based access, team management and is free for teams of up to 5 users.
Go to kadeck.com to find out more about Kadeck. And please let us know your feedback and how we can further improve. :-)
Kowl - Free & Open source WebUI for Kafka
I'm one of the authors of Kowl (github.com/cloudhut/kowl) and compared to the listed solution I think it stands out by it's superior UI/UX. When deserializing messages you don't have to select Codecs, it automatically detects the appropriate codec! The UI does not overwhelm you with a lot of information, it has a proper JSON viewer (Protobuf, Avro, XML messages are rendered as JSON as well). It is also lightweight (written in Go and React) and easy to run (docker container without dependencies).
Last but not least: It's open source and therefore it does not have any restrictions like a user limitation, or a web version which has to be paid for. Support is also available via Discord or GitHub :-).
We do have a business version which offers additional features like audit logging in Kowl, Authentication & Authorization around Kowl etc.. These features are mostly relevant for larger organizations where Kowl is used by hundreds of users.
Documentation can be found here: cloudhut.dev/docs
I would add Kafdrop to your go-to list as far as Kafka web UI goes. It shows you broker stats, let's you browse topics, view consumer groups and their lag. It runs in Docker, and it's completely free (Apache licensed).
If you need a CLI, KafkaCat is definitely it. Much more usable than the console tools that come with Kafka.
Check Kafka Visualizer
github.com/kumait/kafkavisualizer
If you need advanced browsing features or event tracking, you should check out Kouncil (sources, demo).
Kafka Client by IntelliJ IDEA
A powerful client for Apache Kafka. It provides support for multiple clusters, allowing you to efficiently manage topics, publish and consume messages, and perform various Kafka-related operations right within IntelliJ.
Multiple clusters support:
Topics Management:
Message Consumption:
Message Publishing:
Bulk Message Generation:
Additional Operations:
Search for specific patterns in the key or value of the topic.
github.com/fatichar/KafkaLens
kafkalens.com/
This is not fully baked yet. But is, and will remain, free.
Check out spectregui.com/kafka-gui-for-apach...
Kafka Magic
kafkamagic.com/
If you use Confluent Kafka, you can check Confluent Control Center as well.
It is not free. 30 days ev.