Comparison
ntail vs. the alternatives
One workload — 10 MiB/s in, 20 MiB/s out, 7-day retention — modeled against each provider's own published list pricing.
Comparison table
| ntail | Confluent CloudStandard | AWS MSKServerless | WarpStreamBYOC | Self-managedAWS EC2 | RedpandaServerless | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay as you go — data in, data out, storage | CKUs sized to throughput, plus per-GB data in/out & storage | Cluster + partition hours, plus per-GB in/out & storage | Flat software fee, tiered per-GiB, plus your own AWS bill | Your own AWS bill — instances, storage, egress | Base compute + partition-hours, plus per-GB in/out & storage |
| Free plan | Yes — $0No card, no time limit, ~1,000 events/s | Trial credits, then paid | None | Your own AWS bill from day one | Your own AWS bill from day one | Trial credits, then paid |
| Public internet traffic | $0 — never metered | Included in per-GB rate | Included in per-GB rate | Standard AWS egress rate applies | Standard AWS egress rate applies | Included in per-GB rate |
| Example monthly cost10 MiB/s in · 20 MiB/s out · 7-day retention | $876 | $6,136 | $7,880 | $5,839 | $3,858 | ≈$4,044 |
| Minimum commitment | None on freePaid: 2 MiB/s in + out floor, $50/mo | None, but CKUs sized upfront | None | $500/mo software fee, plus your own infra | Whatever instances you provision | None — pay as you go |
| Capacity planning | Nothing to size — higher limits on request | Size & resize CKUs yourself | Size partitions & cluster capacity | Size & run your own Agent instances | Size, run & upgrade brokers yourself | None below its 100 MB/s per-cluster cap |
| EU data residency by default | Yes | Region-dependent | Region-dependent | Region-dependent | Region-dependent | Region-dependent |
| Off public cloud option | Yes — multi-tenant or dedicated cluster | No | No | No | No | No |
| Full comparison | Try the calculator | Read the comparison | Read the comparison | Read the comparison | Read the comparison | Read the comparison |
Illustrative, list-price figures modeled from each provider's own published pricing for the workload above — not live quotes, and they won't match any one vendor's actual invoice exactly. Figures for ntail, Confluent, MSK, WarpStream and self-managed AWS are modeled in full in our pricing calculator FAQ; Redpanda Serverless is sourced separately from its own published rates and isn't part of that calculator. Ask us for a quote modeled against your actual bill.
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