Frequently Asked Questions

Redpanda is Kafka API compatible so any client that works with Kafka should work out of the box with Redpanda. However here is a list of clients which we have tested with:

Language	Client	Link
Java	Apache Kafka Java Client	https://github.com/apache/kafka
C/C++	librdkafka	https://github.com/edenhill/librdkafka
Go	franz-go	https://github.com/twmb/franz-go
Python	kafka-python	https://pypi.org/project/kafka-python
JS	KafkaJS	https://kafka.js.org
PHP	php-simple-kafka-client	https://github.com/php-kafka/php-simple-kafka-client

Language

Client

Link

Java

Apache Kafka Java Client

https://github.com/apache/kafka

C/C++

librdkafka

https://github.com/edenhill/librdkafka

franz-go

https://github.com/twmb/franz-go

Python

kafka-python

https://pypi.org/project/kafka-python

KafkaJS

https://kafka.js.org

PHP

php-simple-kafka-client

https://github.com/php-kafka/php-simple-kafka-client

Is Redpanda Fully Kafka API Compatible?

We support all parts of the Kafka API. The transactions API is in developer preview but can be enabled by setting both enable_idempotence and enable_transactions to true in the Redpanda config.

If you run into any issues while working with a Kafka tool, please let us know! File an issue

Does Redpanda use Zookeeper?

No, Redpanda is a modern streaming platform that has been built using C++ and Raft for consensus. Since we use Raft we have no need for an external consensus system like Zookeeper.

Can I run Redpanda directly on Windows or MacOS?

Unfortunately, you can only run Redpanda directly on Linux. However, you can use Docker to run Redpanda on any system supported by Docker. Please see our Quick Start Docker Guide for more information.