Comparing Multi-Tenancy Features between Apache Pulsar and Kafka

Software multi-tenancy refers to a single instance of software serving multiple tenants, with usage logically divided but physically shared on the same infrastructure environment. Compared to single-tenancy systems, multi-tenancy systems offer benefits such as simplified setup and maintenance, cost savings, and easy onboarding of new customers. Apache Pulsar is a true multi-tenancy system with built-in mechanisms supporting it, while Kafka has limited multi-tenancy capability. In Pulsar, tenant is a first-class citizen concept, and its security context relies on authentication, authorization, and data encryption features. Pulsar supports enabling multiple authentication providers at the same time, allowing each tenant to use their preferred method if needed. Kafka's multi-tenancy capability is limited from both security context and resource segregation perspectives, while Pulsar offers a robust multi-tenancy system with an abundance of built-in policies for data protection and fair resource utilization.