# Amazon Kinesis Data Streams alternatives: what AI models name instead, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 213 of the 252 answers in the 1 category where Amazon Kinesis Data Streams holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/amazon-kinesis-data-streams/alternatives/

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- Confluent Cloud: 68
- Redpanda: 32
- Apache Kafka: 21
- Amazon MSK: 5
- Upstash Kafka: 5
- Aiven for Apache Kafka: 4

## Streaming platforms

**Small business**: 70 of 84 answers did not name Amazon Kinesis Data Streams (Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is #6 of 16 at 5%).

- Confluent Cloud: first choice in 16 of those 70
- Redpanda: first choice in 16 of those 70
- Upstash Kafka: first choice in 5 of those 70
- NATS JetStream: first choice in 4 of those 70
- StreamYard: first choice in 4 of those 70
- Apache Kafka: first choice in 3 of those 70
- NATS: first choice in 3 of those 70
- Amazon MSK: first choice in 2 of those 70

**Mid-market**: 70 of 84 answers did not name Amazon Kinesis Data Streams (Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is #10 of 11 at 2%).

- Confluent Cloud: first choice in 18 of those 70
- Redpanda: first choice in 11 of those 70
- Apache Kafka: first choice in 8 of those 70
- Dacast: first choice in 2 of those 70
- YouTube Live: first choice in 2 of those 70
- Aiven for Apache Kafka: first choice in 1 of those 70
- Amazon MSK: first choice in 1 of those 70
- Apache Pulsar: first choice in 1 of those 70

**Enterprise**: 73 of 84 answers did not name Amazon Kinesis Data Streams (Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is #10 of 10 at 0%).

- Confluent Cloud: first choice in 34 of those 73
- Apache Kafka: first choice in 10 of those 73
- Redpanda: first choice in 5 of those 73
- Aiven for Apache Kafka: first choice in 3 of those 73
- Amazon MSK: first choice in 2 of those 73
- Amazon MSK Provisioned: first choice in 1 of those 73
- Azure Event Hubs: first choice in 1 of those 73
- Bizzabo: first choice in 1 of those 73

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.