Apache Samza
Apache Samza is a free, self-hosted framework for processing live data streams and building applications that maintain state.
What Apache Samza is
Apache Samza is a free, self-hosted framework for processing live data streams and building applications that maintain state. It supports both stateful and stateless processing, with a fault-tolerant state store for workloads that need to retain information. Developers can use its Streams API, Task API, Samza SQL, or Apache Beam API; Python and Go support for Beam is still described as work in progress. Java and Scala applications can embed Samza as a client library. Built-in integrations include Apache Kafka, AWS Kinesis, Azure Event Hubs, Elasticsearch, and Apache Hadoop, and custom sources can also be connected. Samza runs on YARN or Kubernetes, or as a standalone library. Host affinity and incremental checkpointing help restore tasks and their state after failures, while its processing guarantee is at least once. The project supports SQL and event-time windows and is distributed as source artifacts and through Maven; it has no binary release at this time. It is available for Linux and through an API.
Good
- Supports stateful and stateless stream processing
- Offers Streams, Task, SQL, and Beam APIs
- Includes several built-in source integrations
- Runs on YARN, Kubernetes, or standalone
- Free plan; source artifacts and Maven distribution
Watch out
- No binary release is currently available
- Python and Go Beam support is work in progress
- Processing guarantee is at least once
- Requires self-hosted deployment
Who it suits
Samza suits developers building real-time stream-processing applications in Java or Scala who can manage a self-hosted deployment. Its range of APIs and integrations may also fit teams processing data from multiple sources.
Verdict
Apache Samza offers multiple ways to build stream-processing applications, with stateful processing, recovery support, and integrations for common data sources. Teams should account for self-hosting and the absence of a binary release when evaluating it.
Plans and prices
From Apache Samza's own pricing page, checked 2 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Apache Samza | Free | Open-source stream-processing framework · source artifacts and Maven distribution |
The facts
Each one read from Apache Samza's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- APIs
- It provides a high-level Streams API, a low-level Task API, Samza SQL, and an Apache Beam API; Python and Go support for Beam are described as work in progress.checked 2 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- Samza supports deployment on YARN, Kubernetes, or as a standalone library, and its documentation describes running applications across public clouds, containerized environments, and bare-metal hardware.checked 2 Oct 2026
- Distribution
- Samza is distributed as a source artifact and through Maven; the download page says it does not have a binary release at this time.checked 2 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Built-in integrations include Apache Kafka, AWS Kinesis, Azure Event Hubs, Elasticsearch, and Apache Hadoop, and custom sources can also be integrated.checked 2 Oct 2026
- Processing
- Samza supports both stateless and stateful stream processing, with a scalable, fault-tolerant state store for stateful workloads.checked 2 Oct 2026
- Processing guarantee
- Samza supports at-least-once processing.checked 2 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Apache Samza is a distributed stream-processing framework for building stateful applications that process data in real time from multiple sources.checked 2 Oct 2026
- Recovery
- Samza supports host affinity and incremental checkpointing to help recover tasks and their associated state after failures.checked 2 Oct 2026
- Scale
- The documentation says Samza has been used in applications with several terabytes of state and thousands of cores.checked 2 Oct 2026
- Security
- The background documentation says Samza works with YARN, which supports Hadoop’s security model, and uses Linux cgroups for resource isolation.checked 2 Oct 2026
- Support
- The project directs users to a user mailing list subscribed to by Samza users, contributors, and committers.checked 2 Oct 2026
- Supported language
- Samza can be embedded as a lightweight client library in Java and Scala applications.checked 2 Oct 2026
The company
- Founded
- 2013checked 28 Sep 2026
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