Debezium is an open-source change data capture (CDC) platform that streams real-time row-level database changes through Apache Kafka Connect.
Debezium is an open-source distributed platform for change data capture (CDC), streaming row-level database inserts, updates, and deletes in real time via Apache Kafka Connect. It was started in 2015-2016 by Randall Hauch, a Red Hat software engineer, and grew into one of the most widely used pieces of open-source data infrastructure in the Kafka ecosystem.
Debezium is licensed under the permissive Apache License 2.0 and, after years of being supported as part of Red Hat Integration, the project announced a governance transition to the vendor-neutral Commonhaus Foundation.
Debezium reads a database's internal transaction/replication log (MySQL binlog, PostgreSQL WAL, MongoDB oplog, SQL Server CDC tables) rather than polling, capturing every change including deletes with minimal impact on the source database, in the exact order it occurred.
Dedicated connectors exist for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, SQL Server, Oracle, Db2, Cassandra, and Vitess, and the ecosystem includes Debezium Server for streaming to non-Kafka destinations and the newer Debezium Platform for simplified deployment and operations.
Debezium itself is entirely free and open-source under Apache 2.0, with no licensing cost or vendor lock-in. Organizations that want fully managed CDC without operating their own Kafka Connect infrastructure typically pay for commercial platforms like Confluent Cloud, Decodable, or Redpanda that build on or compete with Debezium.
There is no official Debezium-branded paid tier; monetization happens entirely through the surrounding commercial ecosystem rather than the project itself.
Yes, Debezium is completely free and open-source under the Apache License 2.0, with no official paid tier.
Debezium supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, SQL Server, Oracle, Db2, Cassandra, and Vitess through dedicated connectors.
Debezium is built natively on Kafka Connect, but Debezium Server allows streaming changes to non-Kafka destinations like Kinesis, Pub/Sub, Pulsar, or Redis without a full Kafka Connect deployment.
Debezium was started around 2015-2016 by Randall Hauch, a software engineer at Red Hat, and later grew into a community project now governed by the Commonhaus Foundation.
Debezium reads a database's internal transaction or replication log directly rather than polling, capturing every insert, update, and delete in the exact order it occurred.
Yes, commercial platforms such as Confluent Cloud, Decodable, and Redpanda offer managed CDC services built on or compatible with Debezium's connector ecosystem.