One platform, your choice of deployment

Run Axual where you data needs to be

The same governed platform, managed by Axual in a European cloud or self-hosted in your datacentre or cloud account. Or run both, connected through the Distributor.

Rated with a 4.5 from more than
13 G2 reviews

Managed, self-hosted or both

The platform stays the same. Only who runs the infrastructure, and where it lives, changes.

Axual Cloud

Axual runs the platform for you on a European cloud provider, with 24/7 platform management included. You keep full governance and control over your streams, without running Kubernetes or Kafka yourself. Your supplier, support and data all stay in Europe.

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Axual Self-hosted

Run Axual in your own datacentre, private cloud or cloud account, on Kubernetes or Red Hat OpenShift. Data stays inside your security perimeter, including air-gapped environments, and you decide when to upgrade.

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Hybrid

Run both and connect them with the Distributor, which replicates messages, offsets and schemas between clusters. Start with either model and add the other when you need it.

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Which deployment model fits your needs?

Start with one model and add the other later with Axual Distributor.

Axual Cloud
Axual On-Premises
Who runs it
Where data lives
Setup
Operations & upgrades
Monitoring
Scaling
Governance & security
Best for
Axual, fully managed
Your platform team
Axual-managed Kubernetes (EU)
Your data center or VPC
Fast, no hardware to manage
You provision Kubernetes / OpenShift
24/7 managed by Axual
Your team, via Helm and operators
Managed observability stack included with different offerings
Your own monitoring stack (e.g. Prometheus)
Elastic, managed
Your hardware, plus multi-cluster active-active
Full: RBAC/ABAC, schema management, audit, topic authorization, data masking
Identical
Speed, low ops overhead
Sovereignty, air-gapped, legacy-system access
Axual running on European cloud infrastructure under customer control

Managed convenience, without leaving Europe

Axual Cloud runs on a European cloud provider, operated and supported by Axual from the Netherlands. Your data, operations and support stay under European jurisdiction, so you get a managed service without depending on a non-European provider.

Full governance on every path

Whichever path you choose, you get the same platform underneath

Governance & self-service

RBAC and ABAC access control, schema management, and complete audit trails, with self-service topic and application management.

Security

Topic-level authorization and data masking to control who sees which streams and hide sensitive fields.

Streaming

Enterprise Apache Kafka built on Strimzi, with the Axual Distributor for active-active multi-cluster replication of messages, offsets, and schemas.

Integration

Produce and consume through client libraries (Java, Python, .NET), KSML, Kafka Connect connectors, and the REST Proxy.

How our customers run Axual

Discover why PTSB, Logius and PostNL rely on Axual for mission-critical operations.

PTSB

Real-time payments, latency cut from 10 seconds to under 1 second

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Evening cityscape featuring historic buildings with warm lights reflecting on calm water in the foreground and modern skyscrapers in the background.

Logius

Self-hosted in Dutch government datacentres, with real-time messaging and full auditability

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PostNL

Centralised Kafka platform processing over 100 million messages a day

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Managed, self-hosted or both

Tell us where your data needs to be, and we’ll show you how Axual runs there.

Frequently asked questions

Can we start on-premises and move to cloud later, or the other way?

Yes. Axual isn't locked to one model. The Distributor replicates data between any clusters, on-premises to cloud, cloud to on-premises, or across data centers, so your topology can evolve with your business.

Can we keep data inside Europe?

Yes, with either model. Self-hosted, your data stays in your own infrastructure. In Axual Cloud, it runs on a European cloud provider, operated and supported by Axual from the Netherlands.

What does Axual run on?

Standard Kubernetes or Red Hat OpenShift, deployed via Helm and Terraform, on managed or self-managed clusters.

Who handles monitoring and upgrades?

In Axual Cloud, Axual does, with 24/7 platform management. Self-hosted, your team runs upgrades through Helm and operators and connects the platform to your own monitoring. Axual Platform Support can also operate a self-hosted installation for you.

How experienced is the team we'd be working with?

Our team consists of practitioners with hands-on experience implementing, migrating, and operating Kafka platforms across regulated industries like financial services and energy. The same team that helps you implement can carry through to ongoing support, so you're not re-explaining your setup to someone new.

Do we lose governance or security features by choosing one path?

No. Access control, schema management, audit trails, topic authorisation and data masking are the same everywhere. The deployment model changes who runs the infrastructure, not what the platform does.

Which Kafka platform can run both self-hosted and in a European cloud, with the same governance?

Axual. You can run it managed in Axual Cloud on a European cloud provider, self-hosted in your own infrastructure, or both connected through the Distributor. Governance and security are identical either way.