NetApp Instaclustr runs only unmodified open-source software (Kafka 129 , Cassandra, PostgreSQL 1,289 , OpenSearch, ClickHouse 29,491 and others) on AWS 24 , Google Cloud 1 , Azure 6 or your own data center. Its Kafka is upstream Apache Kafka, kept close to releases: Kafka and Kafka Connect 129 4.3.1 became generally available there on 6 August 2026, together with OpenJDK 21 10,925 and new versions of Karapace 637 (schema registry and REST proxy). Clusters run in Instaclustr's cloud accounts or in yours (BYOC), on premises too, with managed Kafka Connect, MirrorMaker 2 mirroring, availability SLAs of up to 99.999% and round-the-clock support; certifications include SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS and HIPAA.
Prices are not published as rates: the pricing page offers a calculator and a quote, and enterprise features such as PrivateLink add to the price. A 30-day free trial allows one small cluster at a time; Instaclustr dropped the credit-card requirement for trial developer nodes, and any further cluster needs billing details (verified with a $1 pre-authorization). It was not run here. It fits organizations that want unforked Kafka, support contracts, or one operator for cloud and on-premises clusters.