Redpanda Has a Free API — Kafka-Compatible Streaming Without the JVM

TL;DR Redpanda is a Kafka-compatible streaming platform written in C++ — no JVM, no ZooKeeper, no garbage collection pauses. It's 10x faster to start, uses less memory, and is wire-compatible with Kafka clients. What Is Redpanda? Redpanda is a modern streaming data platform: Kafka API compatible — use existing Kafka clients, no code changes No JVM — written in C++ with Seastar framework No ZooKeeper — built-in Raft consensus 10x faster startup — seconds, not minutes Lower latency — P99 under 10ms vs Kafka's 50-200ms Free — BSL license, or Redpanda Cloud free tier Quick Start # Docker (single node) docker run -d --name redpanda \ -p 9092:9092 -p 8081:8081 -p 8082:8082 -p 9644:9644 \ docker.redpanda.com/redpandadata/redpanda:latest \ redpanda start --smp 1 --memory 1G --overprovisioned # Create a topic docker exec -it redpanda rpk topic create events --partitions 3 # List topics docker exec -it redpanda rpk topic list Using with Node.js (KafkaJS) import { Kafka } from " kafkajs " ; const