Lenses EC2 - MSK

What do you like best about the product?

I find Lenses to be extremely easy to use, which is a significant advantage in my work as a platform engineer on a Kafka platform. The intuitive design makes it accessible for both experienced individuals as well as those who are not very familiar with Kafka development. This ease of use extends to its specific SQL, which provides a straightforward way to troubleshoot problem cases and check topic metrics. The user-friendly nature of Lenses enhances productivity and efficiency, making my workflow smoother when dealing with complex tasks.

What do you dislike about the product?

There are ongoing bugs within Lenses that remain unresolved, highlighting a potential lack of responsiveness or prioritization in bug fixes, which affects my workflow. Additionally, there's a noted absence of a future vision for the product, hinting at stagnation or a lack of updates that keep pace with evolving user needs. A significant drawback is the insufficient and unclear documentation, which complicates the proper utilization and setup of certain features, including the use of their helm chart for setup. This lack of documentation makes it challenging to take full advantage of the product's capabilities. Overall, these issues contribute to a reluctance in recommending the product highly.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use Lenses to troubleshoot Kafka problems and check topic metrics. It's easy to use for both experienced and new Kafka developers, thanks to its specific SQL. However, some functions need better documentation and there are unsolved bugs.

What do you like best about the product?

The UI is simple and effective. For example, the topics listing easy to use and start working with.

What do you dislike about the product?

The platform has shown little progress over the years. I have been using Lenses for more than three years, and there have not been any significant changes. When version 6 was released, it introduced a new interface, but the same issues remain: the ACLs listing is still too basic, there is no high availability, and the deployment process is complicated.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Data Observability and integration would my main purpose based on the user. It helps users to validate and audit the data they are producing or consuming and moving data from one place to another. Features like the SQL processors are really powerful tools but used mainly for validating that the data is in the right place.

What do you like best about the product?

It is user friendly, easy to use and to get used to work with it. The amount of information shown and features is fine for a product like this

What do you dislike about the product?

Customer support and roadmap clarity definitely needs improvement, the product has been the same for the last years, lacking some features such as high availability. Any new feature has been released under additional licenses

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

It offers a UI on top of the Kafka platform, providing product teams and users a visual experience of their assets

What do you like best about the product?

We’ve been using Lenses for about six years, and it’s been a solid part of our data workflow. The feature we lean on most is the ability to search and query data using SQL—it makes working with streams feel straightforward and familiar. The platform has been stable and dependable, and while it’s not showy, it does exactly what we need without unnecessary complexity.
We don’t actively use the API and admin capabilities these days, but they were really helpful earlier in our journey and gave us the flexibility we needed at the time. Overall, if you’re looking for a tool that keeps things simple and gets the job done, Lenses is a good choice.

What do you dislike about the product?

Some of the functionalities are not open-source and in our case, creates a vendor lock-in. SQL Processors is the most clear example.
Handy, but the tradeoff doesn't pay off in the long run for us.
This is not bad per se, but for us this fact has always been a no-go to adopt this type of functionalities.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Data searching capabilities and Kafka administration.

What do you like best about the product?

Lenses provides the much-needed visibility to Kafka and replaces Kafka CLI commands with UI, plus many other features.

Lenses is compatible with our very out-dated Kafka version, which is much appreciated.

What do you dislike about the product?

The pre-v6 Lenses is deployed per environment, and in our case, we end up having 4 environments. The v6 Lenses solves this major problem.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

- Visibility, this allows developers to visualize, query, and troubleshoot Kafka issues much easier.
- Kafka management, this allows the infrastructure team to manage Kafka permissions, topic ACLs, topic configurations much easier.