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kafkactl vs kcat: catalog facts
kafkactl	kcat
Free The project is available under the Apache License 2.0.	Free Free and open source under the BSD-2-Clause license.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	Command line
Manages topics, partitions, brokers, consumer groups, users, and ACLs Consumes and produces messages with Avro, JSON Schema, or Protobuf support	Produces to and consumes from Kafka topics Displays cluster and topic metadata
Limitations not stated	Requires access to an Apache Kafka cluster
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License: BSD-2-Clause
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 4, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 8, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.