While no software offering can compete with the cost savings offered by a fully managed cloud offering like Confluent Cloud, Confluent Platform includes a number of essential features that make self-managed Kafka clusters vastly more cost effective than implementing the open source software alone. Cumulatively, a Confluent Platform subscription can reduce the total cost of ownership for self-managing Kafka by up to 40%. Let's walk through how these Confluent Platform features impact the three cost categories highlighted above.