Overview:
Sequin is a change data capture (CDC) platform designed specifically for Postgres databases. It streams real-time database changes to various targets, including streaming platforms, queues, and search indexes. Unlike batch-based ETL tools, Sequin runs as a standalone Docker container alongside your database and provides sub-second latency. It is suitable for developers and infrastructure teams who need to keep external systems like Kafka, Elasticsearch, or Redis synchronized with changes in their Postgres database.
Core Features:
Change Data Capture (CDC): Streams database changes from Postgres to external sinks with an average latency of 55ms.
Sinks: Supports publishing data to 14+ destinations, including Kafka, SQS, GCP Pub/Sub, Elasticsearch, Typesense, Redis Streams, and Webhooks.
Backfills: Can backfill existing rows from source tables into a sink before streaming new changes, with support for partial backfills on specific rows.
Data Guarantees: Includes exactly-once processing using idempotency keys and ensures 100% delivery with strict ordering and automatic retries with exponential backoff.
Filters and Transforms: Allows custom filters to include or exclude changes and supports transforming message payloads using Elixir functions.
Infrastructure as Code: Can be managed through YAML configuration files, a dedicated CLI, or a Management API.
Use Cases:
Refreshing search indexes: Warm search indexes like Typesense or Elasticsearch by backfilling existing data and then streaming new changes in sub-second latency.
Streaming database events: Route database changes as events to Kafka, SQS, or Pub/Sub for consumption by other microservices.
Audit logging: Track and record every database change for compliance or feature development by streaming to a durable sink.
Why It Matters:
Sequin offers a straightforward alternative to complex CDC setups like Debezium or expensive batch tools. It runs as a single Docker container with no hard dependency on Kafka for operation, making it simpler to deploy and configure. Its performance benchmarks, sustaining over 50k operations per second, are documented and directly compared against other tools. The platform provides strict delivery guarantees and a web console for monitoring, which helps reduce the need for custom, homegrown change-capture pipelines.