# Alternatives to Conduktor Playground

We no longer host the Kafka Playground, but here are free alternatives to get started with Kafka.

## Coming from Apache Kafka Series — Learn Apache Kafka for Beginners v3?

Keep reading! This is important. We've removed Conduktor Playground, so you'll need to update your playground.config to follow the course without interruption.

## Conduktor Free Kafka Playground has shut down

We are sorry to announce that our Free Kafka Playground has been removed. But fear not, there are free alternatives.

- **Option 1: Local Kafka** — Run a Kafka cluster & Conduktor locally on your laptop. One command if you have Docker installed. **Recommended.**
- **Option 2: Aiven Cloud** — Connect to a free cloud provider. Requires more steps due to SSL security, but no local setup needed.

**Note:** If you're already comfortable with Kafka, you can use any alternative: Confluent, Aiven, AWS MSK, Strimzi, Redpanda.

## Option 1: Run a local Kafka cluster

Fastest and simplest — recommended for most users.

**1. Run Conduktor (and Kafka) with Docker**

Follow the course to install Conduktor UI with Docker (lecture #57) or follow our [Get Started guide](https://www.conduktor.io/get-started). You will need [Docker](https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/) installed.

```bash
curl -fL https://releases.conduktor.io/quick-start | docker compose -f - up
```

**2. Connect to the local Kafka cluster**

After running the command, you'll have a local Kafka cluster on `localhost:19092`. No security configured, so you can interact directly:

```bash
kafka-topics.sh --bootstrap-server localhost:19092 --list
```

You should see topics created by the Conduktor stack. Return to the course.

**3. Destroy the local stack**

When finished, run this in the same directory as your `docker-compose.yml`:

```bash
docker compose down -v
```

## Option 2: Create a cloud Kafka cluster

Using Aiven's free tier — requires SSL configuration.

**1. Create your Aiven account**

Go to [console.aiven.io/signup](https://console.aiven.io/signup), register and verify your account.

**2. Create your free Kafka cluster**

Choose the Apache Kafka service. Use default options, but change authentication to **SASL** (toggle at the bottom).

**3. Create kafka-client.config**

The Aiven cluster uses SSL. Save this as `kafka-client.config`:

```bash
bootstrap.servers=<service-uri>
security.protocol=SASL_SSL
sasl.mechanism=SCRAM-SHA-256
sasl.jaas.config=org.apache.kafka.common.security.scram.ScramLoginModule required username='<username>' password='<password>';
ssl.truststore.location=certificate.pem
ssl.truststore.type=PEM
ssl.endpoint.identification.algorithm=
```

**4. Create certificate.pem**

Find the CA certificate in Aiven connection details. Copy and save as `certificate.pem`.

**5. Connect to the cluster**

```bash
kafka-topics.sh --bootstrap-server <your-bootstrap-server> --list --command-config kafka-client.config
```

**6. Connect Conduktor to Aiven**

Add your cluster at [localhost:8080/settings/clusters](http://localhost:8080/settings/clusters). Test the connection — you're ready!

## You're ready to continue!

We've shown how to connect Conduktor and the CLI to a Kafka cluster, whether local or cloud.

Questions? Contact us at [support@conduktor.io](mailto:support@conduktor.io). Happy learning!