title: Spring-Kafka vs. kafka-clients directly
body: <p>I have an application based on spring-boot that needs to consume/produce events on Kafka.
  I am hesitating on the library choice.</p>
  
  <p>It seems to be simple to use Kafka-clients directly without having to manage the compatibility matrix between spring-Kafka and Kafka-clients:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><a href="https://spring.io/projects/spring-kafka" rel="noreferrer">https://spring.io/projects/spring-kafka</a></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>On the other side, using spring-Kafka helps projects to normalize configuration properties for using Kafka and add embedded kafka for tests.</p>
  
  <p>Are there any other reasons for using spring-Kafka for a spring-boot, instead of using directly kafka-clients ?</p>