# About the Schema Registry category

**URL:** <https://forum.confluent.io/t/about-the-schema-registry-category/28>\
**Category:** Schema Registry\
**Created:** [5 November 2020 17:46 UTC](https://forum.confluent.io/t/about-the-schema-registry-category/28 "2020-11-05T17:46:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rmoff](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.confluent.io/rmoff/32/3_2.png) [@rmoff](https://forum.confluent.io/u/rmoff)\
**Post date:** [5 November 2020 17:46 UTC](https://forum.confluent.io/t/about-the-schema-registry-category/28/1 "2020-11-05T17:46:20Z")

</div>

Confluent Schema Registry provides a serving layer for your metadata.

It provides a RESTful interface for storing and retrieving your [Avro®](https://avro.apache.org/docs/current/spec.html), [JSON Schema](https://json-schema.org/), and [Protobuf](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/) [schemas](https://docs.confluent.io/current/schema-registry/schema_registry_onprem_tutorial.html#schema-registry-tutorial-definition).

It stores a versioned history of all schemas based on a specified [subject name strategy](https://docs.confluent.io/current/schema-registry/serdes-develop/index.html#sr-schemas-subject-name-strategy), provides multiple [compatibility settings](https://docs.confluent.io/current/schema-registry/avro.html#schema-evolution-and-compatibility) and allows evolution of schemas according to the configured compatibility settings and expanded support for these schema types.

It provides serializers that plug into Apache Kafka® clients that handle schema storage and retrieval for Kafka messages that are sent in any of the supported formats.

You can learn more about the importance of schemas here:

- ✍ [Schemas, Contracts, and Compatibility](https://www.confluent.io/blog/schemas-contracts-compatibility/)
- ✍ [Yes, Virginia, You Really Do Need a Schema Registry](https://www.confluent.io/blog/schema-registry-kafka-stream-processing-yes-virginia-you-really-need-one/)
- 🎥 [Streaming Microservices: Contracts and Compatibility - Gwen Shapira - QCon](https://rmoff.dev/qcon-schemas)