Comparison

ActiveMQ vs Apache Kafka

No leader: the top candidate ActiveMQ has only 0.22 confidence (low), below the 0.35 needed to declare a winner. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
ActiveMQ67
Apache Kafka60
Score
Vioscale score
ActiveMQ67 / 100low · 22%
Apache Kafka60 / 100medium · 51%
Pricing
Free tier
ActiveMQ
Apache Kafka
Model
ActiveMQcommercial
Apache Kafkaopen_source
Price level
ActiveMQfree
Apache Kafkafree
Transparent
ActiveMQ
Apache Kafka
Integrations
Count
ActiveMQ
Apache Kafka4
Adoption
Dependent repos
ActiveMQ7,528
Apache Kafka1
Github stars
ActiveMQ2,451
Apache Kafka33,629
Package downloads weekly
ActiveMQ
Apache Kafka5,508,093
Activity
Commits last 30d
ActiveMQ39
Apache Kafka100
Release
History
ActiveMQ18 items
Apache Kafka
License
Spdx
ActiveMQApache-2.0
Apache KafkaApache-2.0
Language
Primary
ActiveMQJava
Apache KafkaJava
Market
Availability
ActiveMQ

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for message queues. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
Messaging paradigm
ActiveMQPub/sub
Apache KafkaPub/sub
Correctness
Delivery guarantee
ActiveMQ-
Apache KafkaExactly-once
Ordering guarantee
ActiveMQ-
Apache KafkaPer-partition
Durability
Durable replayable log
ActiveMQ
Apache Kafka
Message replay / rewind
ActiveMQ-
Apache Kafka
Interop
Wire protocol
ActiveMQAMQP, STOMP, MQTT, JMS
Apache KafkaBinary over TCP (SSL/SASL for authentication/encryption)
Kafka-protocol compatible
ActiveMQ-
Apache Kafka
Scale
Partitioned horizontal scaling
ActiveMQ
Apache Kafka
Geo / cross-region replication
ActiveMQ-
Apache Kafka
Consumption
Consumer groups / competing consumers
ActiveMQ-
Apache Kafka
Dead-letter queue
ActiveMQ-
Apache Kafka-
Deployment
Managed cloud offering exists
ActiveMQ
Apache Kafka
Hosting
ActiveMQCloud + self-hosted
Apache KafkaSelf-hosted only
Processing
Built-in stream processing
ActiveMQ-
Apache Kafka

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

ActiveMQ

A message broker that facilitates asynchronous communication between services regardless of programming language, using standardized protocols. Supports high-availability configurations and can be deployed on-premises or through managed cloud services.

Independently observed

Apache Kafka

Apache Kafka is a free system for capturing, storing, and processing data streams in real time. It enables organizations to reliably move large volumes of data between applications and systems, with support for transformations, aggregations, and stateful processing.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

ActiveMQ

Open sourceFree tier

Open source and free to download and use. Professional support available from commercial vendors.

as of verify ↗

Apache Kafka

Open sourceFree tier
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Windows
ActiveMQ
Apache Kafka
Linux
ActiveMQ
Apache Kafka
CLI
ActiveMQ
Apache Kafka
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
ActiveMQ
Apache Kafka
Self-hosted
ActiveMQ
Apache Kafka

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

ActiveMQ

Not documented yet.

Apache Kafka

4 total
  • Postgres
  • JMS
  • Elasticsearch
  • AWS S3
Independently observed

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.