vioscaleAI
Comparison

ActiveMQ vs Confluent Cloud

On the evidence we track, Confluent Cloud leads this comparison with a composite score of 93/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

ActiveMQ full profile →Confluent Cloud full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
ActiveMQ59
★Confluent Cloud93
Score
vioscaleAI score
ActiveMQ59 / 100low · 29%
Confluent Cloud93 / 100medium · 73%
Pricing
Free tier
ActiveMQ✓
Confluent Cloud✓
Model
ActiveMQopen_source
Confluent Cloudfreemium
Price level
ActiveMQfree
Confluent Cloudlow
Starting price
ActiveMQ–
Confluent Cloud$0.02
Transparent
ActiveMQ✓
Confluent Cloud✓
Integrations
Count
ActiveMQ–
Confluent Cloud120
Security
Certifications
Disclosure policy
ActiveMQ–
Confluent Cloud✓
Fedramp
ActiveMQ–
Confluent Cloud✓
Gdpr
ActiveMQ–
Confluent Cloud✓
Hipaa
ActiveMQ–
Confluent Cloud✓
Iso27001
ActiveMQ–
Confluent Cloud✓
Pci
ActiveMQ–
Confluent Cloud✓
Scorecard
ActiveMQ7
Confluent Cloud–
Soc2
ActiveMQ–
Confluent Cloud✓
Trust center
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Sla pct
ActiveMQ–
Confluent Cloud99.99
Status page
ActiveMQ–
Confluent Cloud✓
Adoption
Dependent repos
ActiveMQ7,528
Confluent Cloud–
Github stars
ActiveMQ2,465
Confluent Cloud–
Activity
Commits last 30d
ActiveMQ33
Confluent Cloud–
Release
Cadence days
ActiveMQ4
Confluent Cloud–
History
ActiveMQ20 items
Confluent Cloud–
License
Spdx
ActiveMQApache-2.0
Confluent Cloud–
Language
Primary
ActiveMQJava
Confluent Cloud–
Market
Availability
Content
Faq
ActiveMQ5 items
Confluent Cloud6 items

Capabilities

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

Core
Messaging paradigm
ActiveMQPub/sub
Confluent CloudPub/sub
Correctness
Delivery guarantee
ActiveMQ-
Confluent CloudExactly-once
Ordering guarantee
ActiveMQ-
Confluent CloudPer-partition
Durability
Durable replayable log
ActiveMQ✓
Confluent Cloud✓
Message replay / rewind
ActiveMQ-
Confluent Cloud✓
Interop
Wire protocol
ActiveMQAMQP, STOMP, MQTT, JMS
Confluent CloudKafka protocol, REST API
Kafka-protocol compatible
ActiveMQ-
Confluent Cloud✓
Scale
Partitioned horizontal scaling
ActiveMQ✓
Confluent Cloud✓
Geo / cross-region replication
ActiveMQ-
Confluent Cloud✓
Consumption
Consumer groups / competing consumers
ActiveMQ✓
Confluent Cloud✓
Dead-letter queue
ActiveMQ-
Confluent Cloud-
Deployment
Managed cloud offering exists
ActiveMQ✓
Confluent Cloud✓
Hosting
ActiveMQCloud + self-hosted
Confluent CloudCloud only
Processing
Built-in stream processing
ActiveMQ✓
Confluent Cloud✓

What each one is

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

ActiveMQ

An open source Java-based system for asynchronous messaging between applications across different platforms. It supports multiple standard communication protocols and offers high availability features through message load-balancing and master-broker configurations.

Independently observed

Confluent Cloud

Leader

Confluent Cloud is a managed Kafka service that automates infrastructure management and scaling across multiple cloud providers. It combines Kafka for streaming data with integrated Apache Flink for stream processing, providing enterprise-grade security, hundreds of pre-built connectors, and usage-based pricing with no upfront capacity provisioning required.

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 ↗

Confluent Cloud

Leader
from $0.02/GBUsage-basedFree tier120-day trial

Free tier available. Pay-as-you-go usage pricing ($0.14-2.25/eCKU-hour depending on tier, $0.035-0.050/GB networking, $0.03-0.08/GB-month storage). Annual commitments available with tiered discounts. $400 free credits for new users over 4 months.

  • FreeFree
    • Autoscaling
    • Kafka ACLs
    • Data encryption
    • Audit logs
    • RBAC
    • +1 more
  • Standard~$385/month typical. $0.75/eCKU-hour, $0.035-0.050/GB networking, $0.03/GB/month storage
    • Autoscaling at scale
    • Advanced governance
    • Audit logs
    • SAML/SSO
    • RBAC
    • +1 more
  • Enterprise~$895/month typical. $1.75-2.25/eCKU-hour (min 2), $0.020-0.050/GB networking, tiered storage
    • GBps+ autoscaling
    • Private networking
    • Client-side field-level encryption
    • Advanced monitoring
    • All security features
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platforms
Web
ActiveMQ✓
Confluent Cloud✓
Windows
ActiveMQ✓
Confluent Cloud✗
Linux
ActiveMQ✓
Confluent Cloud✗
CLI
ActiveMQ✗
Confluent Cloud✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
ActiveMQ✗
Confluent Cloud✓
Self-hosted
ActiveMQ✓
Confluent Cloud✗

Integrations

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

ActiveMQ

Not documented yet.

Confluent Cloud

Leader
16 total
  • Salesforce
  • Google Ads
  • Google Analytics
  • Hotjar
  • Quickbooks
  • MySQL
  • Apache Flink
  • Schema Registry
  • Apache Iceberg
  • Delta Lake
  • Slack
  • Amazon S3
  • Elasticsearch
  • AWS S3
  • Google Cloud Storage
  • Azure Blob Storage
Independently observed
Still deciding?

ActiveMQ or Confluent Cloud: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

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