# ActiveMQ vs Google Cloud Pub/Sub

| Attribute | ActiveMQ | Google Cloud Pub/Sub |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 59 (29% (low)) | 53.7 (50% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 33 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 7,528 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 2,465 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"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. It is indexed under Message Queues.","source":"https://activemq.apache.org/","question":"What is ActiveMQ?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"ActiveMQ is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://activemq.apache.org/","question":"Is ActiveMQ free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"ActiveMQ supports Windows, Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://activemq.apache.org/","question":"What platforms does ActiveMQ support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. ActiveMQ can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://activemq.apache.org/","question":"Can ActiveMQ be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. ActiveMQ is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/apache/activemq","question":"Is ActiveMQ open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"Google Cloud's managed messaging system that reliably routes messages between applications with support for real-time data processing and integration with analytics, log management, and data platforms. It is indexed under Message Queues.","source":"https://cloud.google.com/pubsub","question":"What is Google Cloud Pub/Sub?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Google Cloud Pub/Sub offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $0.27. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://cloud.google.com/pubsub","question":"Is Google Cloud Pub/Sub free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to Google Cloud Pub/Sub. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://cloud.google.com/pubsub","question":"What platforms does Google Cloud Pub/Sub support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Not fully, on what we have confirmed. Google Cloud Pub/Sub is offered as cloud / SaaS and hybrid, and a hybrid deployment usually means some components can run on your own infrastructure while the rest stays vendor-hosted. We have not confirmed a completely self-hosted option, so check with the vendor if that is a requirement.","source":"https://cloud.google.com/pubsub","question":"Can Google Cloud Pub/Sub be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 11 integrations for Google Cloud Pub/Sub, including BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Dataflow, Splunk, Datadog, Striim, Informatica and Confluent Cloud, plus 3 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://cloud.google.com/pubsub","question":"What does Google Cloud Pub/Sub integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Google Cloud Pub/Sub is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States.","source":"https://cloud.google.com/pubsub","question":"Where is Google Cloud Pub/Sub available?","confidence":0.5}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true}` |
| description.long | 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. | Google Cloud's publish-subscribe messaging platform that delivers events to multiple subscribers with at-least-once delivery guarantees, cross-zone replication, and optional per-key ordering. It integrates with popular data processing, analytics, and monitoring tools for end-to-end data streaming solutions. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"both","paradigm":"pubsub","protocol":"AMQP, STOMP, MQTT, JMS","persistent_log":true,"consumer_groups":true,"managed_offering":true,"stream_processing":true,"horizontal_scaling":true}` | `{"hosting":"cloud","ordering":"per_key","paradigm":"pubsub","message_replay":true,"persistent_log":true,"consumer_groups":true,"geo_replication":true,"managed_offering":true,"stream_processing":true,"delivery_guarantee":"at_least_once","horizontal_scaling":true}` |
| integrations.count | - | 9 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"BigQuery"},{"name":"Cloud Storage"},{"name":"Dataflow"},{"name":"Splunk","category":"logs"},{"name":"Datadog","category":"logs"},{"name":"Striim","category":"data integration"},{"name":"Informatica","category":"data integration"},{"name":"Confluent Cloud"},{"name":"Apache Kafka"},{"name":"Knative Eventing","category":"serverless"},{"name":"Looker Studio","category":"visualization"},{"name":"Data Studio","category":"visualization"}]` |
| language.primary | Java | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | - | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"web":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Open source and free to download and use. Professional support available from commercial vendors.","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://activemq.apache.org/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T08:34:39.952Z"}` | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Standard Pub/Sub","summary":"$40/TiB throughput + $0.27/GiB-month storage (first 10 GiB throughput free)","features":["At-least-once message delivery","Per-key message ordering","Pull and push delivery modes","Cross-zone replication","Automatic scaling and provisioning","Message retention and snapshots"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":40,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB-month"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.27,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Pay-as-you-go pricing based on message throughput and retention","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"free_throughput":"10 GiB/month"}}],"addOns":[{"name":"BigQuery Subscription","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":50,"currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Cloud Storage Subscription","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":50,"currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Kinesis Data Streams Import","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":50,"currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Other Source Imports (Azure Event Hubs, AWS MSK, Confluent Cloud)","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":80,"currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"Usage-based: $40/TiB throughput, $0.27/GiB-month storage. Free tier: 10 GiB/month throughput.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://cloud.google.com/pubsub","retrievedAt":"2026-08-05T13:22:58.268Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.27,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | no |
| release.cadence_days | 4 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-6.2.10","date":"2026-09-22T04:34:56Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-6.2.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-5.19.11","date":"2026-09-02T18:17:39Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-5.19.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-6.3.2","date":"2026-08-29T15:39:07Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-6.3.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-6.3.1","date":"2026-08-06T14:44:33Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-6.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-6.2.9","date":"2026-08-06T15:19:04Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-6.2.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-5.19.10","date":"2026-08-06T20:10:51Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-5.19.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-6.3.0","date":"2026-07-24T11:39:40Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-6.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-6.2.8","date":"2026-07-24T07:53:25Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-6.2.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-5.19.9","date":"2026-07-24T13:59:42Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-5.19.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-6.2.7","date":"2026-06-25T05:29:05Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-6.2.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-5.19.8","date":"2026-06-25T05:59:26Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-5.19.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-6.2.6","date":"2026-05-27T11:37:10Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-6.2.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-5.19.7","date":"2026-05-27T12:14:13Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-5.19.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-6.2.5","date":"2026-04-21T16:26:33Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-6.2.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-5.19.6","date":"2026-04-21T16:52:16Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-5.19.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-6.2.4","date":"2026-04-08T16:23:38Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-6.2.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-5.19.5","date":"2026-04-08T17:00:50Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-5.19.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-5.19.4","date":"2026-03-28T05:44:50Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-5.19.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-6.2.3","date":"2026-03-27T18:33:08Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-6.2.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/activemq/releases/tag/activemq-6.2.2","date":"2026-03-20T12:34:58Z","type":"stable","version":"activemq-6.2.2"}]` | - |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 7 | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":12,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=org.apache.activemq%3Aactivemq-broker&per_page=100","last_12m":9,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` | - |

## Capabilities (Message Queues)

| Capability | ActiveMQ | Google Cloud Pub/Sub |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Messaging paradigm | Pub/sub | Pub/sub |
| **Correctness** |  |  |
| Delivery guarantee | - | At-least-once |
| Ordering guarantee | - | Per-key |
| **Durability** |  |  |
| Durable replayable log | ✓ | ✓ |
| Message replay / rewind | - | ✓ |
| **Interop** |  |  |
| Wire protocol | AMQP, STOMP, MQTT, JMS | - |
| Kafka-protocol compatible | - | - |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Partitioned horizontal scaling | ✓ | ✓ |
| Geo / cross-region replication | - | ✓ |
| **Consumption** |  |  |
| Consumer groups / competing consumers | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dead-letter queue | - | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Managed cloud offering exists | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | Cloud only |
| **Processing** |  |  |
| Built-in stream processing | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:14:30.233Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*