Comparison

ActiveMQ vs NATS

On the evidence we track, NATS leads this comparison with a composite score of 75/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
ActiveMQ67
NATS75
Score
Vioscale score
ActiveMQ67 / 100low · 22%
NATS75 / 100low · 48%
Pricing
Free tier
ActiveMQ
NATS
Model
Price level
ActiveMQfree
NATSfree
Transparent
ActiveMQ
NATS
Adoption
Dependent repos
ActiveMQ7,528
NATS24,884
Github stars
ActiveMQ2,451
NATS20,599
Package downloads weekly
ActiveMQ
Activity
Commits last 30d
ActiveMQ39
NATS100
Release
Cadence days
ActiveMQ
NATS1
History
ActiveMQ18 items
License
Spdx
Language
Primary
ActiveMQJava
NATSGo
Market
Availability
ActiveMQ

Capabilities

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

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

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

NATS

Leader

NATS enables components of a distributed software system to send messages to each other. It is an open-source project maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and can be deployed across cloud environments, on-site servers, edge computing devices, and embedded systems.

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 ↗

NATS

Leader
Open source
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platforms
Windows
ActiveMQ
NATS
Linux
ActiveMQ
NATS
CLI
ActiveMQ
NATS
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
ActiveMQ
NATS
Self-hosted
ActiveMQ
NATS
On-premise
ActiveMQ
NATS

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