# Apache Kafka vs ZeroMQ

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Apache Kafka

| Attribute | Apache Kafka | ZeroMQ |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 57.2 (49% (low)) | 48.9 (58% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 1 | 2,003 |
| adoption.github_stars | 33,937 | 11,016 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 3,890,048 | 23,226,788 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"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. It is indexed under Message Queues.","source":"https://kafka.apache.org","question":"What is Apache Kafka?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Apache Kafka 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://kafka.apache.org","question":"Is Apache Kafka free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Apache Kafka supports Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://kafka.apache.org","question":"What platforms does Apache Kafka support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Apache Kafka can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://kafka.apache.org","question":"Can Apache Kafka be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 4 integrations for Apache Kafka, including Postgres, JMS, Elasticsearch and AWS S3. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://kafka.apache.org","question":"What does Apache Kafka integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Apache Kafka 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/kafka","question":"Is Apache Kafka open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"ZeroMQ is a messaging library that enables asynchronous communication through socket abstractions, supporting multiple communication patterns, message subscriptions, and access to various transport protocols. It is indexed under Message Queues.","source":"https://zeromq.org","question":"What is ZeroMQ?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"ZeroMQ is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the MPL-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://zeromq.org","question":"Is ZeroMQ free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"ZeroMQ supports Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://zeromq.org","question":"What platforms does ZeroMQ support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. ZeroMQ can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://zeromq.org","question":"Can ZeroMQ be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 11 integrations for ZeroMQ, including Microsoft, Samsung, AT&T, Spotify, Facebook, Digital Ocean, Auth0 and Bitcoin, plus 3 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://zeromq.org","question":"What does ZeroMQ integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. ZeroMQ is published under the MPL-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/zeromq/libzmq","question":"Is ZeroMQ open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | An open-source system for capturing, storing, and processing continuous data flows at scale. Used to build real-time analytics, data connectors, and mission-critical applications. | Enables programs to exchange information through sockets across multiple protocols and network types, with built-in support for various communication patterns such as broadcast, queue-based delivery, and request-response architectures |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"self","ordering":"per_partition","paradigm":"pubsub","protocol":"Binary over TCP (SSL/SASL for authentication/encryption)","message_replay":true,"persistent_log":true,"consumer_groups":true,"geo_replication":true,"kafka_compatible":true,"managed_offering":false,"stream_processing":true,"delivery_guarantee":"exactly_once","horizontal_scaling":true}` | `{"hosting":"self","paradigm":"pubsub","protocol":"ZMTP/3.1","managed_offering":false,"horizontal_scaling":true}` |
| integrations.count | 4 | 11 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Postgres"},{"name":"JMS"},{"name":"Elasticsearch"},{"name":"AWS S3"}]` | `[{"name":"Microsoft"},{"name":"Samsung"},{"name":"AT&T"},{"name":"Spotify"},{"name":"Facebook"},{"name":"Digital Ocean"},{"name":"Auth0"},{"name":"Bitcoin"},{"name":"Jupyter"},{"name":"Mongrel2"},{"name":"Jina"}]` |
| language.primary | Java | C++ |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"linux":true}` | `{"linux":true,"android":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://kafka.apache.org","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T13:46:57.642Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://zeromq.org","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T15:19:28.344Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | - | 114 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.3.5","date":"2023-10-09T11:17:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.3.4","date":"2021-01-17T13:23:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.3.3","date":"2020-09-07T16:26:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.3.2","date":"2019-07-08T16:22:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.3.1","date":"2019-01-12T16:21:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.3.0","date":"2018-11-28T20:16:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.2.5","date":"2018-03-23T19:37:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.2.4","date":"2018-03-21T16:03:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.2.3","date":"2017-12-13T13:41:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.2.2","date":"2017-02-18T18:09:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.2.1","date":"2016-12-31T15:30:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.2.0","date":"2016-11-04T10:33:51Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/releases/tag/v4.2.0-rc1","date":"2016-11-01T15:31:54Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v4.2.0-rc1"}]` |
| security.scorecard | 6.1 | 5.3 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fapache%2Fkafka&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=conda&package_name=zeromq&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Message Queues)

| Capability | Apache Kafka | ZeroMQ |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Messaging paradigm | Pub/sub | Pub/sub |
| **Correctness** |  |  |
| Delivery guarantee | Exactly-once | - |
| Ordering guarantee | Per-partition | - |
| **Durability** |  |  |
| Durable replayable log | ✓ | - |
| Message replay / rewind | ✓ | - |
| **Interop** |  |  |
| Wire protocol | Binary over TCP (SSL/SASL for authentication/encryption) | ZMTP/3.1 |
| 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 | Self-hosted only | Self-hosted only |
| **Processing** |  |  |
| Built-in stream processing | ✓ | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:59:00.400Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*