Comparison

Apache Pulsar vs ZeroMQ

No clear leader: ZeroMQ (57.0) and Apache Pulsar (54.5) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. 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
Apache Pulsar55
ZeroMQ57
Score
Vioscale score
Apache Pulsar55 / 100low · 29%
ZeroMQ57 / 100low · 48%
Pricing
Free tier
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ
Model
Apache Pulsarcommercial
Price level
Apache Pulsarfree
ZeroMQfree
Transparent
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ
Integrations
Count
Apache Pulsar35
ZeroMQ11
Adoption
Dependent repos
Apache Pulsar316
ZeroMQ2,003
Github stars
Apache Pulsar15,315
ZeroMQ10,972
Package downloads weekly
Apache Pulsar
Activity
Commits last 30d
Apache Pulsar69
ZeroMQ19
Release
Cadence days
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ114
History
Apache Pulsar20 items
ZeroMQ13 items
License
Spdx
Apache PulsarApache-2.0
ZeroMQMPL-2.0
Language
Primary
Apache PulsarJava
ZeroMQC++

Capabilities

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

Core
Messaging paradigm
Apache PulsarPub/sub
ZeroMQPub/sub
Correctness
Delivery guarantee
Apache PulsarExactly-once
ZeroMQ-
Ordering guarantee
Apache PulsarPer-partition
ZeroMQ-
Durability
Durable replayable log
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ-
Message replay / rewind
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ-
Interop
Wire protocol
Apache Pulsarpulsar://
ZeroMQZMTP/3.1
Kafka-protocol compatible
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ-
Scale
Partitioned horizontal scaling
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ-
Geo / cross-region replication
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ-
Consumption
Consumer groups / competing consumers
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ-
Dead-letter queue
Apache Pulsar-
ZeroMQ-
Deployment
Managed cloud offering exists
Apache Pulsar-
ZeroMQ
Hosting
Apache PulsarCloud + self-hosted
ZeroMQSelf-hosted only
Processing
Built-in stream processing
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ-

What each one is

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

Apache Pulsar

A distributed messaging system built for cloud deployments that enables applications to reliably publish and consume messages—either individually or as continuous streams—with sub-10-millisecond latency, supporting millions of independent topics and large-scale streaming workloads.

Independently observed

ZeroMQ

ZeroMQ is a messaging library that enables asynchronous communication through socket abstractions, supporting multiple communication patterns, message subscriptions, and access to various transport protocols.

Independently observed

Pricing

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

Apache Pulsar

Open source
as of verify ↗

ZeroMQ

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
Android
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ
macOS
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ
Windows
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ
Linux
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ
CLI
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ
Self-hosted
Apache Pulsar
ZeroMQ

Integrations

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

Apache Pulsar

29 total
  • Kafka
  • RabbitMQ
  • MongoDB
  • Cassandra
  • Elasticsearch
  • HBase
  • HDFS
  • InfluxDB
  • Redis
  • Solr
  • DynamoDB
  • Kinesis
  • Azure Data Explorer
  • ClickHouse
  • PostgreSQL
  • MariaDB
  • SQLite
  • Debezium MySQL
  • Debezium PostgreSQL
  • Debezium MongoDB
  • Debezium Oracle
  • Debezium Microsoft SQL Server
  • Canal
  • Aerospike
  • +5 more
Independently observed

ZeroMQ

11 total
  • Microsoft
  • Samsung
  • AT&T
  • Spotify
  • Facebook
  • Digital Ocean
  • Auth0
  • Bitcoin
  • Jupyter
  • Mongrel2
  • Jina
Independently observed

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