# Confluent Cloud vs RabbitMQ

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Confluent Cloud

| Attribute | Confluent Cloud | RabbitMQ |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 93.1 (73% (medium)) | 66.5 (47% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 282 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 13,917 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 2,820,361 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A managed cloud service for real-time data streaming built on Apache Kafka, offering automatic scaling, security controls, and pre-built connectors without requiring manual cluster management. It is indexed under Message Queues.","source":"https://www.confluent.io/pricing/","question":"What is Confluent Cloud?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Confluent Cloud offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $0.75. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.confluent.io/pricing/","question":"Is Confluent Cloud free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Confluent Cloud supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.confluent.io/pricing/","question":"What platforms does Confluent Cloud support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Confluent Cloud, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://www.confluent.io/pricing/","question":"Can Confluent Cloud be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 12 integrations for Confluent Cloud, including Salesforce, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Hotjar, Quickbooks, MySQL, Apache Flink and Schema Registry, plus 4 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.confluent.io/pricing/","question":"What does Confluent Cloud integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR for Confluent Cloud. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Confluent Cloud not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.confluent.io/de-de/compliance/uk-tax-strategy/","question":"What security certifications does Confluent Cloud have?","confidence":0.7}]` | `[{"answer":"A powerful, enterprise-grade open-source messaging and streaming broker that enables efficient, reliable and versatile communication for distributed microservices, real-time data, and IoT applications. It is indexed under Message Queues.","source":"https://www.rabbitmq.com","question":"What is RabbitMQ?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"RabbitMQ is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the BSD-3-Clause licence. Paid editions are also offered: Tanzu RabbitMQ, priced on request. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.rabbitmq.com","question":"Is RabbitMQ free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"RabbitMQ supports the web, Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.rabbitmq.com","question":"What platforms does RabbitMQ support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. RabbitMQ can be deployed cloud / SaaS, on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.rabbitmq.com","question":"Can RabbitMQ be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. RabbitMQ is published under the BSD-3-Clause 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://pypi.org/pypi/pika/json","question":"Is RabbitMQ open source?","confidence":0.9}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | 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. | An open-source message broker and streaming platform for reliable message exchange in distributed systems. Supports multiple standard protocols including AMQP, MQTT, and STOMP. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"cloud","ordering":"per_partition","paradigm":"pubsub","protocol":"Kafka protocol, REST API","message_replay":true,"persistent_log":true,"consumer_groups":true,"geo_replication":true,"kafka_compatible":true,"managed_offering":true,"stream_processing":true,"delivery_guarantee":"exactly_once","horizontal_scaling":true}` | `{"hosting":"both","ordering":"fifo","paradigm":"queue","protocol":"AMQP 1.0, MQTT 5.0, STOMP","message_replay":true,"persistent_log":true,"consumer_groups":true,"geo_replication":true,"managed_offering":true,"dead_letter_queue":true,"stream_processing":true,"delivery_guarantee":"at_least_once","horizontal_scaling":true}` |
| integrations.count | 120 | - |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Salesforce"},{"name":"Google Ads"},{"name":"Google Analytics"},{"name":"Hotjar"},{"name":"Quickbooks"},{"name":"MySQL"},{"name":"Apache Flink"},{"name":"Schema Registry"},{"name":"Apache Iceberg"},{"name":"Delta Lake"},{"name":"Slack","native":true,"category":"communication"},{"name":"Amazon S3","native":true,"category":"cloud_storage","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Elasticsearch","native":true,"category":"search","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"AWS S3","native":true,"category":"cloud_storage","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Google Cloud Storage","native":true,"category":"cloud_storage","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Azure Blob Storage","native":true,"category":"cloud_storage","direction":"outbound"}]` | - |
| language.primary | - | JavaScript |
| license.spdx | - | BSD-3-Clause |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":["US","GB"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free","summary":"Free tier. $0.14/eCKU-hour for additional eCKUs, $0.05/GB networking, $0.08/GB/month storage","features":["Autoscaling","Kafka ACLs","Data encryption","Audit logs","RBAC","Multicloud (AWS, Azure, GCP)"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"eCKU-hour"},"kind":"metered","note":"after first eCKU free","amount":0.14,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.05,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB-month"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.08,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Serverless, fully managed clusters with zero ops","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"connectors":"80+ fully managed","uptime_sla":"99.9% (1 eCKU), 99.99% (2+ eCKUs)"}},{"free":false,"name":"Standard","summary":"~$385/month typical. $0.75/eCKU-hour, $0.035-0.050/GB networking, $0.03/GB/month storage","features":["Autoscaling at scale","Advanced governance","Audit logs","SAML/SSO","RBAC","Self-managed encryption keys"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"eCKU-hour"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.75,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","note":"range $0.035-0.050","amount":0.035,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB-month"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.03,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"High availability with 99.99% uptime SLA and audit logging","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"uptime_sla":"99.99%"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"~$895/month typical. $1.75-2.25/eCKU-hour (min 2), $0.020-0.050/GB networking, tiered storage","features":["GBps+ autoscaling","Private networking","Client-side field-level encryption","Advanced monitoring","All security features"],"minSeats":2,"components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"eCKU-hour"},"kind":"metered","note":"range $1.75-2.25","amount":1.75,"currency":"USD"},{"kind":"fixed","note":"minimum 2 eCKUs","amount":2.25,"period":"eCKU-hour","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","note":"range $0.020-0.050","amount":0.02,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB-month"},"kind":"metered","note":"range $0.020-0.050","amount":0.03,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Mission-critical use cases with GBps+ scale and advanced security","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"scale":"GBps+","uptime_sla":"99.99%"}}],"addOns":[{"name":"Premium Support","components":[{"of":"first_50k_usage","kind":"percentage","rate":10},{"of":"next_50k_usage","kind":"percentage","rate":8},{"of":"next_900k_usage","kind":"percentage","rate":6},{"of":"usage_over_1m","kind":"percentage","rate":3}]},{"name":"Business Support","components":[{"kind":"fixed","note":"greater of $1000 or percentage","amount":1000,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"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.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.confluent.io/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-09-18T15:55:20.212Z","freeTrialDays":120,"startingPrice":{"unit":"GB","amount":0.02,"currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Open Source"},{"free":false,"name":"Commercial","contactSales":true}],"freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.rabbitmq.com","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T15:19:03.045Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | low | low |
| pricing.starting_price | `{"amount":0.02,"currency":"USD"}` | - |
| pricing.transparent | yes | no |
| release.cadence_days | - | 25 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.3.6","date":"2026-09-14T07:24:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.3.5","date":"2026-08-17T21:41:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.3.4","date":"2026-07-23T14:46:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.2.9","date":"2026-07-20T14:43:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.3.3","date":"2026-07-20T14:55:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.2.8","date":"2026-06-15T15:08:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.3.2","date":"2026-06-15T15:34:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.3.1","date":"2026-05-20T01:21:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.2.7","date":"2026-05-19T23:48:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.3.0","date":"2026-04-23T01:18:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.2.6","date":"2026-04-23T00:54:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.3.0-rc.1","date":"2026-04-20T18:19:14Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v4.3.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.3.0-rc.0","date":"2026-03-26T03:47:43Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v4.3.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.2.5","date":"2026-03-17T00:29:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.2.4","date":"2026-02-17T01:44:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.2.3","date":"2026-01-22T03:57:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.1.8","date":"2026-01-22T03:48:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.2.2","date":"2025-12-15T18:25:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.1.7","date":"2025-12-15T18:10:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/releases/tag/v4.2.1","date":"2025-11-17T02:47:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.1"}]` |
| reliability.sla_pct | 99.99 | - |
| reliability.status_page | yes | - |
| security.certifications | `[{"name":"SOC 1","status":"active"},{"name":"SOC 2","status":"active"},{"name":"SOC 3","status":"active"},{"name":"ISO 27001","status":"active"},{"name":"ISO 27701","status":"active"},{"name":"PCI DSS","status":"active"},{"name":"HITRUST CSF","status":"active"}]` | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | yes |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.iso27001 | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | - | 6.1 |
| security.soc2 | yes | - |
| security.trust_center | https://www.confluent.io/resources/topic/security/ | https://www.rabbitmq.com/security |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=hex&package_name=amqp_client&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Message Queues)

| Capability | Confluent Cloud | RabbitMQ |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Messaging paradigm | Pub/sub | Queue |
| **Correctness** |  |  |
| Delivery guarantee | Exactly-once | At-least-once |
| Ordering guarantee | Per-partition | FIFO |
| **Durability** |  |  |
| Durable replayable log | ✓ | ✓ |
| Message replay / rewind | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Interop** |  |  |
| Wire protocol | Kafka protocol, REST API | AMQP 1.0, MQTT 5.0, STOMP |
| 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 only | Cloud + self-hosted |
| **Processing** |  |  |
| Built-in stream processing | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-17T23:41:45.588Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*
