# Apache Pulsar vs ZeroMQ

| Attribute | Apache Pulsar | ZeroMQ |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 54.5 (29% (low)) | 57 (48% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 69 | 19 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 316 | 2,003 |
| adoption.github_stars | 15,315 | 10,972 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 25,005,888 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | 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. | ZeroMQ is a messaging library that enables asynchronous communication through socket abstractions, supporting multiple communication patterns, message subscriptions, and access to various transport protocols. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"both","ordering":"per_partition","paradigm":"pubsub","protocol":"pulsar://","message_replay":true,"persistent_log":true,"consumer_groups":true,"geo_replication":true,"kafka_compatible":true,"stream_processing":true,"delivery_guarantee":"exactly_once","horizontal_scaling":true}` | `{"hosting":"self","paradigm":"pubsub","protocol":"ZMTP/3.1","managed_offering":false}` |
| integrations.count | 35 | 11 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Kafka"},{"name":"RabbitMQ"},{"name":"MongoDB"},{"name":"Cassandra"},{"name":"Elasticsearch"},{"name":"HBase"},{"name":"HDFS"},{"name":"InfluxDB"},{"name":"Redis"},{"name":"Solr"},{"name":"DynamoDB"},{"name":"Kinesis"},{"name":"Azure Data Explorer"},{"name":"ClickHouse"},{"name":"PostgreSQL"},{"name":"MariaDB"},{"name":"SQLite"},{"name":"Debezium MySQL"},{"name":"Debezium PostgreSQL"},{"name":"Debezium MongoDB"},{"name":"Debezium Oracle"},{"name":"Debezium Microsoft SQL Server"},{"name":"Canal"},{"name":"Aerospike"},{"name":"Alluxio"},{"name":"NSQ"},{"name":"Netty"},{"name":"HTTP"},{"name":"File"}]` | `[{"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 |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"mac":true,"linux":true,"android":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://pulsar.apache.org","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T11:10:46.807Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://zeromq.org","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T11:07:53.298Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | - | 114 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.2.4","date":"2026-08-03T09:19:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.13","date":"2026-08-03T09:19:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.2.3","date":"2026-07-06T08:46:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.12","date":"2026-07-06T08:46:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v5.0.0-M1","date":"2026-06-23T14:11:26Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v5.0.0-M1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.2.2","date":"2026-06-08T18:16:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.11","date":"2026-06-08T18:16:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.2.1","date":"2026-04-27T13:04:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.10","date":"2026-04-27T13:04:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v3.0.17","date":"2026-04-27T13:03:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.2.0","date":"2026-03-31T21:12:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.1.3","date":"2026-02-19T19:48:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.9","date":"2026-02-19T19:48:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v3.0.16","date":"2026-02-16T09:24:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.1.2","date":"2025-11-17T07:58:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.8","date":"2025-11-17T07:58:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v3.0.15","date":"2025-11-17T07:57:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.1.1","date":"2025-09-27T04:40:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v4.0.7","date":"2025-09-27T04:40:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/pulsar/releases/tag/v3.3.9","date":"2025-09-27T04:39:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.3.9"}]` | `[{"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 | 7 | 5.7 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=org.apache.pulsar%3Apulsar-client-admin&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 Pulsar | 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 | pulsar:// | 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 | Cloud + self-hosted | Self-hosted only |
| **Processing** |  |  |
| Built-in stream processing | ✓ | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T20:41:00.397Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*