# NATS vs ZeroMQ

**Leader by Vioscale score:** NATS

| Attribute | NATS | ZeroMQ |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 75.4 (48% (low)) | 59.6 (48% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 19 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 24,884 | 2,003 |
| adoption.github_stars | 20,599 | 10,972 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 1,291,214 | 25,005,888 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | 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. | 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":"self","paradigm":"pubsub","message_replay":true,"persistent_log":true,"consumer_groups":true,"horizontal_scaling":true}` | `{"hosting":"self","paradigm":"pubsub","protocol":"ZMTP/3.1","managed_offering":false}` |
| integrations.count | - | 11 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"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 | Go | C++ |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"mac":true,"linux":true,"android":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://nats.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T12:15:06.032Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://zeromq.org","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T11:07:53.298Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 1 | 114 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.14.6-RC.2","date":"2026-08-26T17:01:24Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.14.6-RC.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.14.6-RC.1","date":"2026-08-25T16:47:43Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.14.6-RC.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.15.0-preview.1","date":"2026-08-24T13:33:40Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.15.0-preview.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.14.5","date":"2026-08-12T15:31:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.12.15","date":"2026-08-12T15:30:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.14.4","date":"2026-07-30T13:57:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.12.14","date":"2026-07-30T13:56:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.14.3","date":"2026-06-29T15:36:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.12.12","date":"2026-06-29T15:36:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.12.11","date":"2026-06-09T14:57:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.14.2","date":"2026-06-02T16:02:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.12.10","date":"2026-06-02T16:02:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.14.2-RC.1","date":"2026-05-29T15:17:59Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.14.2-RC.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.12.10-RC.1","date":"2026-05-29T15:16:47Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.12.10-RC.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.14.1","date":"2026-05-20T15:42:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.14.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.12.9","date":"2026-05-20T15:41:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.12.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.14.1-RC.2","date":"2026-05-19T16:39:13Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.14.1-RC.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.12.9-RC.2","date":"2026-05-19T16:38:34Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.12.9-RC.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.14.1-RC.1","date":"2026-05-14T15:12:59Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.14.1-RC.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/releases/tag/v2.12.9-RC.1","date":"2026-05-14T15:12:19Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.12.9-RC.1"}]` | `[{"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.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 7.2 | 5.7 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":29,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fnats-io%2Fnats-server%2Fv2&per_page=100","last_12m":14,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` | `{"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 | NATS | ZeroMQ |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Messaging paradigm | Pub/sub | Pub/sub |
| **Correctness** |  |  |
| Delivery guarantee | - | - |
| Ordering guarantee | - | - |
| **Durability** |  |  |
| Durable replayable log | ✓ | - |
| Message replay / rewind | ✓ | - |
| **Interop** |  |  |
| Wire protocol | - | 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: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T15:16:47.382Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*