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ActiveMQ pros and cons

Vendor: Apache
4.0 out of 5
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

ActiveMQ is highly recommended for JVM-related languages and offers robust JMS integration.
ActiveMQ supports various protocols like MQTT and AMQP, along with extensive EIP, REST, and Message Groups compatibility.
It provides reliable message delivery with functionalities like topics, durable topics, and message broadcasting for multiple consumers.
ActiveMQ is praised for its performance, low latency, and efficiency in handling large data volumes and ensuring prompt delivery.
The ActiveMQ community is vibrant and offers strong support, enhancing the overall user experience.

CONS

ActiveMQ does not scale out well and becomes complex with many mirror queues.
Improvement is needed in clustering, which currently relies on an active/passive relationship that introduces a single point of failure.
Stability issues are present, where sometimes ActiveMQ gets stuck and requires a restart.
Initial setup complexity is a concern, and installation needs optimization.
AI capabilities require enhancement in future updates to improve functionality.
 

ActiveMQ Pros review quotes

GT
Sep 16, 2022
The most valuable feature of this solution is the holding and forwarding.
MD
Jun 4, 2025
The initial setup and first deployment of ActiveMQ is fairly simple.
Jodi Setiyawan - PeerSpot reviewer
May 2, 2024
The main function I find valuable in ActiveMQ is facilitating message transfer within the client's internal network. ActiveMQ handles the message transfer from the internal network to the cloud. Regarding multi-protocols, we use different approaches based on client capabilities. Some clients connect for real-time data transfer, using database queries for periodic updates every ten minutes. We collect data from multiple clients, ensuring we get real-time sensor values where possible and periodic updates for others.
Learn what your peers think about ActiveMQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
ME
Feb 2, 2020
I'm impressed, I think that Active MQ is great.
Eyob Alemu - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 2, 2024
We value ActiveMQ for its performance, throughput, and low latency, especially in handling large volumes of data and sequential management of topics.
it_user660048 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 7, 2017
I appreciate many features including queue, topic, durable topic, and selectors. I also value a different support for different protocols such as MQTT and AMQP. It has full support for EIP, REST, Message Groups, UDP, and TCP.
ShoaibKhan - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 30, 2022
ActiveMQ is very lightweight and quick.
it_user651429 - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 24, 2017
The most important feature is that it's best for JVM-related languages and JMS integration.
Andrea Castorino - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 28, 2024
For reliable messaging, the most valuable feature of ActiveMQ for us is ensuring prompt message delivery.
NK
Nov 9, 2022
The initial setup is straightforward and only takes a few minutes.
 

ActiveMQ Cons review quotes

GT
Sep 16, 2022
It would be great if it is included as part of the solution, as Kafka is doing. Even though the use case of Kafka is different, If something like data extraction is possible, or if we can experiment with partition tolerance and other such things, that will be great.
MD
Jun 4, 2025
Sometimes issues arise in production with ActiveMQ due to the number of requests. For example, if you have configured one thousand requests at a time and it receives one thousand and one messages at a time, it breaks.
Jodi Setiyawan - PeerSpot reviewer
May 2, 2024
For additional functionality, I suggest making it easier to install and monitor the queues, topics, broker status, publisher status, and consumer status. Improved monitoring tools would help avoid needing to manually access the server for monitoring purposes.
Learn what your peers think about ActiveMQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
ME
Feb 2, 2020
This solution could improve by providing better documentation.
Eyob Alemu - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 2, 2024
We need to enhance stability and improve the deployment optimization to fully leverage the platform's capabilities.
it_user660048 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 7, 2017
Needs to focus on a certain facet and be good at it, instead of handling support for most of the available message brokers.
ShoaibKhan - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 30, 2022
From the TPS point of view, it's like 100,000 transactions that need to be admitted from different devices and also from the different minor small systems. Those are best fit for Kafka. We have used it on the customer side, and we thought of giving a try to ActiveMQ, but we have to do a lot of performance tests and approval is required before we can use it for this scale.
it_user651429 - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 24, 2017
Message Management: Better management of the messages. Perhaps persist them, or put in another queue with another life cycle.
Andrea Castorino - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 28, 2024
One potential area would be the complexity of the initial setup.
NK
Nov 9, 2022
The solution can improve the other protocols to equal the AMQ protocol they offer.