ActiveMQ vs Apache Kafka comparison

The compared ActiveMQ and Apache Kafka solutions aren't in the same category. ActiveMQ is ranked #2 in MQ , with an average rating of 8.1, and holds a 26.1% mindshare in the category. Apache Kafka is ranked #8 in SA , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 3.2% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of ActiveMQ users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Apache Kafka users who would recommend it.

ActiveMQ

Read 28 ActiveMQ reviews

6,463 Views
5,881 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Apache Kafka

Read 88 Apache Kafka reviews

5,681 Views
852 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

ActiveMQ

Apache Kafka

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between ActiveMQ and Apache Kafka based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Message Queue (MQ) Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed ActiveMQ vs. Apache Kafka Report (Updated: May 2024).

Buyer's Guide

ActiveMQ vs. Apache Kafka

May 2024

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

ActiveMQ

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Message Queue (MQ) Software (2nd)

Apache Kafka

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Streaming Analytics (8th)

Mindshare comparison

ActiveMQ and Apache Kafka aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. ActiveMQ is designed for Message Queue (MQ) Software and holds a mindshare of 26.1%, up 22.6% compared to last year.
Apache Kafka, on the other hand, focuses on Streaming Analytics, holds 3.2% mindshare, up 2.0% since last year.

Message Queue (MQ) Software

Streaming Analytics

Featured Reviews

Eyob Alemu

Technical Director at NIDP

Efficient data flow management with high performance and occasional stability improvements

For high traffic volumes where management time on ActiveMQ is minimal and where the rate of flow from the provider is slower than from the consumer, ActiveMQ offers the highest performance based on our experience. It has been efficient for data flow control between two endpoints, despite occasional unexpected glitches. I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

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Snehasish Das

Technology Leader at eTCaaS

Data streaming transforms real-time data movement with impressive scalability

I worked with Apache Kafka for customers in the financial industry and OTT platforms. They use Kafka particularly for data streaming. Companies offering movie and entertainment as a service, similar to Netflix, use Kafka Apache Kafka offers unique data streaming. It allows the use of data in…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Reliable message delivery and mirroring."

"For reliable messaging, the most valuable feature of ActiveMQ for us is ensuring prompt message delivery."

"It’s a JMS broker, so the fact that it can allow for asynchronous communication is valuable."

"I am impressed with the tool’s latency. Also, the messages in ActiveMQ wait in a queue. The messages will start to move when the system reopens after getting stuck."

"It provides the best support services."

"The initial setup is straightforward and only takes a few minutes."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the holding and forwarding."

"The initial setup and first deployment of ActiveMQ is fairly simple."

More ActiveMQ pros

"Apache Kafka is scalable. It is easy to add brokers."

"Apache Kafka is an open-source solution that can be used for messaging or event processing."

"The convenience in setting up after major problems like data center blackouts is a notable feature."

"Kafka is scalable. It can manage a high volume of data from many sources."

"It is easy to configure."

"The publisher-subscriber pattern and low latency are also essential features that greatly piqued my interest."

"Good horizontal scaling and design."

"Kafka can process messages in real-time, making it useful for applications that require near-instantaneous processing."

More Apache Kafka pros

Cons

"We need to enhance stability and improve the deployment optimization to fully leverage the platform's capabilities."

"It does not scale out well. It ends up being very complex if you have a lot of mirror queues."

"The solution can improve the other protocols to equal the AMQ protocol they offer."

"Distributed message processing would be a nice addition."

"The clustering for sure needs improvement. When we were using it, the only thing available was an active/passive relationship that had to be maintained via shared file storage. That model includes a single point of failure in that storage medium."

"I would like the tool to improve compliance and stability. We will encounter issues while using the central applications. In the solution's future releases, I want to control and set limitations for databases."

"Needs to focus on a certain facet and be good at it, instead of handling support for most of the available message brokers."

"This solution could improve by providing better documentation."

More ActiveMQ cons

"Kafka has a lot of monitors, but sometimes it's most important to just have a simple monitor."

"The user interface is one weakness. Sometimes, our data isn't as accessible as we'd like. It takes a lot of work to retrieve the data and the index."

"The ability to connect the producers and consumers must be improved."

"Config management can be better. We are always trying to find the best configs, which is a challenge."

"One complexity that I faced with the tool stems from the fact that since it is not kind of a stand-alone application, it won't integrate with native cloud, like AWS or Azure."

"I would like to see monitoring service tools."

"Maintaining and configuring Apache Kafka can be challenging, especially when you want to fine-tune its behavior."

"Apache Kafka has performance issues that cause it to lag."

More Apache Kafka cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"ActiveMQ is open source, so it is free to use."

"There are no fees because it is open-source."

"We are using the open-source version, so we have not looked at any pricing."

"The solution is less expensive than its competitors."

"We use the open-source version."

"I think the software is free."

"It’s open source, ergo free."

"I use open source with standard Apache licensing."

More ActiveMQ pricing and cost advice

"Apache Kafka has an open-source pricing."

"It's a bit cheaper compared to other Q applications."

"I rate Apache Kafka's pricing a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive. There are no additional costs apart from the licensing fees for Apache Kafka."

"Apache Kafka is free."

"This is an open-source solution and is free to use."

"Apache Kafka is open-source and can be used free of charge."

"Apache Kafka is an open-sourced solution. There are fees if you want the support, and I would recommend it for enterprises. There are annual subscriptions available."

"The solution is free, it is open-source."

More Apache Kafka pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

33%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

28%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ActiveMQ?

For reliable messaging, the most valuable feature of ActiveMQ for us is ensuring prompt message delivery.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ActiveMQ?

Pricing is something to consider with ActiveMQ, though cloud pricing is not costly and depends upon the compute selection. Focusing on AI is essential nowadays. AI capabilities require improvement ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for ActiveMQ?

In my current organization, I'm only working with ActiveMQ. I previously worked with IBM WebSphere MQ.

See all answers

What are the differences between Apache Kafka and IBM MQ?

Apache Kafka is open source and can be used for free. It has very good log management and has a way to store the data used for analytics. Apache Kafka is very good if you have a high number of user...

See all answers

What do you like most about Apache Kafka?

Apache Kafka is an open-source solution that can be used for messaging or event processing.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Kafka?

Its pricing is reasonable. It's not always about cost, but about meeting specific needs.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM MQ vs ActiveMQ

Compared 53% of the time

Red Hat AMQ vs ActiveMQ

Compared 18% of the time

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs ActiveMQ

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon SQS vs ActiveMQ

Compared 5% of the time

EMQX vs ActiveMQ

Compared 2% of the time

More ActiveMQ Competitors

Red Hat AMQ vs Apache Kafka

Compared 17% of the time

IBM MQ vs Apache Kafka

Compared 13% of the time

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs Apache Kafka

Compared 13% of the time

PubSub+ Platform vs Apache Kafka

Compared 12% of the time

Amazon MQ vs Apache Kafka

Compared 3% of the time

More Apache Kafka Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ActiveMQ

July 2025

Download ActiveMQ product report

Buyer's Guide

Apache Kafka

July 2025

Download Apache Kafka product report

Also Known As

AMQ

No data available

Overview

Apache ActiveMQ is the most popular and powerful open source messaging and Integration Patterns server.

Apache ActiveMQ is fast, supports many Cross Language Clients and Protocols, comes with easy to use Enterprise Integration Patterns and many advanced features while fully supporting JMS 1.1 and J2EE 1.4. Apache ActiveMQ is released under the Apache 2.0 License

Apache

Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed streaming platform that serves as a central hub for handling real-time data streams. It allows efficient publishing, subscribing, and processing of data from various sources like applications, servers, and sensors.

Kafka's core benefits include high scalability for big data pipelines, fault tolerance ensuring continuous operation despite node failures, low latency for real-time applications, and decoupling of data producers from consumers.

Key features include topics for organizing data streams, producers for publishing data, consumers for subscribing to data, brokers for managing clusters, and connectors for easy integration with various data sources.

Large organizations use Kafka for real-time analytics, log aggregation, fraud detection, IoT data processing, and facilitating communication between microservices.

Apache

Sample Customers

University of Washington, Daugherty Systems, CSC, STG Technologies, Inc.

Uber, Netflix, Activision, Spotify, Slack, Pinterest

Buyer's Guide

ActiveMQ vs. Apache Kafka

May 2024

Free Report: ActiveMQ vs. Apache Kafka

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