Amazon SQS vs Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Amazon SQS
aws.amazon.com
Google Cloud Pub/Sub
cloud.google.comSide by side
| Figure | Amazon SQS | Google Cloud Pub/Sub |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $40/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 4 |
| Spec score · Message Broker Software | 8.7 (#5) | 8.2 (#11) |
| Spec score · Message Queue (MQ) Software | 8.7 (#5) | 8.1 (#13) |
| Founded | 2006 | 1998 |
| Integrations | AWS lists integrations with Redshift, DynamoDB, RDS, EC2, ECS, Lambda, and S3, and describes fanout with SNS. | Google Cloud integrations include Dataflow, BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, App Engine, Cloud Logging, Cloud Monitoring, Workflows, and Eventarc. |
| Intended users | AWS describes SQS use for organizations building microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications, including startups, enterprises, nonprofits, and governments. | Pub/Sub is intended for service-to-service communication rather than direct communication with end-user or IoT clients. |
| Security | Server-side encryption uses AWS KMS keys to encrypt messages when SQS receives them and decrypt them for authorized consumers. | Pub/Sub offers fine-grained access controls, end-to-end encryption, and HIPAA compliance. |
| Use cases | SQS lets software components send, store, and receive messages, supporting decoupled and event-driven applications. | Pub/Sub is used for streaming analytics, data integration pipelines, service integration middleware, and parallel task queues. |
Plans
Amazon SQS
- Free TierFree
- Standard queuesPriced on request
- FIFO queuesPriced on request
- Amazon SQS Free TierFree
- Pay-as-you-goPrice not published
Google Cloud Pub/Sub
- Free usage allowanceFree
- Pay-as-you-go throughput$40 a month
- Free monthly tierFree
- Pay-as-you-go$40 a month
In their own words
Amazon SQS
Amazon SQS is a cloud message queuing service for microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications. It lets separate software components send, store, and receive messages, supporting decoupled and event-driven designs. Standard queues provide at-least-once delivery with best-effort ordering, while FIFO queues preserve order without introducing duplicates. Standard queues support nearly unlimited transactions per second for each API action; FIFO high-throughput mode supports up to 70,000 messages per second without batching. Messages can contain up to 256 KB, or larger payloads can use the Java Extended Client Library with Amazon S3. SQS accepts batches of up to 10 messages and retains messages for up to 14 days. Dead Letter Queues handle messages exceeding a configured receive count and must match the source queue type. Integrations include Redshift, DynamoDB, RDS, EC2, ECS, Lambda, S3, and SNS fanout. Server-side encryption uses AWS KMS keys. The Free Tier is free for 1 million requests; separate S3, KMS, and data-transfer charges may apply.
Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Google Cloud Pub/Sub is a cloud messaging service for asynchronous communication between services that produce messages and those that process them. It is intended for service-to-service use, including streaming analytics, data integration, middleware, and parallel task queues, rather than direct communication with end users or IoT clients. Communication typically has latency around 100 milliseconds. Synchronous cross-zone replication and per-message receipt tracking provide at-least-once delivery; Dataflow supports exactly-once processing of Pub/Sub streams. There are no shards or partitions, and provisioning scales automatically after quota is set. Message controls include seek and replay, dead letter topics, and attribute-based filtering. Pub/Sub offers fine-grained access controls, end-to-end encryption, and HIPAA compliance. It supports REST and gRPC APIs and client libraries for seven languages; API keys are not supported for authentication. The maximum message size is 10 MB. The free monthly tier is free for the first 10 GB of data per month. Pay-as-you-go is $40 a month beyond 10 GB, with throughput listed at $40 per TB and storage at $0.27 per GiB-month.