Apache RocketMQ vs DataStax Astra Streaming
Apache RocketMQ
rocketmq.apache.orgDataStax Astra Streaming
docs.datastax.comSide by side
| Figure | Apache RocketMQ | DataStax Astra Streaming |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Event Streaming Platforms | 8.9 (#2) | 7.8 (#13) |
| Security | RocketMQ provides ACL and TLS, but operators must configure ACL or restrict access to trusted networks; the security guide warns that ACL is not enabled by default. | Shared tenants use Pulsar authentication and authorization alongside Astra organization RBAC, with tenant-scoped roles and permissions. |
| Support | The site links to community email groups, GitHub issues, and contribution guidance for help and participation. | The documentation directs customers to IBM Support for requests such as private connectivity and unavailable regions. |
| Use cases | Its asynchronous model is suited to decoupling systems and shifting loads between upstream and downstream services. | The service provides unified messaging for streaming, pub/sub, and queuing, and supports real-time event processing and change data capture. |
Plans
Apache RocketMQ
- Apache RocketMQFree
- Apache RocketMQ open-source distributionFree
DataStax Astra Streaming
- Free tierFree
- Paid Astra Streaming plansPriced on request
In their own words
Apache RocketMQ
Apache RocketMQ is distributed middleware for asynchronous communication and publish/subscribe messaging. Its asynchronous model can separate systems and shift loads between upstream and downstream services. Messaging options include publish/subscribe, request/reply, streaming, transactional messages, FIFO ordering, filtering, and push or pull consumption. The project lists durable persistence, replication, failover, fault tolerance, high-availability options, and cross-region disaster recovery. Its site describes million-level LiteTopics per cluster and says RocketMQ has demonstrated 10M+ TPS throughput. It can run locally, in Docker, or Kubernetes, with source and binary packages available. The ecosystem includes EventBridge, MQTT, RocketMQ Connect, RocketMQ Streams, Spring, Flink, Prometheus Exporter, and a Kubernetes Operator; AI options include native MCP support, A2A compatibility, and integrations with LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen, AgentScope, Dify, and Coze. The project lists gRPC SDKs for Java, Go, Python, C++, and Rust, plus gRPC, MQTT, JMS, and OpenMessaging protocols. It is free under Apache License 2.0. ACL is not enabled by default.
DataStax Astra Streaming
DataStax Astra Streaming is a managed cloud service for streaming data and processing event streams, powered by Apache Pulsar. It provides messaging for streaming, publish-subscribe workflows, and queuing, and supports real-time event processing and change data capture. Users manage Pulsar tenants and resources such as topics, connectors, functions, and subscriptions through the Astra Portal, APIs, or related tools. Applications connect through open-source Apache Pulsar client APIs; the service runs Pulsar 3.1 and recommends that API version or higher. Included connectors cover Astra DB and Cassandra, Kafka, AWS Kinesis, Cloud Storage, Elasticsearch, BigQuery, JDBC databases, Snowflake, and selected source systems including Debezium-supported databases. Connections use authentication, authorization, and TLS. Shared clusters have defined tenant, namespace, topic, message-size, and throughput limits. Custom source and sink connectors are not supported, and experimental connectors are not fully supported or tested. A free tier is listed at free; paid pricing is usage-based and varies by region and usage.