Apache RocketMQ vs Eclipse Mosquitto
Apache RocketMQ
rocketmq.apache.org
Eclipse Mosquitto
mosquitto.orgSide by side
| Figure | Apache RocketMQ | Eclipse Mosquitto |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Message Broker Software | 8.9 (#4) | 7.9 (#19) |
| Spec score · Message Queue (MQ) Software | 8.8 (#4) | 7.8 (#18) |
| 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. | The project directs people who find a vulnerability to report it through the Eclipse Security page and lists past security issues and fixes. |
| Use cases | Its asynchronous model is suited to decoupling systems and shifting loads between upstream and downstream services. | The site names manufacturing, healthcare, automotive, and smart-home systems among MQTT broker application areas. |
Plans
Apache RocketMQ
- Apache RocketMQFree
- Apache RocketMQ open-source distributionFree
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.
Eclipse Mosquitto
Eclipse Mosquitto is a free, open-source message broker for MQTT 5.0, 3.1.1 and 3.1. It uses publish/subscribe messaging, a pattern suited to connected devices such as sensors, phones, embedded computers and microcontrollers. The project describes it as lightweight, with applications from low-power single-board computers to full servers. Mosquitto runs on Linux, macOS, Windows and self-hosted environments. The project also provides a C library for MQTT clients and the mosquitto_pub and mosquitto_sub command-line tools. MQTT and MQTT over WebSockets are supported, and delivery guarantees are configurable. A public test server offers plain MQTT, TLS, client-certificate TLS and WebSocket options. The project lists manufacturing, healthcare, automotive and smart-home systems among broker application areas. Community support is best effort through GitHub, a mailing list, Matrix and Cedalo forums. Cedalo offers hosted or on-premises instances, consulting and custom development.