Apache RocketMQ vs RabbitMQ
Apache RocketMQ
rocketmq.apache.org
RabbitMQ
rabbitmq.comSide by side
| Figure | Apache RocketMQ | RabbitMQ |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 4 |
| Spec score · Message Broker Software | 8.9 (#4) | 8.4 (#8) |
| Spec score · Distributed Systems | 8.9 (#4) | 8.4 (#9) |
| Spec score · Message Queue (MQ) Software | 8.8 (#4) | 8.5 (#6) |
| Deployment | RocketMQ 5.x separates stateless Proxy from storage and compute so those layers can scale independently. | RabbitMQ can run on cloud infrastructure, on-premises, local machines, physical or virtual hardware, containers and IaaS providers. |
| Messaging patterns | The platform supports publish/subscribe, request/reply and continuous event-streaming patterns. | RabbitMQ supports routing, filtering, streaming, and federation to direct messages from publishers to one or more consumers. |
| Protocols | The project supports gRPC, MQTT, AMQP, HTTP/REST, JMS and OpenMessaging interfaces across its components and clients. | RabbitMQ supports AMQP 0-9-1, AMQP 1.0, MQTT, STOMP, RabbitMQ Streams, and browser communication over WebSocket. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.5 out of 5 from 19 reviews | 4.1 out of 5 from 46 reviews |
| Reliability | The project lists built-in fault tolerance and high-availability options, durable persistence, replication, failover, and cross-region disaster recovery. | Message acknowledgements and replicated queues are provided to protect delivery and data across failures. |
| Security controls | Official security documentation describes ACL authentication and authorization plus TLS-encrypted client-server communication. | RabbitMQ documents authentication, authorization, topic permissions, TLS certificate mechanisms, LDAP and OAuth 2.0 backends. |
| What it does | Apache RocketMQ is a distributed messaging and streaming platform designed for low latency, high throughput, reliability and very large scale. | RabbitMQ is an enterprise-grade messaging and streaming broker for communication among applications, microservices and IoT systems. |
Plans
Apache RocketMQ
- Apache RocketMQFree
- Apache RocketMQ open-source distributionFree
RabbitMQ
- Open-source RabbitMQFree
- Open Source RabbitMQ ServerFree
- Tanzu RabbitMQPriced on request
- VMware Tanzu RabbitMQPriced 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.
RabbitMQ
RabbitMQ is an open source messaging and streaming broker for application communication, including distributed microservices, real-time data, and IoT. Publishers can route messages to one or more consumers using routing, filtering, streaming, and federation. Message acknowledgements and replication across a cluster support delivery reliability, and delivery guarantees are configurable. Supported protocols include AMQP 0-9-1, AMQP 1.0, MQTT, STOMP, RabbitMQ Streams, HTTP, and WebSocket, including browser communication over WebSocket. Client libraries are available for Java, .NET/C#, Erlang, and other languages; the project also offers a community Docker image and Kubernetes operators. RabbitMQ can run in cloud or on-premises environments, on local machines and physical or virtual hardware, and in containers. Linux, Windows, and macOS are supported; z/OS, most mainframes, and systems with less than 100 MB of RAM are not. The free, self-managed Open Source RabbitMQ Server is offered under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 with best-effort community support. VMware Tanzu RabbitMQ is a commercial offering with 24/7 support and enterprise features; pricing is by contact.