Apache RocketMQ vs Solace PubSub+ Event Broker
Apache RocketMQ
rocketmq.apache.org
Solace PubSub+ Event Broker
solace.comSide by side
| Figure | Apache RocketMQ | Solace PubSub+ Event Broker |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 5 |
| Spec score · Event Streaming Platforms | 8.9 (#2) | 8.2 (#6) |
| Spec score · Message Broker Software | 8.9 (#4) | 8.2 (#13) |
| Spec score · Message Queue (MQ) Software | 8.8 (#4) | 8.2 (#11) |
| Deployment | RocketMQ 5.x separates stateless Proxy from storage and compute so those layers can scale independently. | The broker is available as a cloud service, software, or appliance and can run in clouds, data centers, and remote locations. |
| Licence | The source distribution is licensed under the Apache License 2.0, a permissive licence allowing modification and redistribution subject to its notices and conditions. | The Event Broker is proprietary Solace software rather than open source; cloud terms grant limited, non-transferable use rights. |
| Messaging features | It supports publish/subscribe, request/reply, streaming, transactional messages, FIFO ordering, message filtering, and push or pull consumption. | The platform supports exchange patterns and qualities of service, plus caching, partitioned queues, and replay. |
| Messaging patterns | The platform supports publish/subscribe, request/reply and continuous event-streaming patterns. | The product supports publish/subscribe, queuing, request/reply, streaming and replay use cases. |
| Protocols | The project supports gRPC, MQTT, AMQP, HTTP/REST, JMS and OpenMessaging interfaces across its components and clients. | Connectivity includes AMQP, JMS, MQTT, REST and WebSocket protocols. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.5 out of 5 from 19 reviews | 4.4 out of 5 from 7 reviews |
| 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. | Solace Cloud states that its infrastructure for customer event broker services, Solace Home Cloud, and the Cloud Console complies with GDPR, SOC 2 Type 2, and ISO 27001. |
| Self-hosting | Users can download source or binary packages and run NameServer, Broker and Proxy themselves. | Self-managed software can run across public or private cloud, on-premises, containers and virtual machines. |
| Support | The site links to community email groups, GitHub issues, and contribution guidance for help and participation. | The pricing page lists standard support with 24x7x365 product defect and outage resolution, while Advanced and Advanced+ list response times of 30 and 15 minutes respectively. |
| System requirements | The quick-start guide recommends a 64-bit Linux, Unix or macOS system and JDK 1.8 or newer. | The default container broker minimum is two CPUs, 3.4 GiB host virtual memory, 2.5 GiB memory cgroup limit, 1 GB shared memory and 1.5 GB runtime storage. |
| What it does | Apache RocketMQ is a distributed messaging and streaming platform designed for low latency, high throughput, reliability and very large scale. | Solace Event Broker moves real-time information among applications, AI agents and devices across cloud, on-premises and edge environments. |
Plans
Apache RocketMQ
- Apache RocketMQFree
- Apache RocketMQ open-source distributionFree
Solace PubSub+ Event Broker
- Event Broker Software StandardFree
- Solace Cloud Event Broker TrialFree
- Solace Cloud trialFree
- Solace Event Broker Software Free VersionFree
- Event Broker Software EnterprisePriced 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.
Solace PubSub+ Event Broker
Solace PubSub+ Event Broker streams information among applications, AI agents, and devices across cloud, on-premises, and edge environments. Multiple brokers can form an event mesh to route data across clouds, data centers, and geographies. It is offered as a cloud service, software, or appliance, for deployment in clouds, data centers, and remote locations. Messaging features include exchange patterns, qualities of service, caching, partitioned queues, and replay. Supported protocols include AMQP, Kafka, MQTT, REST, and WebSocket, alongside APIs for programming languages. Solace offers supported micro-integrations for applications, cloud services, and integration tools. Monitoring includes custom dashboards and alerts, and distributed tracing is broker-native and based on OpenTelemetry. Cloud services enable secure protocol ports by default and disable plain-text ports by default. Free options include a 30-day cloud trial and a free enterprise-grade software version. Solace was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.