Technology

Message Queues and Brokers

Name: Message Queues and Brokers
Creator: Community curated
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

RabbitMQ, Kafka, NATS, Redis Streams, SQS - which broker should carry your events?

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Source:Community curated

Updated:4/9/2026

#technology #messaging #streaming #kafka #devops #backend

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Broker↕	Vendor↕	Model↕	First Released↕	Language↕	Known For↕
Apache Kafka	Apache / Confluent	Distributed log	2011	Scala/Java	De facto event streaming platform, built at LinkedIn, handles trillions of events/day at Netflix and Uber
RabbitMQ	VMware / Broadcom	AMQP broker	2007	Erlang	Classic message broker with flexible routing, plugins galore, easy to operate on Erlang/OTP
NATS / JetStream	Synadia / CNCF	Pub-sub + stream	2011	Go	Ultra-fast pub-sub, tiny footprint, JetStream adds persistence, popular for edge and microservices
Redis Streams	Redis Ltd.	Stream data structure	2018	C	Kafka-like streams inside Redis, consumer groups, great if you already run Redis
Amazon SQS	AWS	Managed queue	2006	Proprietary	First AWS service ever, simple managed queue, unlimited throughput with FIFO option
Amazon Kinesis	AWS	Managed stream	2013	Proprietary	AWS-managed Kafka-style streams, shard-based scaling, tight Lambda and Firehose integration
Google Pub/Sub	Google Cloud	Managed pub-sub	2015	Proprietary	GCP-native global pub-sub, auto-scaling, descendant of internal Google infra powering Gmail and Ads
Apache Pulsar	Apache / StreamNative	Distributed log + queue	2016	Java	Segmented storage with BookKeeper, multi-tenant, geo-replication, Yahoo-originated Kafka challenger
ActiveMQ / Artemis	Apache	JMS broker	2004	Java	Veteran JMS broker, still common in Java enterprise, Artemis is the next-gen rewrite
ZeroMQ	ZeroMQ community	Brokerless library	2007	C++	Sockets on steroids, no broker, embedded into apps, used by CERN and high-frequency trading
IBM MQ	IBM	Enterprise queue	1993	C	Mission-critical messaging for banks and airlines, still powers huge mainframe integrations
NSQ	Originally Bitly	Distributed queue	2012	Go	Go-based queue built at Bitly, no central broker, simple ops, popular in Go microservices
Azure Service Bus	Microsoft Azure	Managed queue + topics	2010	Proprietary	Enterprise-grade Azure messaging, sessions and transactions, deep .NET integration
Beanstalkd	Beanstalkd community	Simple work queue	2007	C	Minimalist work queue for background jobs, created at Causes.com, Reddit used it for years
Redpanda	Redpanda Data	Kafka-API streaming	2020	C++	Kafka-compatible broker rewritten in C++, no JVM, no ZooKeeper, strong on low-latency and cost