| Apache Kafka | RabbitMQ | |
|---|---|---|
| Creation year | 2011 | 2007 |
| License | Apache (Open source) | Mozilla Public License (Open source) |
| Programming language | Scala | Erlang |
| AMQP compliant | No | Yes |
| Officially supported clients in | JAVA | JAVA, .NET/C#, Erlang |
Table 1 – General information comparison between Apache Kafka and RabbitMQ
| Broker capabilities | Apache Kafka | RabbitMQ |
|---|---|---|
| Main storage space | Dist | RAM |
| Ordered storage and delivery | Yes by partition level | No |
| Queue content persistence | Yes | No |
| Message deletion | Manually | Immediately |
| Queue data compression | Yes | No |
| Predefined queues on broker | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple different consumers of same data set | Yes | No |
| Load balancing | Yes | Yes |
| Remote queue definition | No | Yes |
| Advanced/ conditional message routing | No | Yes |
| Permission and access | No | Yes |
| SSL support | No | Yes |
| Clustering support | Yes | Yes |
| Self-sufficient | No | Yes |
| Management and monitoring interface | No | Yes |
Table 2 – Broker capabilities comparison between Apache Kafka and RabbitMQ
| Java producer capabilities | Apache Kafka | RabbitMQ |
|---|---|---|
| Batch delivery | yes | no |
| Asynchronous publishing | yes | no |
| Publisher confirms (acknowledgements) |
yes | yes |
Table 3 – Producer (official Java client only) capabilities comparison between Apache Kafka and RabbitMQ
| Java consumer capabilities | Apache Kafka | RabbitMQ |
|---|---|---|
| Batch fetch/delivery | No | No |
| Push delivery from broker | No | Yes |
| Pull delivery (fetch) | Yes | Yes |
| Prefetch count | Implicit | Yes |
| Message replay capability | Yes | No |
| Consumer confirms(acknowledgements) | Implicit | Yes |
| Message rejection | No | Yes |
**Table 4 – Consumer (official Java client only) capabilities comparison between Apache Kafka and RabbitMQ