StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Follow on

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  1. Stackups
  2. Utilities
  3. Background Jobs
  4. Message Queue
  5. IBM MQ vs RabbitMQ

IBM MQ vs RabbitMQ

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

RabbitMQ
RabbitMQ
Stacks21.8K
Followers18.9K
Votes558
GitHub Stars13.2K
Forks4.0K
IBM MQ
IBM MQ
Stacks118
Followers187
Votes11

IBM MQ vs RabbitMQ: What are the differences?

IBM MQ and RabbitMQ are two popular messaging systems that are used to facilitate communication between different applications and services. Here are the key differences between the two.

  1. Architecture: IBM MQ is based on the client-server model, where messages are sent from a client application to a queue manager, which then delivers the messages to the intended recipients. On the other hand, RabbitMQ is based on the broker model, where messages are sent to an exchange, which then routes the messages to the appropriate queues based on routing rules.

  2. Protocol Support: IBM MQ supports various messaging protocols such as MQTT, JMS, and AMQP, making it suitable for a wide range of messaging scenarios. RabbitMQ, on the other hand, is primarily designed for AMQP messaging and also supports other protocols like STOMP and MQTT.

  3. Message Durability: One key difference between IBM MQ and RabbitMQ is the way they handle message durability. In IBM MQ, messages can be persisted to disk, ensuring that they are not lost even in the event of system failures. RabbitMQ, on the other hand, relies on message acknowledgments to ensure reliability, but it does not provide native message persistence.

  4. Scalability: IBM MQ is known for its scalability and high throughput capabilities, allowing it to handle large volumes of messages with low latency. RabbitMQ, on the other hand, may not be as scalable as IBM MQ and may face performance issues when dealing with high message loads.

  5. Administration and Management: IBM MQ provides a rich set of tools and features for administration and management, including a web-based administration interface, performance monitoring, and centralized control. RabbitMQ, on the other hand, has a simpler administration and management model, but it may require more manual configuration and monitoring.

  6. Enterprise Features: IBM MQ offers a range of enterprise features that make it suitable for complex, mission-critical messaging scenarios. These include features like message encryption, message routing based on content, and support for distributed transactions. RabbitMQ, on the other hand, is more lightweight and may not provide all the advanced enterprise features offered by IBM MQ.

In summary, IBM MQ provides a robust and scalable messaging solution with advanced enterprise features, while RabbitMQ is a lightweight and flexible messaging broker with a simpler administration model.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs
CLI (Node.js)
or
Manual

Advice on RabbitMQ, IBM MQ

viradiya
viradiya

Apr 12, 2020

Needs adviceonAngularJSAngularJSASP.NET CoreASP.NET CoreMSSQLMSSQL

We are going to develop a microservices-based application. It consists of AngularJS, ASP.NET Core, and MSSQL.

We have 3 types of microservices. Emailservice, Filemanagementservice, Filevalidationservice

I am a beginner in microservices. But I have read about RabbitMQ, but come to know that there are Redis and Kafka also in the market. So, I want to know which is best.

933k views933k
Comments
André
André

Technology Manager at GS1 Portugal - Codipor

Jul 30, 2020

Needs adviceon.NET Core.NET Core

Hello dear developers, our company is starting a new project for a new Web App, and we are currently designing the Architecture (we will be using .NET Core). We want to embark on something new, so we are thinking about migrating from a monolithic perspective to a microservices perspective. We wish to containerize those microservices and make them independent from each other. Is it the best way for microservices to communicate with each other via ESB, or is there a new way of doing this? Maybe complementing with an API Gateway? Can you recommend something else different than the two tools I provided?

We want something good for Cost/Benefit; performance should be high too (but not the primary constraint).

Thank you very much in advance :)

461k views461k
Comments
mediafinger
mediafinger

Feb 13, 2019

ReviewonKafkaKafkaRabbitMQRabbitMQ

The question for which Message Queue to use mentioned "availability, distributed, scalability, and monitoring". I don't think that this excludes many options already. I does not sound like you would take advantage of Kafka's strengths (replayability, based on an even sourcing architecture). You could pick one of the AMQP options.

I would recommend the RabbitMQ message broker, which not only implements the AMQP standard 0.9.1 (it can support 1.x or other protocols as well) but has also several very useful extensions built in. It ticks the boxes you mentioned and on top you will get a very flexible system, that allows you to build the architecture, pick the options and trade-offs that suite your case best.

For more information about RabbitMQ, please have a look at the linked markdown I assembled. The second half explains many configuration options. It also contains links to managed hosting and to libraries (though it is missing Python's - which should be Puka, I assume).

159k views159k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

RabbitMQ
RabbitMQ
IBM MQ
IBM MQ

RabbitMQ gives your applications a common platform to send and receive messages, and your messages a safe place to live until received.

It is a messaging middleware that simplifies and accelerates the integration of diverse applications and business data across multiple platforms. It offers proven, enterprise-grade messaging capabilities that skillfully and safely move information.

Robust messaging for applications;Easy to use;Runs on all major operating systems;Supports a huge number of developer platforms;Open source and commercially supported
Once-and-once-only delivery; Asynchronous messaging; Powerful protection; Simplified, smart management; Augmented security; Expanded client application options
Statistics
GitHub Stars
13.2K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
4.0K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
21.8K
Stacks
118
Followers
18.9K
Followers
187
Votes
558
Votes
11
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 235
    It's fast and it works with good metrics/monitoring
  • 80
    Ease of configuration
  • 60
    I like the admin interface
  • 52
    Easy to set-up and start with
  • 22
    Durable
Cons
  • 9
    Too complicated cluster/HA config and management
  • 6
    Needs Erlang runtime. Need ops good with Erlang runtime
  • 5
    Configuration must be done first, not by your code
  • 4
    Slow
Pros
  • 3
    Reliable for banking transactions
  • 3
    Useful for big enteprises
  • 2
    Secure
  • 1
    Broader connectivity - more protocols, APIs, Files etc
  • 1
    High Availability
Cons
  • 2
    Cost

What are some alternatives to RabbitMQ, IBM MQ?

Kafka

Kafka

Kafka is a distributed, partitioned, replicated commit log service. It provides the functionality of a messaging system, but with a unique design.

Celery

Celery

Celery is an asynchronous task queue/job queue based on distributed message passing. It is focused on real-time operation, but supports scheduling as well.

Amazon SQS

Amazon SQS

Transmit any volume of data, at any level of throughput, without losing messages or requiring other services to be always available. With SQS, you can offload the administrative burden of operating and scaling a highly available messaging cluster, while paying a low price for only what you use.

NSQ

NSQ

NSQ is a realtime distributed messaging platform designed to operate at scale, handling billions of messages per day. It promotes distributed and decentralized topologies without single points of failure, enabling fault tolerance and high availability coupled with a reliable message delivery guarantee. See features & guarantees.

ActiveMQ

ActiveMQ

Apache ActiveMQ is fast, supports many Cross Language Clients and Protocols, comes with easy to use Enterprise Integration Patterns and many advanced features while fully supporting JMS 1.1 and J2EE 1.4. Apache ActiveMQ is released under the Apache 2.0 License.

ZeroMQ

ZeroMQ

The 0MQ lightweight messaging kernel is a library which extends the standard socket interfaces with features traditionally provided by specialised messaging middleware products. 0MQ sockets provide an abstraction of asynchronous message queues, multiple messaging patterns, message filtering (subscriptions), seamless access to multiple transport protocols and more.

Apache NiFi

Apache NiFi

An easy to use, powerful, and reliable system to process and distribute data. It supports powerful and scalable directed graphs of data routing, transformation, and system mediation logic.

Gearman

Gearman

Gearman allows you to do work in parallel, to load balance processing, and to call functions between languages. It can be used in a variety of applications, from high-availability web sites to the transport of database replication events.

Memphis

Memphis

Highly scalable and effortless data streaming platform. Made to enable developers and data teams to collaborate and build real-time and streaming apps fast.

IronMQ

IronMQ

An easy-to-use highly available message queuing service. Built for distributed cloud applications with critical messaging needs. Provides on-demand message queuing with advanced features and cloud-optimized performance.

Related Comparisons

Bootstrap
Materialize

Bootstrap vs Materialize

Laravel
Django

Django vs Laravel vs Node.js

Bootstrap
Foundation

Bootstrap vs Foundation vs Material UI

Node.js
Spring Boot

Node.js vs Spring-Boot

Liquibase
Flyway

Flyway vs Liquibase