ActiveMQ vs Apache RocketMQ: What are the differences?

Introduction

This Markdown code provides a comparison between ActiveMQ and Apache RocketMQ, highlighting their key differences.

1. Message Storage: ActiveMQ uses a traditional message-based storage model, where messages are stored sequentially. On the other hand, Apache RocketMQ adopts a topic-based storage model, where messages are organized into topics for easier management and retrieval.

2. Message Persistence: ActiveMQ offers various levels of message persistence, including in-memory, file-based, and database-based persistence. In comparison, Apache RocketMQ emphasizes on disk-based message persistence, ensuring durability and fault tolerance.

3. Message Ordering: ActiveMQ guarantees the ordering of messages within a single destination, ensuring that messages are consumed in the same order they were produced. In contrast, Apache RocketMQ guarantees global message ordering, maintaining the order across multiple topics and partitions.

4. Message Replication: ActiveMQ supports master-slave replication, where a master broker handles message production and slaves replicate the messages for high availability. Apache RocketMQ, on the other hand, adopts a broker cluster model where each broker is responsible for message replication, providing both fault tolerance and load balancing.

5. Scalability: ActiveMQ can scale horizontally by adding more brokers to handle message traffic. However, scaling ActiveMQ requires manual configuration and coordination. Apache RocketMQ, on the other hand, offers automatic scaling through its broker cluster model, allowing for easy expansion and load balancing.

6. Language Support: ActiveMQ provides support for various programming languages, including Java, C++, and .NET. Similarly, Apache RocketMQ offers client support for multiple languages, including Java and C++. However, Apache RocketMQ also provides a lightweight client called RocketMQ-CPP, specifically designed for resource-limited devices.

In summary, ActiveMQ and Apache RocketMQ differ in their approach to message storage, persistence, ordering, replication, scalability, and language support.