ActiveMQ vs Hazelcast: What are the differences?

Introduction

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

1. Scalability: ActiveMQ is a message broker that allows for distributing messages across multiple machines, providing scalability for handling large volumes of data. On the other hand, Hazelcast is an in-memory data grid that enables the distribution of data and computation across a cluster of machines, allowing for horizontal scalability. While both solutions offer scalability, ActiveMQ focuses on message distribution, while Hazelcast focuses on data distribution.

2. Data Replication: ActiveMQ supports data replication through its network of brokers, allowing for high availability and fault tolerance. In contrast, Hazelcast provides data replication by replicating the distributed objects across its cluster, ensuring high availability even in case of node failures. The approach to data replication differs between ActiveMQ, which replicates messages, and Hazelcast, which replicates distributed objects.

3. Clustering Approach: ActiveMQ implements a master-slave clustering model, where a master broker handles the message distribution while slave brokers act as backups. In the event of a master failure, one of the slave brokers takes over as the new master. In Hazelcast, clustering follows a peer-to-peer model, where all the cluster members share the same responsibilities without any dedicated master node. Each member in Hazelcast can act as a client or server and can initiate or handle requests.

4. JMS Compliance: ActiveMQ fully supports the Java Message Service (JMS) standard, which provides an interface for Java applications to create, send, receive, and read messages. Hazelcast, on the other hand, does not provide native support for JMS, focusing more on distributed data structures and computing functionalities. While ActiveMQ is directly integrated with JMS, Hazelcast can be used alongside JMS implementations.

5. Programming Language Support: ActiveMQ primarily targets Java applications and provides extensive support for integration with various Java frameworks and libraries. Hazelcast, on the other hand, offers support for multiple programming languages, including Java, .NET, C++, Python, and Node.js. This wider language support makes Hazelcast more versatile for applications developed using different programming languages.

6. Data Persistence: ActiveMQ provides persistent message storage using a variety of persistence adapters, including databases and file systems. Messages are stored and can be recovered in case of system failure. In contrast, Hazelcast primarily focuses on in-memory data storage and does not provide built-in support for long-term data persistence. While Hazelcast can be integrated with external systems for durable data storage, ActiveMQ offers more comprehensive built-in persistence options.

In summary, ActiveMQ is a message broker with scalability, data replication, and JMS compliance, while Hazelcast is an in-memory data grid with horizontal scalability, a peer-to-peer clustering model, and support for multiple programming languages. ActiveMQ focuses on message distribution and provides comprehensive persistence options, while Hazelcast emphasizes data distribution and in-memory processing.