Amazon SQS vs Kafka vs RabbitMQ: What are the differences?

Introduction

This article compares the key differences between Amazon SQS, Kafka, and RabbitMQ.

1. Scalability: Amazon SQS is a fully managed message queuing service that can scale automatically to accommodate the load. It is designed to handle any volume of messages without requiring manual intervention. Kafka, on the other hand, is a distributed streaming platform that is highly scalable and can handle high throughput. RabbitMQ supports scalability through clustering but may require manual intervention for scaling.

2. Message Delivery Guarantees: Amazon SQS provides at-least-once delivery guarantee. It ensures that a message is delivered to a consumer at least once but may result in duplicate deliveries in some cases. Kafka supports at-least-once semantics, ensuring that messages are not lost, and developers can customize the trade-off between latency and durability. RabbitMQ supports multiple delivery modes, including at-least-once, at-most-once, and exactly-once, depending on the message acknowledgment patterns.

3. Message Ordering: Amazon SQS and Kafka both guarantee order-preserving delivery within individual partitions or queues. However, Kafka provides global order guarantee when messages are produced to multiple partitions of a topic using the same key. RabbitMQ supports message ordering within a single queue or channel but may not guarantee global order across multiple queues.

4. Message Retention: Amazon SQS has a default retention period of 4 days, which can be extended up to 14 days. Kafka retains messages for a configurable period of time, and it is often used for long-term data storage. RabbitMQ retains messages as long as they are needed by at least one consumer or until a specified time-to-live (TTL) is reached.

5. Message Durability: Amazon SQS stores messages redundantly across multiple availability zones, ensuring high durability. Kafka provides configurable durability guarantees by specifying the replication factor for topic partitions. RabbitMQ can be made durable by configuring queues as durable, ensuring that messages survive broker restarts.

6. Message Protocol and API: Amazon SQS provides a web-based interface and a set of APIs that can be accessed using HTTP or HTTPS protocols. Kafka has its own proprietary protocol and provides a simple API based on publish-subscribe and message storage principles. RabbitMQ supports multiple protocols like AMQP, MQTT, and STOMP, offering flexibility in integrating with different systems.

In summary, Amazon SQS is a fully managed message queuing service with automatic scalability and at-least-once delivery guarantee. Kafka is a distributed streaming platform with high scalability, flexible durability guarantees, and support for global message ordering. RabbitMQ offers message ordering within a single queue or channel, multiple delivery modes, and protocol flexibility.