Amazon SQS vs Resque: What are the differences?

Key differences between Amazon SQS and Resque

1. Message transport: One of the main differences between Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) and Resque is the way they handle message transport. SQS is a fully managed message queuing service that uses a distributed system to reliably deliver messages between distributed components. On the other hand, Resque is a Redis-backed Ruby library for creating background jobs and processing them with multiple workers.

2. Message persistence: Another key difference is the way messages are persisted. In SQS, messages are stored redundantly across multiple availability zones to ensure durability. This means that even if one availability zone goes down, the messages are still available for consumption. Resque, on the other hand, stores messages in Redis, which may not have the same level of redundancy by default. However, Redis does offer various replication options that can be used to achieve a similar level of durability.

3. Message ordering: SQS guarantees that messages will be delivered in the order they were sent, making it suitable for scenarios that require strict message ordering. In contrast, Resque does not inherently provide message ordering guarantees. Messages processed by Resque can be executed in parallel by multiple workers, which may cause the order of execution to be different from the order in which they were received.

4. Job processing: SQS focuses on asynchronous, distributed message processing, allowing for high scalability and fault tolerance. It provides features like message visibility timeouts and delayed message delivery. Resque, on the other hand, is specifically designed for processing background jobs in Ruby. It allows developers to enqueue and process jobs asynchronously, but it may not have the same level of scalability and fault tolerance as SQS.

5. Service management: Amazon SQS is a fully managed service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). This means that AWS takes care of the underlying infrastructure, including scaling, availability, and maintenance. Resque, on the other hand, requires manual management and administration of the infrastructure it runs on. This includes setting up and configuring Redis, managing worker processes, and ensuring high availability.

6. Integration with AWS ecosystem: As an AWS service, SQS seamlessly integrates with other AWS services like AWS Lambda, Amazon S3, and Amazon EC2. It provides easy-to-use SDKs for various programming languages and offers features that support event-driven architectures. Resque, being a Ruby library, may require additional effort to integrate with other AWS services and may not have the same level of native support and compatibility.

In summary, Amazon SQS and Resque differ in their approach to message transport, message persistence, message ordering, job processing, service management, and integration with the AWS ecosystem. SQS is a fully managed message queuing service focused on highly scalable and fault-tolerant distributed processing, while Resque is a Ruby library for background job processing that requires manual management and may not have the same level of scalability and native support.