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ActiveMQ pros and cons

Vendor: Apache
4.0 out of 5
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

ActiveMQ is highly recommended for JVM-related languages and offers robust JMS integration.
ActiveMQ supports various protocols like MQTT and AMQP, along with extensive EIP, REST, and Message Groups compatibility.
It provides reliable message delivery with functionalities like topics, durable topics, and message broadcasting for multiple consumers.
ActiveMQ is praised for its performance, low latency, and efficiency in handling large data volumes and ensuring prompt delivery.
The ActiveMQ community is vibrant and offers strong support, enhancing the overall user experience.

CONS

ActiveMQ does not scale out well and becomes complex with many mirror queues.
Improvement is needed in clustering, which currently relies on an active/passive relationship that introduces a single point of failure.
Stability issues are present, where sometimes ActiveMQ gets stuck and requires a restart.
Initial setup complexity is a concern, and installation needs optimization.
AI capabilities require enhancement in future updates to improve functionality.
 

ActiveMQ Pros review quotes

it_user566130 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Micro Service Developer via The Marlo Group (Contractor) at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Dec 6, 2016
It is cost effective and is a much cheaper solution compared to Weblogic or IBM MQ.
it_user571818 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Administrator for Cloud Operations at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Dec 14, 2016
For us, initial setup was VERY easy since we were using the Apache-provided Docker image for ActiveMQ, which alleviates a lot of the traditional pains involved with installing new software.
it_user571824 - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Staff at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Dec 14, 2016
The database and message queuing are valuable features.
Learn what your peers think about ActiveMQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
892,678 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user578781 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Dec 29, 2016
One of the most important features of ActiveMQ is the ability to set up a network of brokers, and the ability to forward the message to another broker in the network, where there is a demand for messages from a consumer.
it_user578814 - PeerSpot reviewer
Freelancer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Dec 29, 2016
Thanks to ActiveMQ, the system is able to scale its heavy computing components during traffic peaks.
it_user590433 - PeerSpot reviewer
Site Reliability Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jan 19, 2017
The installation was pretty straightforward, and it was also easy setting up HA using an NFS share for hosting the KahaDB.
it_user651429 - PeerSpot reviewer
Java Technical Lead at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Apr 24, 2017
The most important feature is that it's best for JVM-related languages and JMS integration.
it_user656307 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant, Architect at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
May 1, 2017
Loose coupling of components by the use of messaging queues allows for completely separate component life cycles and ownership within the organization.
it_user660042 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Site Reliability Engineering at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
May 7, 2017
Reliable message delivery and mirroring.
it_user660048 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Data and Technology at a transportation company with 51-200 employees
May 7, 2017
I appreciate many features including queue, topic, durable topic, and selectors. I also value a different support for different protocols such as MQTT and AMQP. It has full support for EIP, REST, Message Groups, UDP, and TCP.
 

ActiveMQ Cons review quotes

it_user566130 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Micro Service Developer via The Marlo Group (Contractor) at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Dec 6, 2016
We have had problems with the message selector as when the queue size reaches a certain level, the message selector does not have enough time to run and finish before the JMS reply timeout.
it_user571818 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Administrator for Cloud Operations at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Dec 14, 2016
Apache ActiveMQ needs some improvement playing with multi-platform message clients.
it_user571824 - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Staff at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Dec 14, 2016
There is need for more protocols and maybe they should provide documentation on the internet as well.
Learn what your peers think about ActiveMQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
892,678 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user578781 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Dec 29, 2016
Another area of improvement is the monitoring console, which is kind of rudimentary.
it_user578814 - PeerSpot reviewer
Freelancer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Dec 29, 2016
Configuring ActiveMQ brokers for working in a cluster is difficult and has many constraints.
it_user590433 - PeerSpot reviewer
Site Reliability Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jan 19, 2017
We ran into various stability problems with our implementations over the years.
it_user651429 - PeerSpot reviewer
Java Technical Lead at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Apr 24, 2017
Message Management: Better management of the messages. Perhaps persist them, or put in another queue with another life cycle.
it_user656307 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant, Architect at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
May 1, 2017
The included admin web app is not sufficient and we ended up disabling it.
it_user660042 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Site Reliability Engineering at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
May 7, 2017
It does not scale out well. It ends up being very complex if you have a lot of mirror queues.
it_user660048 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Data and Technology at a transportation company with 51-200 employees
May 7, 2017
Needs to focus on a certain facet and be good at it, instead of handling support for most of the available message brokers.