ActiveMQ vs Apache Kafka vs VMware Tanzu Data Solutions comparison

The compared ActiveMQ and Apache Kafka solutions aren't in the same category. ActiveMQ is ranked #2 in MQ , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 26.2% mindshare in the category. Apache Kafka is ranked #8 in SA , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 3.0% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of ActiveMQ users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Apache Kafka users who would recommend it.

ActiveMQ

Read 28 ActiveMQ reviews

6,237 Views
2,763 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Apache Kafka

Read 88 Apache Kafka reviews

944 Views
108 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

VMware Tanzu Data Solutions

Read 83 VMware Tanzu Data Solutions reviews

1,951 Views
1,131 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

ActiveMQ

Apache Kafka

VMware Tanzu Data Solutions

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between ActiveMQ, Apache Kafka, and VMware Tanzu Data Solutions based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Apache, Salesforce and others in Message Queue (MQ) Software.

To learn more, read our detailed Message Queue (MQ) Software Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Message Queue (MQ) Software

June 2025

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Helped 859,545 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Mindshare comparison

Message Queue (MQ) Software

Streaming Analytics

Data Warehouse

Featured Reviews

Eyob Alemu

Technical Director at NIDP

Efficient data flow management with high performance and occasional stability improvements

For high traffic volumes where management time on ActiveMQ is minimal and where the rate of flow from the provider is slower than from the consumer, ActiveMQ offers the highest performance based on our experience. It has been efficient for data flow control between two endpoints, despite occasional unexpected glitches. I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

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Snehasish Das

Technology Leader at eTCaaS

Data streaming transforms real-time data movement with impressive scalability

I worked with Apache Kafka for customers in the financial industry and OTT platforms. They use Kafka particularly for data streaming. Companies offering movie and entertainment as a service, similar to Netflix, use Kafka Apache Kafka offers unique data streaming. It allows the use of data in…

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Sushma Polavarapu

Sr Data Analytics Consultant at Capgemini

Create essential reporting scripts with simplicity but has some operational challenges

We mainly create functions and scripts required for reporting The product is not complex; I do not have to create stored procedures, functions, or views. It's just simple to use. There is general room for improvement. I have been using it for five years. I have faced stability issues, mainly…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the holding and forwarding."

"I'm impressed, I think that Active MQ is great."

"We value ActiveMQ for its performance, throughput, and low latency, especially in handling large volumes of data and sequential management of topics."

"Most people or many people recommended using ActiveMQ on small and medium-scale applications."

"The most important feature is that it's best for JVM-related languages and JMS integration."

"It provides the best support services."

"ActiveMQ is very lightweight and quick."

"The initial setup is straightforward and only takes a few minutes."

More ActiveMQ pros

"Resiliency is great and also the fact that it handles different data formats."

"I appreciate that Apache Kafka is fast and secure thanks to implementing it with AWS, allowing me to secure it on a high level."

"It's very easy to keep to install and it's pretty stable."

"Kafka's most valuable feature is its user-friendliness."

"Overall, I rate Apache Kafka as nine out of ten for its scalability and stability."

"The solution is very scalable. We started with a cluster of three and then scaled it to seven."

"The main advantage is increased reliability, particularly with regard to data and the speed with which messages are published to the other side."

"I have seen a return on investment with this solution."

More Apache Kafka pros

"We have been able to set up a messaging system that facilitates data integration between the software modules that we sell."

"We chose Greenplum because of the architecture in terms of clustering databases and being able to have, or at least utilize the resources that are sitting on a database."

"After creating a RabbitMQ service, they provide you with a sort of web management dashboard."

"Very fast for query processing."

"It is easy to use. The addition of more queues and more services can be managed very easily."

"RabbitMQ provides access to SDKs for development and the ability to raise and log tickets if we encounter issues. We can integrate RabbitMQ using various languages like Java or Python using the provided SDKs."

"The most valuable feature is asynchronous calls, which are easy to configure."

"The solution is stable."

Cons

"There are some stability issues."

"I would like the tool to improve compliance and stability. We will encounter issues while using the central applications. In the solution's future releases, I want to control and set limitations for databases."

"This solution could improve by providing better documentation."

"The solution's stability needs improvement."

"The clustering for sure needs improvement. When we were using it, the only thing available was an active/passive relationship that had to be maintained via shared file storage. That model includes a single point of failure in that storage medium."

"Message Management: Better management of the messages. Perhaps persist them, or put in another queue with another life cycle."

"It does not scale out well. It ends up being very complex if you have a lot of mirror queues."

"Sometimes issues arise in production with ActiveMQ due to the number of requests. For example, if you have configured one thousand requests at a time and it receives one thousand and one messages at a time, it breaks."

More ActiveMQ cons

"I would like to see monitoring service tools."

"Kafka is a nightmare to administer."

"The UI is based on command line. It would be helpful if they could come up with a simpler user interface."

"Pulsar gives more scalability to an even grouping, but Apache Kafka is used more if you want to send something in a time series-based. If this does not matter to you then Pulsar could be more customizable. Apache Kafka is nothing but a streaming system with local storage."

"Some vendors don't offer extra features for monitoring."

"More Windows support, I believe, is one area where it can improve."

"If the graphical user interface was easier for the Kafka administration it would be much better. Right now, you need to use the program with the command-line interface. If the graphical user interface was easier, it could be a better product."

"Kafka requires non-trivial expertise with DevOps to deploy in production at scale. The organization needs to understand ZooKeeper and Kafka and should consider using additional tools, such as MirrorMaker, so that the organization can survive an availability zone or a region going down."

More Apache Kafka cons

"I saw some limitation with respect to the column store, and removing this would be an improvement."

"If you're outside IP address range, the clustering no longer has all the features which is problematic."

"We needed to configure additional plugins. While it was relatively easy to do this on-premises, it became more challenging in the cloud."

"The product has to improve the crisis management, especially in memory issues."

"There are some security concerns that have been raised with this product."

"Lacks sufficient inbuilt machine-learning functions for complex use cases."

"It will be very useful if we could communicate with other database types from Greenplum (using a database link)."

"The installation is difficult and should be made easier."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It’s open source, ergo free."

"We use the open-source version."

"We are using the open-source version, so we have not looked at any pricing."

"There are no fees because it is open-source."

"I use open source with standard Apache licensing."

"The tool's pricing is reasonable and competitive compared to other solutions."

"The solution is less expensive than its competitors."

"ActiveMQ is open source, so it is free to use."

More ActiveMQ pricing and cost advice

"The cost can vary depending on the provider and the specific flavor or version you use. I'm not very knowledgeable about the pricing details."

"The price of Apache Kafka is good."

"Apache Kafka has an open-source pricing."

"It's quite affordable considering the value it provides."

"The solution is open source; it's free to use."

"Apache Kafka is an open-source solution."

"I would not subscribe to the Confluent platform, but rather stay on the free open source version. The extra cost wasn't justified."

"Kafka is an open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs."

More Apache Kafka pricing and cost advice

"are using the open-source version, which can be used free of cost."

"The pricing for RabbitMQ is reasonable. It is worth the cost."

"It is the best product with best fit for price/performance customer objectives."

"The solution's pricing is cost-effective as it does not involve significant expenses. Licensing is required only for the server, while clients do not need any licensing. Therefore, it proves to be a cost-efficient option."

"Tanzu Greenplum's pricing is really competitive and gives excellent value for money."

"It is an open-source platform. Although, we have to pay for additional features."

"It’s an open-source solution."

"The price is pretty good."

More VMware Tanzu Data Solutions pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

34%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

29%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ActiveMQ?

For reliable messaging, the most valuable feature of ActiveMQ for us is ensuring prompt message delivery.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ActiveMQ?

With ActiveMQ there should be more options. If you work with other technologies, for example, Java, there are many op...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for ActiveMQ?

ActiveMQ inside AP is one of those powerful features because we generally use ActiveMQ for acting on incidents which ...

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What are the differences between Apache Kafka and IBM MQ?

Apache Kafka is open source and can be used for free. It has very good log management and has a way to store the data...

See all answers

What do you like most about Apache Kafka?

Apache Kafka is an open-source solution that can be used for messaging or event processing.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Kafka?

Its pricing is reasonable. It's not always about cost, but about meeting specific needs.

See all answers

How does IBM MQ compare with VMware RabbitMQ?

IBM MQ has a great reputation behind it, and this solution is very robust with great stability. It is easy to use, si...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware Tanzu Greenplum?

The loading speed is very good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Greenplum?

It’s an open-source solution. There are no expenses for using it.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM MQ vs ActiveMQ

Compared 53% of the time

Red Hat AMQ vs ActiveMQ

Compared 17% of the time

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs ActiveMQ

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon SQS vs ActiveMQ

Compared 5% of the time

EMQX vs ActiveMQ

Compared 2% of the time

More ActiveMQ Competitors

Red Hat AMQ vs Apache Kafka

Compared 16% of the time

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs Apache Kafka

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon SQS vs Apache Kafka

Compared 13% of the time

IBM MQ vs Apache Kafka

Compared 13% of the time

EMQX vs Apache Kafka

Compared 2% of the time

More Apache Kafka Competitors

IBM MQ vs VMware Tanzu Data Solutions

Compared 20% of the time

Oracle Exadata vs VMware Tanzu Data Solutions

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle Database Appliance vs VMware Tanzu Data Solutions

Compared 8% of the time

Nutanix Database Service vs VMware Tanzu Data Solutions

Compared 8% of the time

EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager vs VMware Tanzu Data Solutions

Compared 4% of the time

More VMware Tanzu Data Solutions Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ActiveMQ

June 2025

Download ActiveMQ product report

Buyer's Guide

Apache Kafka

June 2025

Download Apache Kafka product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Tanzu Data Solutions

June 2025

Download VMware Tanzu Data Solutions product report

Also Known As

AMQ

No data available

Greenplum, Pivotal Greenplum, VMware RabbitMQ, VMware Tanzu GemFire, VMware Postgres

Overview

Apache ActiveMQ is the most popular and powerful open source messaging and Integration Patterns server.

Apache ActiveMQ is fast, supports many Cross Language Clients and Protocols, comes with easy to use Enterprise Integration Patterns and many advanced features while fully supporting JMS 1.1 and J2EE 1.4. Apache ActiveMQ is released under the Apache 2.0 License

Apache

Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed streaming platform that serves as a central hub for handling real-time data streams. It allows efficient publishing, subscribing, and processing of data from various sources like applications, servers, and sensors.

Kafka's core benefits include high scalability for big data pipelines, fault tolerance ensuring continuous operation despite node failures, low latency for real-time applications, and decoupling of data producers from consumers.

Key features include topics for organizing data streams, producers for publishing data, consumers for subscribing to data, brokers for managing clusters, and connectors for easy integration with various data sources.

Large organizations use Kafka for real-time analytics, log aggregation, fraud detection, IoT data processing, and facilitating communication between microservices.

Apache

VMware Tanzu is a robust platform tailored for data warehousing, complex analytics, BI applications, and predictive analytics. It excels in scalability, performance, and parallel processing, enhancing data handling efficiency. Users report significant productivity improvements and streamlined operations, making it ideal for comprehensive data solutions.

VMware

Sample Customers

University of Washington, Daugherty Systems, CSC, STG Technologies, Inc.

Uber, Netflix, Activision, Spotify, Slack, Pinterest

General Electric, Conversant, China CITIC Bank, Aridhia, Purdue University

Buyer's Guide

Message Queue (MQ) Software

June 2025

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