Apache Pulsar vs PubSub+ Platform comparison

Pulsar and Solace are both solutions in the Streaming Analytics category. Pulsar is ranked #20, while Solace is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.3. Pulsar holds a 2.8% mindshare in SA, compared to Solace’s 3.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Pulsar users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Solace users who would recommend it.

Apache Pulsar

Read 1 Apache Pulsar review

815 Views
815 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

PubSub+ Platform

Read 18 PubSub+ Platform reviews

2,672 Views
1,202 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Apache Pulsar

PubSub+ Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Apache Pulsar and PubSub+ Platform based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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Buyer's Guide

Streaming Analytics

February 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Apache Pulsar

Ranking in Streaming Analytics

20th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

PubSub+ Platform

Ranking in Streaming Analytics

14th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Message Queue (MQ) Software (8th), Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) (2nd), Event Monitoring (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Apache Pulsar is 2.8%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PubSub+ Platform is 3.6%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Streaming Analytics Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
PubSub+ Platform	3.6%
Apache Pulsar	2.8%
Other	93.6%

Streaming Analytics

Featured Reviews

it_user1087029

Solution Architect at Vlaanderen connect.

The solution can mimic other APIs without changing a line of code

The solution operates as a classic message broker but also as a streaming platform. It operates differently than a traditional streaming platform with storage and computing handled separately. It scales easier and better than Kafka which can be stubborn. You can even make it act like Kafka because it understands Kafka APIs. There are even companies that will sell you Kafka but underneath it is Apache Pulsar. The solution is very compatible because it can mimic other APIs without changing a line of code.

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reviewer2714190

freelancer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Offers a seamless way to decouple applications, providing impressive performance and flexibility

Regarding improving the PubSub+ Platform, I'm not sure about the pricing aspect, but I heard that it is quite expensive compared to Kafka. That's the only concern I can mention; otherwise, it was as impressive as Kafka, better than Kafka based on my experience working on the Solace and Kafka white paper.

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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 solution operates as a classic message broker but also as a streaming platform."

"The way we can replicate information and send it to several subscribers is most valuable. It can be used for any kind of business where you've got multiple users who need information. Any company, such as LinkedIn, with a huge number of subscribers and any business, such as publishing, supermarket, airline, or shipping can use it."

"I rate the PubSub+ Platform a 9 out of 10."

"The event portal and the diversity of deployment options in a hybrid landscape are the most valuable features."

"Some valuable features include reconnecting topics, placing queues, and direct connections to MongoDB. The platform provides a dashboard to monitor the status of messages, such as how many have been processed or delivered, which is helpful for tracking performance."

"We've built a lot of products into it and it's been quite easy to feed market data onto the systems and put entitlements and controls around that. That was a big win for us when we were consolidating our platforms down. Trying to have one event bus, one messaging bus, for the whole globe, and consolidate everything over time, has been key for us. We've been able to do that through one API, even if it's across the different languages."

"When we went to add another installation in our private cloud, it was easy. We received support from Solace and the install was seamless with no issues."

"When it comes to granularity, you can literally do anything regarding how the filtering works."

"One of the main reasons for using PubSub+ is that it is a proper event manager that can handle events in a reactive way."

More PubSub+ Platform pros

Cons

"Documentation is poor because much of it is in Chinese with no English translation."

"The deployment process is complex."

"It could be cheaper. It could also have easier usage. It is a brilliant product, but it is quite complex to use."

"The section on observability pertains to understanding the functioning of an event crash. Instead of focusing on how the crash occurs, attention is given to the observable aspects, such as a memory pipeline where one person pushes messages and another reads them. However, this pipeline often encounters issues, such as the reader being unavailable, causing the system to become stuck and preventing the messages from moving forward. This can lead to the pipeline being permanently stalled."

"The ease of management could be approved. The GUI is very good, but to configure and manage these devices programmatically in the software version is not easy. For example, if I would like to spin up a new software broker, then I could in theory use the API, but it would require a considerable amount of development effort to do so. There should be a tool, or something that Solace supports, that we could use for this, e.g., a platform like Terraform where we could use infrastructure as code to configure our source appliances."

"The integrations could improve in PubSub+ Event Broker."

"I heard that it is quite expensive compared to Kafka."

"I would like them to design topic and queue schemas, mapping them to the enterprise data structure."

"For improvements, I would suggest increasing the max payload size to a limit of 100MB or more. The current max payload size is limited to 5MB."

More PubSub+ Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Having a free version of the solution was a big, important part of our decision to go with it. This was the big driver for us to evaluate Solace. We started using it as the free version. When we felt comfortable with the free version, that is when we bought the enterprise version."

"I would rate the product's pricing a ten out of ten."

"The pricing and licensing were very transparent and well-communicated by our account manager."

"We have been really happy with the product licensing rates. It has been free for us, up to a 100,000 transactions per second, and all we have to do is pay for support. Making their product available and accessible to us has not been a problem at all."

"There are different tiers where you can choose what would work for you. As a customer, you need to know roughly how many messages a month you will use."

"We are looking for something that will add value and fit for purpose. Freeware is good if you want to try something quickly without putting in much money. However, as far as our decision is concerned, I don't think it helps. At the end of the day, if we are convinced that a capability is required, we will ask for the funding. Then, when the funding is available, we will go for an enterprise solution only."

"It could be cheaper. Its licensing is on a yearly basis."

"The price of PubSub+ Event Broker is reasonable for the capability it offers. However, when compared to others solutions on the market it is expensive."

More PubSub+ Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

24%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Retailer

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PubSub+ Event Broker?

I do not know about the pricing of PubSub+ Platform because I did not manage the instance.

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What needs improvement with PubSub+ Event Broker?

Additional in-line information about certain things on PubSub+ Platform could be more beneficial for new users who are just starting to use this technology. The analytics tools integrated within Pu...

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What is your primary use case for PubSub+ Event Broker?

I describe the main use cases for PubSub+ Platform as wanting to use it as a messaging queue pipeline for managing the data stream events in our IoT platform while I was working at an IoT-based com...

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Comparisons

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Compared 17% of the time

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Compared 16% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

Redpanda vs Apache Pulsar

Compared 9% of the time

TIBCO Streaming vs Apache Pulsar

Compared 4% of the time

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Apache Kafka vs PubSub+ Platform

Compared 12% of the time

IBM MQ vs PubSub+ Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Apache Flink vs PubSub+ Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Confluent vs PubSub+ Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Software AG Universal Messaging vs PubSub+ Platform

Compared 6% of the time

More PubSub+ Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Streaming Analytics

February 2026

Download Apache Pulsar product report

Buyer's Guide

PubSub+ Platform

March 2026

Download PubSub+ Platform product report

Also Known As

No data available

PubSub+ Event Broker, PubSub+ Event Portal

Overview

Apache Pulsar is a cloud-native, distributed messaging and streaming platform originally created at Yahoo! and now a top-level Apache Software Foundation project

Pulsar

PubSub+ Platform is designed for real-time message publishing and outstanding interoperability. With features like intuitive administration and topic filtering, it offers both stability and high performance for scalable deployments across diverse scenarios.

PubSub+ Platform enhances data integration with its event mesh and seamless protocol compatibility, providing a comprehensive solution for organizations tracking shipments, generating reports, and managing transactions. Its granular topic filtering and WAN optimization ensure high utility in event-driven applications and cloud deployments. Users highlight the platform's intuitive administration and ease of management, though some seek improved integration with third-party tools and enhanced observability. Concerns include scalability for large payloads and training resource availability. Despite its interface complexity, PubSub+ remains valuable for trading and market data distribution.

What are the key features of PubSub+ Platform?

Real-time messaging: Facilitates seamless communication across platforms.
Flexible topic hierarchy: Supports dynamic topic taxonomy for efficient data management.
Event mesh: Enhances integration and interoperability with diverse protocols.
Intuitive administration: Simplifies system management and configuration.
WAN optimization: Ensures efficient connectivity for global deployment.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Messaging stability: Offers consistent performance in dynamic environments.
Scalability: Provides seamless expansion to accommodate growing data volumes.
Security: Maintains robust protection for sensitive information.
Support and configuration: Accessible, reliable support, and UI-driven setup streamline the management.

PubSub+ Platform is widely implemented for asynchronous messaging in industries like finance for trading and market data, logistics for shipment tracking, and tech operations management. It enables companies to modernize applications while ensuring data accuracy and efficiency across global systems.

Solace

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

FxPro, TP ICAP, Barclays, Airtel, American Express, Cobalt, Legal & General, LSE Group, Akuna Capital, Azure Information Technology, Brand.net, Canadian Securities Exchange, Core Transport Technologies, Crédit Agricole, Fluent Trade Technologies, Harris Corporation, Korea Exchange, Live E!, Mercuria Energy, Myspace, NYSE Technologies, Pico, RBC Capital Markets, Standard Chartered Bank, Unibet

Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and others in Streaming Analytics. Updated: February 2026.

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