What is the difference between Apache kafka vs ActiveMQ

Question

I am working on Apache Kafka. I want to know which one is better: Kafka or ActiveMQ. What is the main difference between this two technolo

Answer 1

I hear this question every week... While ActiveMQ (like IBM MQ or JMS in general) is used for traditional messaging, Apache Kafka is used as streaming platform (messaging + distributed storage + processing of data). Both are built for different use cases.

You can use Kafka for "traditional messaging", but not use MQ for Kafka-specific scenarios.

The article “Apache Kafka vs. Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)—Friends, Enemies, or Frenemies? (https://www.confluent.io/blog/apache-kafka-vs-enterprise-service-bus-esb-friends-enemies-or-frenemies/)” discusses why Kafka is not competitive but complementary to integration and messaging solutions (including ActiveMQ) and how to integrate both.