Ranked chart · Business Operations

Best Message Queue (MQ) Software in 2026

Message queue software helps applications and services exchange messages, with different options varying in how they deliver and retain them. Compare delivery guarantees, protocols, and deployment choices, then look at message retention and maximum message size in relation to your workload. Throughput limits offer another point to weigh when considering message volume. HiveMQ MQTT Broker, Aiven for Apache Kafka, and…

29 appsSorted 24 Oct 2026How we rank

18.1

EMQX

EMQX is an MQTT messaging platform for connecting devices and applications, and for moving and processing IoT business data in real time.

Free planOpen sourceWebAPILinux

From $234 a month

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27.9

Aiven for Apache Kafka

Aiven for Apache Kafka is a managed Apache Kafka service that handles provisioning, patching, backups, security, and high availability.

Free planOpen sourceWebAPILinux

From $35 a month

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37.8

RabbitMQ

Free planOpen sourceWebAPILinux

Free plan

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4
Apache ActiveMQ
Apache ActiveMQ is an open-source messaging and Integration Patterns server for self-hosted application messaging.
Free planOpen sourceWebAPILinuxmacOS
7.5Free plan
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5
Apache RocketMQ
Apache RocketMQ is distributed middleware for asynchronous communication and publish/subscribe messaging.
Free planOpen sourceAPILinuxmacOSSelf-hosted
7.5Free plan
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6
Redpanda
Free planWebAPILinuxmacOS
7.4Free plan
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7
Confluent Cloud
Confluent Cloud is a managed data streaming platform built around a serverless Apache Kafka engine.
Free planWebAPILinux
7.1From $385 a month
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8
Solace PubSub+ Event Broker
Solace PubSub+ Event Broker moves information among applications, AI agents, and devices across cloud, on-premises, and edge environments.
Free planWebAPILinuxSelf-hosted
7.1Free plan
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9
Amazon SQS
Amazon SQS is a managed cloud message queuing service for microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications.
Free planWebAPI
6.9Free plan
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10
Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Google Cloud Pub/Sub is a cloud messaging service for passing messages between services that produce and process them.
Free planWebAPI
6.9$40 usage-based
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11
HiveMQ MQTT Broker
HiveMQ MQTT Broker handles event-driven messaging between connected devices and enterprise systems.
Free planAPILinuxSelf-hostedWindows
6.8From $299 a month
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12
SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management by OpenText
AndroidiOSWebLinux
6.4
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13
Apache Pulsar
Apache Pulsar is an open-source distributed messaging and streaming platform built for cloud use.
Free planAPILinuxmacOSSelf-hosted
6.3Free plan
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14
Apache Qpid Broker-J
Apache Qpid Broker-J is a Java message broker for storing, routing, and forwarding messages over AMQP.
Free planAPILinuxmacOSSelf-hosted
6.3Free plan
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15
StreamNative
StreamNative is a data platform for capturing, transporting, transforming, governing, and serving business data in real time for applications, analytics, and agents.
WebAPISelf-hosted
6.3From $73 a month
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16
Amazon MQ
Amazon MQ is a managed message broker service for Apache ActiveMQ and RabbitMQ.
Free planWebAPI
6.2Free plan
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17
beanstalkd
Beanstalkd is a free, self-hosted work queue for running time-consuming tasks asynchronously.
Free planLinuxmacOSSelf-hosted
6.2Free plan
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18
NSQ
NSQ is a free, open-source real-time distributed messaging platform for streaming and job-oriented workloads.
WebAPILinuxmacOS
6.2
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19
ZeroMQ
ZeroMQ is a free, open-source asynchronous messaging library for developers building distributed or concurrent applications.
Free planLinuxmacOSSelf-hostedWindows
6.2Free plan
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20
Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka
Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (MSK) manages Kafka infrastructure and operations for teams running streaming applications on AWS.
WebAPILinux
6.1From $0.11 a month
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21
Eclipse Mosquitto
Eclipse Mosquitto is a free, open-source message broker for MQTT 5.0, 3.1.1, and 3.1.
Free planLinuxmacOSSelf-hostedWindows
6.1Free plan
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22
Apache Kafka
Free planAPISelf-hosted
6.0Free plan
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23
Azure App Service
Free planWebLinuxWindows
6.0Free plan
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24
NATS
NATS is a free, open-source messaging system for building distributed systems across clouds and user-defined edge environments.
Free planAPILinuxSelf-hosted
6.0Free plan
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25
IBM MQ
WebLinuxmacOSWindows
5.9From $312 a month
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