Write a Blog >>

Publish/subscribe is a distributed interaction paradigm well adapted to the deployment of scalable and loosely coupled systems. Apache Kafka and RabbitMQ are two popular open-source and commercially-supported pub/sub systems that have been around for almost a decade and have seen wide adoption. Given the popularity of these two systems and the fact that both are branded as pub/sub systems, two frequently asked questions in the relevant online forums are: how do they compare against each other and which one to use? In this paper, we frame the arguments in a holistic approach by establishing a common comparison framework based on the core functionalities of pub/sub systems. Using this framework, we then venture into a qualitative and quantitative (i.e. empirical) comparison of the common features of the two systems. Additionally, we also highlight the distinct features that each of these systems has. After enumerating a set of use cases that are best suited for RabbitMQ or Kafka, we try to guide the reader through a determination table to choose the best architecture given his/her particular set of requirements.

Thu 22 Jun

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

10:30 - 12:10
Session 3: Publish/SubscribeDEBS Research Papers at Sala d'Actes, Vertex Building
Chair(s): Mohammad Sadoghi Purdue
10:30
25m
Talk
PopSub: Improving Resource Utilization in Distributed Content-based Publish/Subscribe Systems. (Research Paper)
DEBS Research Papers
Pooya Salehi Technical University of Munich, Kaiwen Zhang TU Munich, Hans-Arno Jacobsen University of Toronto
10:55
25m
Talk
Addressing TCAM Limitations of Software-Defined Networks for Content-Based Routing. (Research Paper)
DEBS Research Papers
Sukanya Bhowmik University of Stuttgart, Muhammad Adnan Tariq University of Stuttgart, Alexander Balogh University of Stuttgart, Kurt Rothermel Universitaet Stuttgart
11:20
20m
Talk
Kafka versus RabbitMQ. (Industry Paper)
DEBS Research Papers
Philippe Dobbelaere Nokia Bell Labs, Kyumars Sheykh Esmaili Nokia Bell Labs
11:40
20m
Talk
An Autonomous and Dynamic Coordination and Discovery Service for Wide-Area Peer-to-peer Publish/Subscribe. (Experience Paper)
DEBS Research Papers
Kyoungho An RTI, Shweta Khare Vanderbilt University, Anirüddhā Gokhālé Vanderbilt University