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RabbitMQ vs Apache ActiveMQ: catalog facts
RabbitMQ	Apache ActiveMQ
Best for: Developers connecting services through a self-hosted message queue	Best for: Teams that need a self-hosted message broker for their applications
Free Free under MPL 2.0; Broadcom sells a commercial edition with support.	Free Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted	Windows, Self-hosted
Supports AMQP 1.0 and MQTT 5.0 Both queues and streams in one broker All 4 strengths for RabbitMQ Supports AMQP 1.0 and MQTT 5.0 Both queues and streams in one broker Runs locally, on-premises or in the cloud Client libraries for many languages	Supports JMS, AMQP, STOMP and MQTT Clients available for many languages All 4 strengths for Apache ActiveMQ Supports JMS, AMQP, STOMP and MQTT Clients available for many languages High availability and networks of brokers Regular maintenance releases on several series
Running a cluster in production takes operational knowledge Extended support and some features are in the paid Tanzu edition	Requires Java and server administration Aimed at developers and operators, not end users
Downloadable app, Self-hosted	Downloadable app, Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: MPL-2.0	License: Apache-2.0
No account needed	No account needed
Offline features available	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for RabbitMQ rabbitmq.com Catalog checked October 1, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Apache ActiveMQ activemq.apache.org Catalog checked October 2, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.