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Apache Kafka VS HiveMQ

Compare Apache Kafka VS HiveMQ and see what are their differences

Apache Kafka logo Apache Kafka

Apache Kafka is an open-source message broker project developed by the Apache Software Foundation written in Scala.

HiveMQ logo HiveMQ

HiveMQ is the MQTT based messaging platform for fast, efficient and reliable data movement to and from connected IoT devices and enterprise systems
  • Apache Kafka Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-01
  • HiveMQ Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-02

HiveMQ

Website
hivemq.com
$ Details
Release Date
2012 January
Startup details
Country
Germany
State
Bayern
City
Landshut
Founder(s)
Christian Götz
Employees
10 - 19

Apache Kafka features and specs

  • High Throughput
    Kafka is capable of handling thousands of messages per second due to its distributed architecture, making it suitable for applications that require high throughput.
  • Scalability
    Kafka can easily scale horizontally by adding more brokers to a cluster, making it highly scalable to serve increased loads.
  • Fault Tolerance
    Kafka has built-in replication, ensuring that data is replicated across multiple brokers, providing fault tolerance and high availability.
  • Durability
    Kafka ensures data durability by writing data to disk, which can be replicated to other nodes, ensuring data is not lost even if a broker fails.
  • Real-time Processing
    Kafka supports real-time data streaming, enabling applications to process and react to data as it arrives.
  • Decoupling of Systems
    Kafka acts as a buffer and decouples the production and consumption of messages, allowing independent scaling and management of producers and consumers.
  • Wide Ecosystem
    The Kafka ecosystem includes various tools and connectors such as Kafka Streams, Kafka Connect, and KSQL, which enrich the functionality of Kafka.
  • Strong Community Support
    Kafka has strong community support and extensive documentation, making it easier for developers to find help and resources.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Kafka

  • Complex Setup and Management
    Kafka's distributed nature can make initial setup and ongoing management complex, requiring expert knowledge and significant administrative effort.
  • Operational Overhead
    Running Kafka clusters involves additional operational overhead, including hardware provisioning, monitoring, tuning, and scaling.
  • Latency Sensitivity
    Despite its high throughput, Kafka may experience increased latency in certain scenarios, especially when configured for high durability and consistency.
  • Learning Curve
    The concepts and architecture of Kafka can be difficult for new users to grasp, leading to a steep learning curve.
  • Hardware Intensive
    Kafka's performance characteristics often require dedicated and powerful hardware, which can be costly to procure and maintain.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing Kafka's dependencies and ensuring compatibility between versions of Kafka, Zookeeper, and other ecosystem tools can be challenging.
  • Limited Support for Small Messages
    Kafka is optimized for large throughput and can be inefficient for applications that require handling a lot of small messages, where overhead can become significant.
  • Operational Complexity for Small Teams
    Smaller teams might find the operational complexity and maintenance burden of Kafka difficult to manage without a dedicated operations or DevOps team.

HiveMQ features and specs

  • Scalability
    HiveMQ is designed to handle a large number of clients and high throughput, making it suitable for IoT applications that require scalability.
  • MQTT Support
    It fully supports the MQTT protocol, ensuring reliable message delivery with features like quality of service (QoS) levels, persistent sessions, and retained messages.
  • Enterprise Features
    HiveMQ provides an array of enterprise-level features, including advanced security, monitoring, and integration capabilities, which are beneficial for complex IoT environments.
  • Clustering
    Allows for easy clustering to improve redundancy and load balancing, enhancing system resilience and uptime.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    Offers a user-friendly interface and comprehensive documentation which eases setup and management for users.
  • Integration
    Supports integration with other enterprise systems and cloud providers, enhancing interoperability with existing infrastructures.

Possible disadvantages of HiveMQ

  • Cost
    HiveMQ is a commercial product, which may impose a significant cost, especially for small businesses or individual developers.
  • Complexity
    With its rich set of features, the initial setup and configuration can be complex and might require a steep learning curve.
  • Resource Intensive
    Might require substantial server resources to operate efficiently, especially under heavy loads, which can increase operational costs.
  • Limited Community Support
    Being a specialized commercial product, it might have less community support compared to open-source solutions, potentially delaying troubleshooting and development.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Using a proprietary system can result in vendor lock-in, making it more challenging to switch to other platforms if needed.

Apache Kafka videos

Apache Kafka Tutorial | What is Apache Kafka? | Kafka Tutorial for Beginners | Edureka

More videos:

  • Review - Apache Kafka - Getting Started - Kafka Multi-node Cluster - Review Properties
  • Review - 4. Apache Kafka Fundamentals | Confluent Fundamentals for Apache Kafka®
  • Review - Apache Kafka in 6 minutes
  • Review - Apache Kafka Explained (Comprehensive Overview)
  • Review - 2. Motivations and Customer Use Cases | Apache Kafka Fundamentals

HiveMQ videos

HiveMQ - Enabling the Connected Car

More videos:

  • Review - Webinar: What's New in HiveMQ 4.4?
  • Review - Webinar: Build Your Own HiveMQ Extension

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Kafka and HiveMQ)
Stream Processing
100 100%
0% 0
IoT Connectivity
0 0%
100% 100
Data Integration
80 80%
20% 20
Web Service Automation
72 72%
28% 28

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apache Kafka and HiveMQ

Apache Kafka Reviews

Best ETL Tools: A Curated List
Debezium is an open-source Change Data Capture (CDC) tool that originated from RedHat. It leverages Apache Kafka and Kafka Connect to enable real-time data replication from databases. Debezium was partly inspired by Martin Kleppmann’s "Turning the Database Inside Out" concept, which emphasized the power of the CDC for modern data pipelines.
Source: estuary.dev
Best message queue for cloud-native apps
If you take the time to sort out the history of message queues, you will find a very interesting phenomenon. Most of the currently popular message queues were born around 2010. For example, Apache Kafka was born at LinkedIn in 2010, Derek Collison developed Nats in 2010, and Apache Pulsar was born at Yahoo in 2012. What is the reason for this?
Source: docs.vanus.ai
Are Free, Open-Source Message Queues Right For You?
Apache Kafka is a highly scalable and robust messaging queue system designed by LinkedIn and donated to the Apache Software Foundation. It's ideal for real-time data streaming and processing, providing high throughput for publishing and subscribing to records or messages. Kafka is typically used in scenarios that require real-time analytics and monitoring, IoT applications,...
Source: blog.iron.io
10 Best Open Source ETL Tools for Data Integration
It is difficult to anticipate the exact demand for open-source tools in 2023 because it depends on various factors and emerging trends. However, open-source solutions such as Kubernetes for container orchestration, TensorFlow for machine learning, Apache Kafka for real-time data streaming, and Prometheus for monitoring and observability are expected to grow in prominence in...
Source: testsigma.com
11 Best FREE Open-Source ETL Tools in 2024
Apache Kafka is an Open-Source Data Streaming Tool written in Scala and Java. It publishes and subscribes to a stream of records in a fault-tolerant manner and provides a unified, high-throughput, and low-latency platform to manage data.
Source: hevodata.com

HiveMQ Reviews

We have no reviews of HiveMQ yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Kafka seems to be a lot more popular than HiveMQ. While we know about 142 links to Apache Kafka, we've tracked only 3 mentions of HiveMQ. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Kafka mentions (142)

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HiveMQ mentions (3)

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Kafka and HiveMQ, you can also consider the following products

RabbitMQ - RabbitMQ is an open source message broker software.

mosquitto - Eclipse Mosquitto is an open source (EPL/EDL licensed) message broker that implements the MQTT protocol versions 5.0, 3.1.1 and 3.1. Mosquitto is lightweight and is suitable for use on all devices

Apache ActiveMQ - Apache ActiveMQ is an open source messaging and integration patterns server.

EMQX - EMQX is an open source MQTT 5.0 broker for mission-critical IoT scenarios, massively scalable and highly available clustering, running anywhere from edge to cloud.

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