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rdkafka VS ZeroMQ

Compare rdkafka VS ZeroMQ and see what are their differences

rdkafka logo rdkafka

The Apache Kafka C/C++ library. Contribute to edenhill/librdkafka development by creating an account on GitHub.

ZeroMQ logo ZeroMQ

ZeroMQ is a high-performance asynchronous messaging library.
  • rdkafka Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-27
  • ZeroMQ Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-01

rdkafka features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

ZeroMQ features and specs

  • High Performance
    ZeroMQ is designed for high-throughput and low-latency messaging, making it ideal for situations where performance is critical.
  • Scalability
    ZeroMQ supports a variety of communication patterns (e.g., request-reply, publish-subscribe) and can easily scale from a single process to a distributed system across multiple machines.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    ZeroMQ is available on a wide range of platforms including Windows, Linux, and macOS, as well as various programming languages (e.g., C, C++, Python, Java).
  • Ease of Use
    With its high-level API, ZeroMQ simplifies complex messaging tasks, allowing developers to focus on application logic rather than low-level networking code.
  • Asynchronous I/O
    ZeroMQ natively supports asynchronous I/O operations, enabling more efficient use of system resources and better overall performance.
  • Fault Tolerance
    ZeroMQ can be configured to automatically reconnect and recover from network failures, which increases system robustness and durability.

Possible disadvantages of ZeroMQ

  • Lack of Built-In Security
    ZeroMQ does not include built-in security features such as encryption or authentication. Developers have to implement these features manually if needed.
  • Complex Configuration
    For advanced use cases, configuring ZeroMQ can become complex and may require a deep understanding of its various options and settings.
  • No Message Persistence
    ZeroMQ does not natively support message persistence. If messages need to be stored and retrieved later, additional mechanisms must be implemented.
  • Learning Curve
    While the high-level API is user-friendly, mastering all of ZeroMQ's features and communication patterns may require a significant investment in time and learning.
  • Limited Built-In Monitoring
    ZeroMQ has minimal built-in tools for monitoring and debugging, which can make it challenging to diagnose and troubleshoot issues in complex deployments.
  • Community Support
    While ZeroMQ has an active community, the level of support and documentation may not be as extensive or comprehensive as that of some other messaging systems.

Analysis of ZeroMQ

Overall verdict

  • ZeroMQ is considered a good choice for developers needing a fast and flexible messaging library, especially in scenarios that demand high throughput and low latency. However, its lack of a built-in persistence mechanism and more advanced messaging features like message routing can be a limitation depending on the use case.

Why this product is good

  • ZeroMQ is a high-performance asynchronous messaging library aimed at use in scalable, distributed, or concurrent applications. It's known for its speed and flexibility, allowing for messages to be queued in various patterns such as fan-out, publish-subscribe, and request-reply. It supports multiple transport protocols like TCP, PGM, and IPC, and can be integrated with many different programming languages, which adds to its versatility. Additionally, ZeroMQ is decentralized and doesn't require a dedicated message broker, making it a lightweight and efficient choice for many applications.

Recommended for

  • Developers building distributed systems
  • Applications requiring low-latency and high-throughput messaging
  • Projects where lightweight and decentralized messaging is important
  • Systems that benefit from flexible communication patterns and multiple transport protocols

rdkafka videos

Code Review: Implementing a c++ Kafka producer based on librdkafka (2 Solutions!!)

ZeroMQ videos

Pieter Hintjens - Distribution, Scale and Flexibility with ZeroMQ

More videos:

  • Review - DragonOS LTS Review srsLTE ZeroMQ, tetra, IMSI catcher, irdium toolkit, and modmobmap (rtlsdr)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to rdkafka and ZeroMQ)
Stream Processing
12 12%
88% 88
Data Integration
13 13%
87% 87
Automation
100 100%
0% 0
Web Service Automation
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using rdkafka and ZeroMQ. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, ZeroMQ should be more popular than rdkafka. It has been mentiond 39 times since March 2021. 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.

rdkafka mentions (7)

  • Horizontally scaling Kafka consumers with rendezvous hashing
    We could have made some changes at the librdkafka level (see this), but we didn’t really want to pursue this (at least not yet). - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Getting sum type values from a map
    As my first "real world" (ish) project in Vlang, I'm trying to copy https://github.com/confluentinc/confluent-kafka-go, which is a Go wrapper for Kafka C client library, https://github.com/edenhill/librdkafka. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Installing node-rdkafka on M1 for use with SASL
    If you're using Kafka in a Node.js app, it's likely that you'll need node-rdkafka. This is a library that wraps the librdkafka library and makes it available in Node.js. According to the project's README, "All the complexity of balancing writes across partitions and managing (possibly ever-changing) brokers should be encapsulated in the library.". - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Fix it, Fork it, Fuck off
    You are right, but in practice that's not what happens. Companies do not rely on open source libraries, the developers working for such companies do. I can give you a realistic example. If you want to use Kafka and Go, your probably only option is to use https://github.com/confluentinc/confluent-kafka-go. Its LICENSE explicitly says "no warranty". Now, what if I find a bug in the library? Only two realistic... - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
  • Hacker News top posts: Mar 26, 2022
    Librdkafka – An Apache Kafka C/C++ client library\ (9 comments). Source: about 3 years ago
View more

ZeroMQ mentions (39)

  • C# Image Resizer Using ZeroMQ
    The ImageProcessor in the repository has been implemented in C# using ZeroMQ and the NetMq nuget package. It also uses SixLabors.ImageSharp to resize the image. It consists of. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Messaging in distributed systems using ZeroMQ
    Open a new terminal connection and run the following commands (one after the other). The last command installs ZeroMQ. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • DIY Smart Doorbell for just $2, no soldering required
    Interesting. They seem to warn against using the server for much as it's resource hungry and potentially unreliable, but that appears to be focused on the task of serving data; a simple webhook type use should be safer. It'd be pretty amazing if ESPHome supported something like ZeroMQ[0], so you could talk between nodes in anything up-to full-mesh at a socket-level and not need to worry about the availability of a... - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Crossing the Impossible FFI Boundary, and My Gradual Descent into Madness
    Https://zeromq.org/ -> TIL really cool, thanks for the pointer. - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • Omegle is Gone, What Will Fill It's Gap?
    In this post from 2011, the creator of Omegle, Leif Brooks, explains what technology is used, including Python and a library called gevent for the backend. On top of that, Adobe Cirrus is used for streaming video. Though this post was 12 years ago, it is valuable to know what a web application like Omegle requires. A modern library that may provide some functionality for a text chat at a minimum may be... Source: over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing rdkafka and ZeroMQ, you can also consider the following products

Kafka Manager - A tool for managing Apache Kafka.

RabbitMQ - RabbitMQ is an open source message broker software.

NSQ - A realtime distributed messaging platform.

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

KafkaHQ - Kafka GUI for Apache Kafka to manage topics, topics data, consumers group, schema registry, connect and more... - tchiotludo/kafkahq

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