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Amazon SQS vs Apache Kafka comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.8
Amazon SQS enhances reliability and productivity by handling user spikes and message integrity while allowing teams to focus elsewhere.
Sentiment score
7.0
Apache Kafka's ROI benefits include cost savings, quick data insights, increased productivity, and efficient high-traffic data management.
Using Amazon SQS has led to increased productivity and reduced man-hour costs.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Amazon SQS support is inconsistent, but comprehensive documentation helps; larger users receive better service than smaller ones.
Sentiment score
5.8
Apache Kafka's support stems largely from an open-source community, with varied satisfaction in third-party and enterprise assistance.
They meet their tasks effectively.
There is plenty of community support available online.
The Apache community provides support for the open-source version.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Amazon SQS efficiently manages scalable message loads, integrating seamlessly with AWS services like SNS and Lambda, despite occasional message duplicates.
Sentiment score
7.8
Apache Kafka's scalability is a major strength, allowing easy horizontal and vertical scaling to meet diverse use case demands.
Amazon SQS is highly scalable, automatically managing itself based on the load.
Customers have not faced issues with user growth or data streaming needs.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Amazon SQS is praised for stability and reliability, handling loads effectively with minimal downtime compared to other solutions.
Sentiment score
7.7
Apache Kafka is praised for its resilience and reliability, despite minor configuration challenges and performance under high data volumes.
With Amazon SQS, such maintenance is not needed, making it more reliable and secure.
Apache Kafka is stable.
 

Room For Improvement

The document highlights the need for better tools, integration, scalability, and security to improve user efficiency and satisfaction.
Apache Kafka needs UI improvements, simplified deployment, reduce ZooKeeper dependency, enhance documentation, client libraries, performance, and advanced features.
It would be beneficial if there was a provision to configure and retain messages for longer than a week.
The performance angle is critical, and while it works in milliseconds, the goal is to move towards microseconds.
We are always trying to find the best configs, which is a challenge.
A more user-friendly interface and better management consoles with improved documentation could be beneficial.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon SQS pricing is moderately competitive with initial free requests but can become costly with high usage.
Apache Kafka is open-source, but additional provider services can be costly, varying by needs and exceeding 100,000 euros annually.
On a scale of one to ten, where one is very cheap, I would rate the pricing as one.
The open-source version of Apache Kafka results in minimal costs, mainly linked to accessing documentation and limited support.
Its pricing is reasonable.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon SQS provides seamless integration, scalability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness, efficiently managing large-scale data with robust features.
Apache Kafka excels in real-time data streaming, scalability, integration, resilience, and handling large volumes with robust message retention.
If there's a failure in the system after consuming a message, SQS's settings ensure the message is not deleted until confirmation.
Apache Kafka is effective when dealing with large volumes of data flowing at high speeds, requiring real-time processing.
It allows the use of data in motion, allowing data to propagate from one source to another while it is in motion.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon SQS
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Message Queue (MQ) Software (3rd)
Apache Kafka
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
87
Ranking in other categories
Streaming Analytics (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Amazon SQS and Apache Kafka aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Amazon SQS is designed for Message Queue (MQ) Software and holds a mindshare of 8.5%, down 11.6% compared to last year.
Apache Kafka, on the other hand, focuses on Streaming Analytics, holds 2.5% mindshare, up 2.0% since last year.
Message Queue (MQ) Software
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

Ariel Tarayants - PeerSpot reviewer
Powerful queue system facilitates seamless asynchronous operations
A feature I would like to see in Amazon SQS is the ability to view the content of messages without removing them from the queue. Enhanced filtering on the messages would be beneficial, as currently one has to pull all messages out, filter the right one by code, and then re-insert the remaining messages. This solution is not effective with the FIFO queue.
Snehasish Das - PeerSpot reviewer
Data streaming transforms real-time data movement with impressive scalability
I worked with Apache Kafka for customers in the financial industry and OTT platforms. They use Kafka particularly for data streaming. Companies offering movie and entertainment as a service, similar to Netflix, use Kafka Apache Kafka offers unique data streaming. It allows the use of data in…
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Message Queue (MQ) Software solutions are best for your needs.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon SQS?
AWS provides another messaging service, which is fine for certain purposes. SQS meets the cloud messaging workload requirements. However, combining the features of both products could be an easier ...
What is your primary use case for Amazon SQS?
I primarily use SQL Server for messaging services, and I need to offer loose couplings. SQS is handy for offloading non-urgent tasks that can be reverted later. I use it as a queue management servi...
What are the differences between Apache Kafka and IBM MQ?
Apache Kafka is open source and can be used for free. It has very good log management and has a way to store the data used for analytics. Apache Kafka is very good if you have a high number of user...
What do you like most about Apache Kafka?
Apache Kafka is an open-source solution that can be used for messaging or event processing.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Kafka?
Its pricing is reasonable. It's not always about cost, but about meeting specific needs.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

EMS, NASA, BMW, Capital One
Uber, Netflix, Activision, Spotify, Slack, Pinterest
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon SQS vs. Apache Kafka and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.