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Amazon SQS vs Apache Kafka comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 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
6.8
Amazon SQS enhances performance and reliability, increasing productivity by reducing programming effort and labor costs, despite initial investment.
Sentiment score
6.3
Apache Kafka boosts efficiency and insights with customizable, cost-effective data processing, enhancing analytics and decision-making in many applications.
Using Amazon SQS has led to increased productivity and reduced man-hour costs.
IT Specialist at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Amazon SQS customer service satisfaction varies, influenced by purchased support level, with premium options offering improved experiences.
Sentiment score
5.8
Apache Kafka support relies on community help; paid options like Confluent offer better but occasionally slow assistance.
They meet their tasks effectively.
IT Specialist at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
I want to receive good technical support, which I only need once a month or every six months, and the experience has been unsatisfactory.
Senior Manager at Timestamp, SA
There is plenty of community support available online.
The Apache community provides support for the open-source version.
Technology Leader at eTCaaS
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Amazon SQS excels in scalability and integration, though users note configuration needs and potential message duplicates.
Sentiment score
7.7
Apache Kafka excels in scalable data handling, efficiently managing growth despite occasional challenges in adjustments and resource management.
I can easily scale up or down with Amazon SQS without any issues.
Senior Data & AI Engineer at Imprint
Amazon SQS is highly scalable, automatically managing itself based on the load.
IT Specialist at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Customers have not faced issues with user growth or data streaming needs.
Technology Leader at eTCaaS
I need to enable my solution with high availability and scalability.
Solution Architect at Ascendion
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Users highly trust Amazon SQS for its stability, reliability, and performance, often preferring it over RabbitMQ and Kafka.
Sentiment score
7.6
Apache Kafka is stable and reliable, though configuration complexities and evolving APIs may pose occasional challenges.
With Amazon SQS, such maintenance is not needed, making it more reliable and secure.
IT Specialist at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
The stability of Amazon SQS is very good, as I find it to be very stable.
Senior Data & AI Engineer at Imprint
This feature of Apache Kafka has helped enhance our system stability when handling high volume data.
DevOps Engineer
Apache Kafka is stable.
Technology Leader at eTCaaS
Apache Kafka is a mature product and can handle a massive amount of data in real time for data consumption.
Solution Architect at Ascendion
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon SQS users seek better documentation, integrations, security, pricing, UI, performance, message handling, and monitoring tools.
Users seek easier setup, improved UI, better documentation, monitoring, and memory management for Apache Kafka, addressing complexity and scalability.
It would be beneficial if there was a provision to configure and retain messages for longer than a week.
IT Specialist at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
The performance angle is critical, and while it works in milliseconds, the goal is to move towards microseconds.
Technology Leader at eTCaaS
We are always trying to find the best configs, which is a challenge.
Team Lead, Data Engineering at Nesine.com
The long-term data storage feature in Apache Kafka depends on the setting, but I believe the maximum duration is seven days.
Solution Architect at Ascendion
 

Setup Cost

Amazon SQS offers a cost-effective pay-as-you-use model, but high-scale usage can increase costs compared to alternatives.
Enterprise users weigh open-source Apache Kafka's low cost against expensive cloud solutions like Confluent, requiring careful cost analysis.
On a scale of one to ten, where one is very cheap, I would rate the pricing as one.
IT Specialist at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
The open-source version of Apache Kafka results in minimal costs, mainly linked to accessing documentation and limited support.
Technology Leader at eTCaaS
Its pricing is reasonable.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon SQS enables scalable, reliable messaging with easy AWS integration, supporting FIFO and standard queues for efficient processing.
Apache Kafka offers scalable, reliable real-time streaming, integration with Spark, robust architecture, and strong community support for customization.
If there's a failure in the system after consuming a message, SQS's settings ensure the message is not deleted until confirmation.
IT Specialist at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
If we compare with other solutions such as RabbitMQ for messaging, Amazon SQS is easier to use and easier to create the queue.
Senior Data & AI Engineer at Imprint
Apache Kafka is particularly valuable for managing high levels of transactions.
Senior Manager at Timestamp, SA
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.
Technology Leader at eTCaaS
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon SQS
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Message Queue (MQ) Software (3rd)
Apache Kafka
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
Streaming Analytics (7th)
 

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 7.8%, down 9.4% compared to last year.
Apache Kafka, on the other hand, focuses on Streaming Analytics, holds 3.8% mindshare, up 2.2% since last year.
Message Queue (MQ) Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Amazon SQS7.8%
IBM MQ22.5%
ActiveMQ22.4%
Other47.3%
Message Queue (MQ) Software
Streaming Analytics Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Apache Kafka3.8%
Apache Flink12.3%
Databricks10.0%
Other73.9%
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2281650 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Specialist at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Efficient data retention and high scalability drive significant productivity improvements
The features of Amazon SQS that I find most valuable include its data retention capabilities and message durability. The retention of data is crucial, as other systems like RabbitMQ or ActiveMQ require management. Furthermore, if there's a failure in the system after consuming a message, SQS's settings ensure the message is not deleted until confirmation. Additionally, generating FIFO and standard queues based on use cases is a helpful feature.
Bruno da Silva - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at Timestamp, SA
Have worked closely with the team to deploy streaming and transaction pipelines in a flexible cloud environment
The interface of Apache Kafka could be significantly better. I started working with Apache Kafka from its early days, and I have seen many improvements. The back office functionality could be enhanced. Scaling up continues to be a challenge, though it is much easier now than it was in the beginning.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Retailer
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise49
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon SQS?
There is nothing I can remember that I would want as new features for Amazon SQS.
What is your primary use case for Amazon SQS?
If you need a messaging service to help decouple your application, Amazon SQS would be a smart choice because it's easy to use and very easy to manage.
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.
880,901 professionals have used our research since 2012.