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Compare Apache Kafka and IBM MQ 
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At a Glance
Market Segments
Enterprise (47.5% of reviews)
Enterprise (62.0% of reviews)
Entry-Level Pricing
No pricing available
No pricing available
Apache Kafka
Star Rating
(125)4.5 out of 5
Market Segments
Enterprise (47.5% of reviews)
Entry-Level Pricing
No pricing available
Learn more about Apache KafkaIBM MQ
Star Rating
(174)4.3 out of 5
Market Segments
Enterprise (62.0% of reviews)
Entry-Level Pricing
No pricing available
Browse all 4 pricing plansSummary
AI Generated Summary
AI-generated. Powered by real user reviews.
- Users report that IBM MQ excels in asynchronous messaging with a solid score of 9.0, matching Apache Kafka, but reviewers mention that IBM MQ's quality of support is notably higher at 8.3 compared to Kafka's 7.7, indicating a more reliable support experience.
- Reviewers mention that IBM MQ has a slight edge in ease of setup with a score of 8.1, while Apache Kafka trails at 7.8, suggesting that users may find IBM MQ easier to implement in their environments.
- G2 users highlight that IBM MQ's disaster recovery capabilities score 7.9, which is crucial for enterprise-level applications, while Apache Kafka does not provide as robust a solution in this area, reflecting a potential risk for users prioritizing data integrity.
- Users on G2 report that both products perform well in real-time processing, with IBM MQ scoring 9.1, which indicates a strong capability for handling time-sensitive data, a critical feature for many businesses.
- Reviewers mention that while both platforms support cloud-based messaging equally at 8.4, IBM MQ's security monitoring features score higher at 8.5, suggesting a more comprehensive approach to security compared to Kafka's 8.1.
- Users say that IBM MQ's application integration capabilities score 8.6, slightly lower than Kafka's 8.7, indicating that Kafka may offer a more seamless integration experience with various applications, which is a significant consideration for users looking to connect multiple systems.
Pricing
Entry-Level Pricing
Apache Kafka
No pricing availableIBM MQ
No pricing availableFree Trial
Apache Kafka
No trial information availableIBM MQ
No trial information availableRatings
Meets Requirements
8.9
90
8.9
123
Ease of Use
8.6
90
8.2
125
Ease of Setup
8.0
28
8.2
91
Ease of Admin
7.8
24
8.0
87
Quality of Support
7.8
81
8.3
118
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?
8.3
20
8.6
85
Product Direction (% positive)
8.8
87
8.0
116
Features by Category
Data
8.8
33
Not enough data
8.7
35
Not enough data
8.9
35
Not enough data
9.0
35
Not enough data
Analytics
8.3
31
Not enough data
Functionality
8.9
52
9.0
78
8.5
49
8.4
70
8.3
45
8.5
59
8.1
49
8.2
73
Integration
8.8
51
8.7
75
8.4
47
8.6
71
8.1
46
8.1
68
Management
8.2
42
8.5
69
8.0
42
8.6
65
8.3
43
8.5
65
Agentic AI - Message Queue (MQ)
Not enough data
6.7
6
Not enough data
7.5
6
Not enough data
9.7
6
Not enough data
6.9
6
Risk
Not enough data
8.3
15
Not enough data
Feature Not Available
Not enough data
8.1
12
Recovery
Not enough data
7.9
15
Not enough data
8.1
14
Not enough data
7.9
13
Agentic AI - Business Activity Monitoring
Not enough data
Not enough data
Building Reports
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Platform
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Categories
Categories
Shared Categories
Apache Kafka and IBM MQ are categorized as Message Queue (MQ)
Unique Categories
Apache Kafka is categorized as Event Stream Processing and Stream Analytics
IBM MQ is categorized as Business Activity Monitoring
Reviews
Reviewers' Company Size
Apache Kafka
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)
IBM MQ
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)
Small-Business
(50 or fewer emp.)
Mid-Market
(51-1000 emp.)
Enterprise
(> 1000 emp.)
Reviewers' Industry
Computer Software
25.0%
Information Technology and Services
18.3%
Financial Services
8.3%
Banking
5.8%
Retail
4.2%
Other
38.3%
Banking
20.3%
Information Technology and Services
15.2%
Financial Services
10.1%
Insurance
6.3%
Hospital & Health Care
5.1%
Other
43.0%
Alternatives
Discussions
What is Apache Kafka used for?
2 Comments
RS
I am using Apache Kafka for event Processing. We use it to capture the new events generated by our application in our database. Currently, Kafka streams is...Read more
What is the maximum limit of the number of partitions in a Kafka topic?
1 Comment
CT
The answer is closely related to the version of the Kafka broker that you are running. A reasonably up to date cluster can hold up to 4,000 partitions per...Read more
What is Apache Kafka used for?
1 Comment
DV
It used this Mnemonic to remember what kafka is and what it is used for -
S - Stream Data in Real-Time:
Handles and processes live data (e.g., Uber car...Read more
Is IBM MQ free?
1 Comment
DA
IBM offers both server and client packages.
The clients are free and readily available to download from https://ibm.com, but are not usable on their own,...Read more
IBM MQ has no more discussions with answers
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