Kafka Alternatives Debate

This cluster centers on comparisons between Apache Kafka and alternative messaging/streaming technologies like Redis Streams, RabbitMQ, NATS, and MQTT, debating operational overhead, scalability, suitability for low-volume high-reliability use cases, and when to choose one over Kafka.

➡️ Stable 0.6x DevOps & Infrastructure
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Keywords

ZK S3 EBS AWS KIP UI MQTT JVM FFI PROTOBUF kafka rabbitmq s3 redis broker data parquet apache message aws

Sample Comments

jsjohnst Dec 12, 2016 View on HN

Apologies, but what does this provide that Kafka doesn't already?

hkeide May 24, 2020 View on HN

Why doesn't Kafka do this?

asasidh Sep 17, 2016 View on HN

So you used Kafka for something that should have been handled by a MQTT or ZeroMQ in the first place ?

alephu5 Oct 18, 2021 View on HN

Why Postgres? Why not redis, rabbitMQ or even Kafka itself?

k__ Aug 9, 2015 View on HN

Someone told me to use Apache Kafka instead, because it scales better. What do you think?

ttymck Jun 13, 2024 View on HN

What Kafka is well-suited for and how difficult it is to operate.

kvakerok Jul 17, 2024 View on HN

Kafka is a stream processor. If you want a messaging queue, use something like RabbitMQ.

kafkaisthatyou Nov 1, 2017 View on HN

What are the alternatives people are using instead of kafka in these situations. Low volume but high reliability.

hkt Mar 14, 2023 View on HN

A better comparison with Kafka is redis streams. Similar semantics, a fraction of the operational overhead.

politelemon Dec 8, 2025 View on HN

What is the reason for using Kafka then, sorry if I'm missing something fundamental.